Leadership Through Being
True leadership isn't about position or authority, it's about who you are and how you show up. Leadership through being means creating environments where others can excel, leading by example, and balancing ambition with service. It's about influence that flows from character, not title.
Plato's most radical leadership idea wasn't about power or position, it was about character. The philosopher king represents the ultimate integration of wisdom, excellence, courage, and transformation. Here's how to stop managing systems and start transforming people.
Most leaders chase happiness and end up empty. Ancient wisdom reveals why: they're pursuing the wrong goal. Eudaimonia, human flourishing, transforms everything about how you lead and why it matters.
Excellence isn't just about individual character, it's about creating environments where excellence becomes natural, inevitable, and sustainable for everyone. Here's how leaders architect the conditions for human flourishing.
The most influential people don't have the biggest titles. They have something more powerful, the authority of example. Here's how to lead through character, not position.
Leading by example and character rather than position or authority
Greene's second law of power tells you to distrust friends and hire enemies. The tactical truth is real: friends can betray you. But the solution isn't strategic isolation. It's wisdom about who to let close.
Greene's first law of power tells you to never outshine the master. The tactical truth is real: insecure leaders punish excellence. But the solution isn't dimming your light. It's knowing when to deploy it. The Greeks called it kairos.
The best thing you can do for your team is stop rescuing them. Every problem you solve for them is capability they never develop. Coaching builds warriors. Rescuing creates dependents.
Leadership is not just influence. It is load. If everything becomes your emergency, the system is broken. Fix it with decision clarity, steady presence, and practical restraint.
The best coaches figured this out decades ago. Saban's Process. Belichick's expectations. Cignetti's explicit no-captains policy. When you designate leaders, everyone else stops leading.
Pay them well and they'll stay. Pay them more and they'll work harder. It sounds logical until you watch your highest-paid people leave for less money. The myth of compensation-driven loyalty is destroying teams.
Social media has convinced us that visible virtue is real virtue. Aristotle knew better. Character is the pattern of what you do when no one's watching, not the highlight reel you curate for strangers.
Nobody eulogizes your revenue growth. The metrics that feel urgent today will be irrelevant the moment you're gone. The people you developed will carry your impact for decades.
The ancient concept of paideia required both challenge and care. High expectations without support breaks people. High support without expectations keeps them small. Real leadership integrates both.
Epictetus was a slave and chose philosophy. Marcus Aurelius was emperor and chose duty. Excellence is owed regardless of circumstances. Your advantages don't create the obligation. They just eliminate every excuse for avoiding it.
When teams nod along in meetings, we celebrate alignment. But what if everyone's privately disagreeing? The Abilene Paradox shows how silence becomes performative agreement and why andreia (courage) matters more than consensus.
Nobody chooses bureaucracy. But every approval layer you add is proof you chose fear over trust, rules over judgment, and protecting yourself over building excellence.
Mediocrity spreads like wildfire once you signal it's acceptable. Leaders who tolerate good enough from one person send a message to everyone that standards are negotiable. Excellence demands eliminating compromises at the source before they become cultural norms.
Your people are already telling you what they need. They're showing you where the problems are. But you're not hearing them because listening requires something you don't want to give: your certainty, your expertise, your agenda, your ego.
Your kids don't learn character from perfect attendance. They learn it from watching you demonstrate what's worth pursuing. Stop apologizing for your ambition. Start showing them what commitment looks like.
You know exactly what you should do. You've known for months. So why aren't you doing it? The ancient Greeks had a word for this: akrasia, acting against your better judgment. And they understood it's the ultimate killer of excellence.
Most companies aren't consciously choosing mediocrity. They're living in a complete fantasy about their own capabilities while demanding breakthrough results from infrastructure designed for average performance.
The leaders who command the most respect don't need your applause to do the work. And that's exactly why you can't stop watching them.
Working with organizations on AI adoption feels like deja vu. The same resistance patterns I saw during the waterfall-to-agile transformation. What made agile successful wasn't better processes, it was establishing clear values. AI transformation needs the same thing.
Most leaders want AI transformation results without undergoing the leadership metamorphosis it requires. Here's what AI-first leadership actually demands.
Your willingness to risk your reputation for someone else's growth reveals everything about your actual confidence in your leadership.
Scaling AI First isn't 'more tools for more teams.' It's mode discipline, runnable playbooks, and iteration systems that make capability compound across functions.
The $366 billion leadership development industry teaches techniques before character, skills before being. Here's why 70% of programs fail and how character-based leadership endures.
Most 'servant leaders' are just weak managers who've convinced themselves that avoiding difficult decisions is virtuous. Real servant leadership requires character strength.
You consume endless information but produce mediocre results. The problem isn't what you know, it's how you process what you know. Smart people excel at input but fail at transformation. Time to build your Processing Engine.
