On Leading with Greatness

Being a leader is not remarkable in itself. For one thing, leadership can be situational or even sporadic. The kid who stands up to the bully to protect her friend is a leader even if she sits back down quietly afterward. The teacher who guides students to understanding is a leader even if he never says anything at faculty meetings. The supervisor who finds it in herself to reach out compassionate...

Recently my wife and I were driving innocently along a city street when a commercial panel van stopped in front of us at a red light. Obviously this was not the most momentous event in itself, but I noticed that the van had painted on the back in large letters, FEAR DOESN’T KEEP YOU FROM DYING . FEAR KEEPS YOU FROM LIVING . My first thought (and possibly yours): “Hey, that’s cool. We shouldn’t fea...

One thing I have learned over my many years of fumbling through life is that mistakes get made. How is that for a profound revelation? Mistakes happen, and, yes, yes, (yes!), we should learn from our mistakes, which means first learning to own them. Blah, blah. Blah. Blah. All true, painfully true, and a topic for another day. Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.co...

Originally published 12 August 2021 Leaders at every level need to understand that an individual’s perception is reality. This statement is not the same as “everything I believe to be true is true,” which is just lazy, fanciful thinking. Nor is it a license to insist that everyone share your perceptions, which is bullying. Indeed, the failure to grasp this last point or, more cynically, an effort...

The Lucky 13 1. Clarity trumps everything. 2. Know your audience. 3. Know your genre. 4. Communicate the message you want to convey the way you would want to hear it. 5. Sarcasm is a double-edged sword. 6. Mind your grammar and mechanics. 7. Straight talk is a virtue. 8. Go ahead, use cliches, but sparingly. 9. Euphemism is sometimes necessary, but it still flirts with miscommunication. 10. The sa...

THIS INSTALLMENT IS AN ENCORE PRESENTATION FROM AUGUST 2021 Welcome to my first Ted talk. Two types of politics pervade most workplaces. One is the politics of possibility , the idea that, through sheer persuasiveness and appeals to values, people can be recruited and motivated to work together for good. That their passions and their intellect can be encouraged to join forces in common cause for t...

My Catholic school days taught me a lot, albeit little I was supposed to learn. For one thing, I was quite a freethinker by parochial school standards. I had wild, wild thoughts and too often even blurted them out, which I am certain thoroughly endeared me to my classmates and to my teachers. Indeed, my attempts at being true to myself and to my intellectual pursuits were so universally well-regar...

The difference between bossing and leading is massive. Yes, of course, most leaders are bosses on some level, but very few bosses are leaders . By that I mean too many bosses do too little to bolster their leadership skills and many in fact assume they are leaders simply because they are bosses. If you make that assumption, I can guarantee you are no leader no matter what your title. Boss is a pos...

I recently heard a local politician quip, “I’m not one to judge a book by its cover, but they put covers on books for a reason.” It’s a clever turn of phrase, and he has a point. Modern book covers are a marketing tool and are supposed to indicate, reflect, or symbolize something about the contents of the book. Therefore, the cover should have some meaning and some bearing with regard to the book...

Let’s start by stipulating that you are busy, very busy, very, very busy even. What with the kids and that damn dog and your nagging boss, not to mention the sheer number of tasks you are expected to complete in a given work day. You’re busy. I get it. Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subscribe

B ack in April of 2021, the business and entrepreneurship guru Sahil Bloom posted on Twitter a simple but profound observation. The world wants you to be normal. Our systems and institutions are all designed to make it easy to be normal. Maintaining your distinctiveness is possible, but it will require effort — painful, constant, relentless effort. But stay the course. You’ll find it’s worth it. B...

John Henry was a steel-driving man , or so the song goes. A figure of American legend and the subject of many heroic songs and tales, John Henry was a Black railroad worker in the 1800s who challenged a newfangled steam-powered drill to a contest. Henry, according to the lore, won the competition but died soon after from the strain. That model of labor, the man who can just push himself further an...

