Category Archives: Personal Development

Leadership Tips from The Jim Gaffigan Show

If you haven’t already seen it, The Jim Gaffigan Show—just starting its second season on TVLand—is a treat. It stars Gaffigan as a fictionalized version of himself—a standup comedian, husband, and father of five living with his family in New York City. Misadventures center on domestic topics, the temptations of food (a frequent topic in Gaffigan’s own standup routine), and interactions with a variety of characters.

Leadership Tips from The Jim Gaffigan Show

Along with the laughs, there’s a sense underneath it all that these are people who know how to make life work well. And with a large family living in a two-bedroom apartment, that’s no small achievement. How they make that happen, while never set out didactically, is worth considering for anyone in charge of a team or organization. Here are a few examples:

Leadership – It’s Never Too Late

Emma Gatewood’s life would be a testament of strength and endurance even if she had never set foot on a hiking trail. The daughter of a Civil War veteran, she was born on a southeast Ohio farm in 1887. She married young and raised 11 children, enduring 33 years in a marriage so abusive that eventually the mayor of her town helped her obtain a divorce—an incredibly rare and difficult feat in those days.

Leadership - It’s Never Too Late

After seeing an article in National Geographic about the Appalachian Trail, she told her children, now grown, that she was going for a walk. She left home in May 1955 with a couple hundred dollars, a pair of Keds sneakers, a homemade knapsack, a blanket, and a plastic shower curtain. She was 67 years old.

How (and Why) Good Leaders Delegate

One thing I love about the work I do is that it gives me contact with a wide range of leaders. I especially enjoy the opportunity to learn from those whose commitment, drive, and intelligence result in the kind of great leadership we all want to emulate.

They’re a wide-ranging group, but there are a few traits that many of good leaders share. Here’s one near the top of the list: They are masters of delegation.

It’s not Luck, it’s Leadership Preparation

If you pay attention to how often people talk about luck, you’ll quickly realize that it’s a concept we rely on quite a bit in leadership. Depending on the time and the culture, luck can mean a lot of different things, from a random event to the work of supernatural forces to a lucky object, number, or date.

It’s not Luck, it’s Leadership Preparation

In contemporary America, we think of luck most often as an event or occurrence that falls outside our control. We love to hear stories of chance and coincidence—the wilder and more improbable, the better.

Balancing Boundaries with Work and Life in Leadership

Work-life balance is an idea that’s getting a lot of attention lately. It’s supposed to be a sign of health and good judgment, a new package for the old concept of “having it all.”

Balancing Boundaries with Work and Life in Leadership

The idea of work-life balance is a great one: By being intentional and firm about boundaries, you can carve out protected time for work, family, friends, and for yourself. It is important to learn when to say, “Yes” and when to say, “No.”

Even a Super Hero Needs a Plan of Attack to Be a Good Leader

Setting the bar high to become a good leader for yourself is not a bad thing; but even Superman needed help from Lois Lane every once in a while.

Even a Super Hero Needs a Plan of Attack to Be a Good Leader

Betsy’s known for her reliability. She’s great at working independently and can be trusted to complete projects that have been assigned to her. Her boss knows that when a last minute task comes up, he can always depend on Betsy to take care of it. In many ways, Betsy is a dream employee, and while she likes being the “go to” gal, she realizes that she’s close to burnout.