Leadership Huddle with Geoff Welch

A few years ago I took piano lessons for about 4 months. It changed my life. That might sound sarcastic given the abbreviated amount of time spent, but I’m being quite serious. I ended those lessons because of a scheduling conflict, not because I learned it all in 4 short months, but two simple instructions my teacher used have stuck with me since. Slow down. Do it again. I hadn’t read music in ye...

I was convinced for many years that good leaders needed to understand how to alleviate tension. I wasn’t wrong about that, just shortsighted. Turning down the tension IS an essential part of leading a team but, in the same way your car needs a brake pedal AND an accelerator pedal, it’s only half of the equation. Leaders must be conscious of how their people are responding to a host of inputs and k...

I’ve been reading a lot of Calvin & Hobbes lately. A child of the 80’s, I remember enjoying the comic strip as a kid, but reading it as an adult is a completely different experience. That rambunctious kid and his stuffed tiger have a lot of layers. In a strip I read recently, the pair are careening down a hill in a red wagon while Calvin tells Hobbes that we are all victims of “luck” and...

What does “soon” mean? What about “expensive”?Can you tell me with any clarity what “I’ll get right on that” means? Yeah, me neither, because each – and many other words we use every single day – are extremely contextual and based on myriad experiences that are unique to us. We say things like, “I’ll have those numbers for you soon,” with the belief that we all agree on what soon means. Except, ou...

I hope you aren’t waiting around for the day when someone with authority finally rewards you with the title of leader. This is my hope for two reasons:1. Leadership isn’t a reward, it’s a massive responsibility.2. Leadership has nothing to do with assigned authority. Waiting to finally be rewarded with a stamp of approval is a great way to miss the opportunity to lead today. It’s easy to think of...