M uch of my perspective on the working world and on leadership has been shaped or warped by my experience as a faculty member and then a dean at a small university outside of Baltimore. It’s a good part of the reason I have such a low tolerance for incompetent leadership and have made it my goal to guide leaders to greatness. The university had once been a dynamic place, but it had long fallen int...

Every leadership problem is a teaching problem. In other words, the same skills one uses to teach are precisely the ones an effective leader needs. Now, when I talk about teaching, I am drawing on my background as a college professor and administrator, but please don’t picture a sepia-toned image of some tweed-clad egghead behind a podium perched on a platform droning on as students attempt to cap...

The squirrel is a curious creature that is one-third rat, one-half furniture duster, and four-fifths dog toy. I have always enjoyed the antics of squirrels although I have also rained curses upon them as they raided my bird feeders. As thieves, they are relentless and clever as you may surmise from the many squirrel-proof feeder designs on the market. The squirrel can climb anything you hang a fee...

Y ou are no doubt aware of the series of megahit movies that started with The Matrix in 1999. Here is a brief overview for those who — due to a lengthy coma or prison sentence — remain somehow ignorant of the premise of the original movie: Sometime in the future, humanity has been linked en masse to a simulated reality called, you guessed it, “the matrix,” which is run by artificial intelligence....

The sunk cost fallacy assumes that because something warranted a significant financial investment in the past, it is too valuable to do away with no matter the evidence. Similarly, what I call the sunk virtue fallacy assumes that because a significant investment of effort in the past was effective, it is too valuable to do away with, no matter the evidence. Clinging to sunk virtue can be like clin...

P am was a senior manager with ambitions. She had climbed higher in her organization than she had ever before imagined, but now, heady with that success, she could easily imagine climbing higher still. What got her to this level was tenacity and focus, never being satisfied with anything less than perfection. She always got the job done at any cost, and she made damn sure others saw her that way....

Do you know what a bootstrap is? It’s that little loop or tab at the top of a boot. It may in the back, or there may be one on each side. It’s there to help you pull the boot onto your foot. Do you have a pair of boots like that? I want you to try something with them. Go ahead and get them. I’ll wait. Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subscribe

It is a bit hard for me to admit it, but I believe in ghosts. It’s particularly hard for me because I am a highly rational person. As a baseball fan, I scoff at the foolish superstitions that riddle the game . During a potential no-hitter , I will openly talk in the stands about the hit count, which freaks everyone out. Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subsc...

My dad has always been a natty dresser. Even now in assisted living, he insists that the color of his pants and shirt be compatible. He never appears for meals two days in a row wearing the same thing, and is appalled at the prospect. Coming up, I got to see my father wearing all sorts of weird but fashionable (then) items. If you don’t know what a dickey turtleneck is, look it up and be prepared...

Please refrain from using imperatives and the imperative mood. It is annoying, so just stop it. If you are not sure what an imperative is,  look it up .Reflect on the deluge of the imperative that washes over our everyday existence, and be sure to observe how much you contribute to this imperative abuse. Face the fact that you are likely a major offender as well as a victim. Now, let’s review all...

The world seems to be too full of advice about what leaders are . Frankly, as a leadership coach, mentor, and all around expounder, I too am too full of advice about what great leaders are. For instance, check out my piece on my leadership maxim: “ Leaders Relate .” This time, though, I am going to declaim on what leaders are not , particularly when they have the title of boss . Get full access to...

Way back in the 1900s, when I was but a tyke, I used to marvel that a head of broccoli looked like a little tree. Then I noticed that each stalk of that head was like the whole head in miniature and that each floret at the end of a stalk was like the stalk itself. From there I imagined each bud that composed the floret was itself like the floret that was like the stalk that was like the bunch that...

A friend of mine is a cop who used to teach in a big city training academy. My friend has a sharp intelligence and restless mind along with the persistent temerity that often accompanies those qualities. This combination allows him to see and understand what others might overlook or willfully ignore. He also suffers from a sizable sense of integrity. As a police instructor, he sometimes expressed...