Plato's most radical leadership idea wasn't about power or position, it was about character. The philosopher king represents the ultimate integration of wisdom, excellence, courage, and transformation. Here's how to stop managing systems and start transforming people.
The Greeks understood that lasting change requires complete transformation of mind, heart, and character. Most organizational change fails because leaders try to change everything except themselves. Here's the ancient solution.
Why brilliant strategies fail and how ancient Greek wisdom provides the solution through integrating theoretical and practical wisdom.
Intelligence can become a barrier to growth when it creates sophisticated comfort zones. Here's how to recognize when your optimization becomes elaborate avoidance, and what to do about it.
The ultimate test of leadership isn't what you accomplish, it's what continues after you're gone. Here's how exceptional leaders create legacies by developing other leaders who develop leaders.
The Greeks understood that courage isn't the absence of fear, it's the commitment to excellence despite uncertainty. This ancient virtue transforms how you lead through risk, change, and the unknown.
The greatest challenges require the greatest safety. Great leaders understand this paradox: the more psychological safety you create, the more difficult challenges your team will tackle. Here's the framework that makes it work.
Most leaders create followers. Great leaders create leaders. But the rarest leaders create character—and character creates everything else. Here's how authentic leaders systematically develop character in others.
Most leaders chase happiness and end up empty. Ancient wisdom reveals why: they're pursuing the wrong goal. Eudaimonia, human flourishing, transforms everything about how you lead and why it matters.
Your meetings aren't just boring. They're killing the ideas that could transform your company. Ancient Greek wisdom about questions reveals why most conversations extract information instead of developing breakthrough thinking.
Most one-on-ones are glorified status updates disguised as leadership development. The DIALOGUE method transforms individual conversations into systematic leadership multiplication, creating leaders who create more leaders through structured excellence.
Companies obsess over team size while ignoring the fundamental truth: transformation happens at the leader level, not the team level. Size is a symptom, leadership is the cause.
Your circumstances will change. Your duty will not. Discover how ancient Stoic wisdom provides unwavering guidance for modern leaders when everything else shifts.
The future belongs to leaders who can build teams that don't just use AI tools, but think AI-first. This requires a fundamental transformation in how we hire, develop, and structure technical teams.
The phone book to Google transition was about efficiency. The Google to ChatGPT shift is about quality of understanding. That's the difference between incremental improvement and categorical transformation, and it requires metanoia.
Just as literacy transformed society, AI fluency is becoming the fundamental skill that separates those who thrive from those who struggle in the modern workplace. It's not about coding, it's about thinking.
Excellence isn't just about individual character, it's about creating environments where excellence becomes natural, inevitable, and sustainable for everyone. Here's how leaders architect the conditions for human flourishing.
Most leaders try to control people. Great leaders design environments. Here's why environmental design is the ultimate leadership leverage and how to create conditions where excellence becomes inevitable.
The social media mythology of entrepreneurship sells a comfortable lie: that anyone can bet on themselves and become a millionaire working a few hours per week. The reality is far more terrifying, and far more rewarding for those with the courage to accept it.
The ancient Greeks had a word for the leadership skill we desperately need today: phronesis. It's not about having all the answers, it's about acting wisely when you don't.
The most influential people don't have the biggest titles. They have something more powerful, the authority of example. Here's how to lead through character, not position.
The Greeks had a word for the kind of courage we desperately need today: andreia. It's not about being fearless, it's about being fear-full and acting anyway.
In the moment between letting go of one trapeze and grasping the next, there's a space where everything depends on trust, timing, and practical wisdom. For leaders navigating AI transformation, this moment isn't a crisis, it's where excellence is forged.
You're in the file. You see the broken code. If you walk past it without fixing it, you're not just part of the problem, you are the problem.
Pain is not punishment. It's preparation. Whether you're a fighter or a leader, how you respond to resistance defines your growth and impact on others.
The people around you influence your mindset, shape your habits, and often determine your trajectory. And the right ones don't just support you—they sharpen you, steady you, and accelerate you.
In the quiet hours when decisions weigh heaviest, leadership can feel like a solitary journey. But it's in these moments that both leaders and their teams can transform pressure into power. Here's how to keep the flame alive.
They're relentlessly positive. They say yes to everything. They talk about collaboration constantly. But underneath the performance, real execution never happens.
In fast-moving tech cultures, dissent feels like friction. And friction feels like delay. But a team that agrees too easily is already halfway to failure.
Your best ideas are vulnerable to creativity hit jobs. Learn to guard your spark, select the right team, and keep innovation flowing despite the critics.
First principles thinking strips away the bullshit and starts with what's undeniably true. It's how leaders transform organizations and build the future.
