In American culture, we admire and celebrate individual contributors. We hold up CEOs, celebrities, entrepreneurs, community leaders who have accomplished great things, and we attach those great things to a person, more often than a team. Even in our sporting events, we tend to celebrate the big name player, over the team. Without realizing it, we often arrive at work with this mindset of individual contrib ...

How many places have you worked where they SAID, "we put our people first?" And how many places was it a true statement? Putting people first is an essential pillar of servant leadership based on the writings of Sipe and Frick in the Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership. But the words have been so overused and abused, I almost decided not to write a blog this week. Who would listen to ANOTHER article about p ...

Several of you have asked me what traits I look for that I believe are essential to servant leadership.  One good book on servant leadership, “Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership: Practicing the Wisdom of Leading by Serving”, by James Sipe, says there are seven core attributes of a servant leader and 21 behaviors to look for. This is an excellent treatise on the subject.  For today, I'd like to share my fiv ...

"It is easy to play any musical instrument:  all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself." - Composer, J.S. Bach One day I was in a Popeyes restaurant observing a busy lunch hour in a high volume restaurant. Despite the flood of urgent, hungry guests, the crew in this restaurant was getting the food out, on time and with a smile. It was like watching an or ...

In April, my husband and I visited Napa Valley, California for the first time and as you would expect, we toured the vineyards and wineries of this region. The first thing you notice in Napa Valley is the beauty of the area – rolling hills covered with grape trellises – classic farm homes – two lane country roads. It is stunning, simple natural agricultural land at its best. As we learned about winemaking, ...