Most teams are trained to dodge the mess—great leaders dive in. True leadership is built in the climb, not at the summit.
AI isn't a code monkey. Treat it like a thinking partner, not a servant. Here's how to navigate AI-assisted development without micromanaging.
The best leaders don't micromanage every note—they create the groove and let their team play. Here's how to lead with rhythm, trust, and improvisation.
Speed isn't the goal—winning is. Learn how the fastest teams avoid wasted motion by solving the right problem before they execute.
Leadership is a high-stakes game where the cards are rarely all face-up. Learn how to read the room, filter the noise, and make winning decisions.
Every decision creates ripple effects. Learn how to see beyond the immediate impact and think like a master strategist to build long-term success.
Tech debt isn't just about cleanup—it's about discipline. If a team is still making the same mistakes, they're not solving the problem, just hitting reset.
Cleaning up old messes is meaningless if you're still making new ones. The best teams don't ask for permission to fix tech debt—they stop creating it in the first place.
Great teams don't avoid conflict—they process it efficiently. The key to success isn't eliminating conflict, but resolving it quickly and productively.
AI isn't coming. It's here. The teams that master AI-native development now will define the future of product delivery. Learn how to navigate this shift and accelerate your team.
The path to true excellence isn't found in quick fixes or surface, level achievements. It's discovered through the ancient wisdom of arete and eudaimonia, principles that have guided the greatest minds for over 2,000 years.
Dive into the world of personal responsibility and team success in software development by distinguishing between reasons and excuses. Explore the vital role of accountability, examine real-world examples, and uncover five effective strategies designed to help you and your team conquer excuses and take command of your professional journey.
Discover three game-changing daily habits that can significantly boost your productivity and help you achieve more in both your professional and personal life.
Product managers need to be proficient in three key areas: technical skills, data analysis, and empathy for customers. Neglecting any one of these areas can lead to difficulties in successfully managing a product. However, a well-rounded product manager who excels in all three areas can drive success by delivering innovative products that meet customer needs, are technically sound, and supported by data-driven decision-making.
Explore the crucial roles of enforcers and nurturers in team dynamics, and discover how their complementary strengths create high-performing teams.
Discover how Price's Law explains the distribution of knowledge and productivity in organizations, and learn how to leverage this understanding for better team management.
Learn why maintaining a sense of humor is crucial for processing criticism constructively and using it as a tool for personal growth.
Discover how to recognize and fix common code smells, making your code more maintainable, efficient, and easier to understand.
Discover practical approaches to make accountability visible and actionable within your team and organization.
Explore the advantages and challenges of both live and recorded product demos, and learn when to use each approach effectively.
Learn about the critical changes and challenges organizations face during different growth stages, particularly when doubling in size.
Discover how high-performing product organizations balance team autonomy with organizational alignment to consistently deliver the most impactful work.
Explore how software development differs from intense physical training programs, and what we can learn from these contrasts.
Discover the profound impact of your social connections on your personal and professional development.
Discover the importance of creating the right environment for effective learning and skill development.
Learn how to strike the right balance between giving teams autonomy while maintaining high performance standards.
If you are an introvert like me the last thing you want to do is spend time "networking". Even if you are an extrovert your time is valuable and just mingling isn't going to cut the mustard if you want to get any kind of meaningful results. So what is the best strategy when attending an event with intention of networking?
Building an idea is hard. Turning it into a business is even harder. Scaling that business is another level of hard. This is a list of tips to help you get there.
Dealing with trolls is an art form. Being on the internet requires you master it.
The Decider Protocol is the fastest path to get immediate and unanimous team decisions.
How redeeming my El Pollo Loco birthday reward points revealed powerful life principles through exceptional customer service.
The difference between influence and manipulation can be pretty subtle. However, the outcomes they produce can massive. How are they different to you?
What about asking for help is so difficult? What expectations do we put on ourselves and others that could be avoided if only we asked for help more frequently?
Dealing with hybrid work environments where some one is remote full time.
Six ways to improve your scrum planning meeting.
What does exceptional service at 10,000ft look like?
The future we want has to be created by us. Creating the Arizona we want.
The future we want has to be created by us. Creating the Arizona we want.
Open Spaces always tend to amaze me. They really are the right people in the right place at the right time. When we kicked off Agile Open Southwest, I was a little bit nervous about what might come out. As always, I was left absolutely amazed. It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Finding everyone was a different place on their journey yet still able to be find common ground and learn from one another.
If explaining an activity in a retrospective takes more than a minute or two it probably isn't very effective. Don't fall into the trap of making things too complex. Activities shouldn't be complicated they should be fluid. Giving participants too many options and being unclear with instructions makes it difficult to fluid with sharing thoughts.
As a ScrumMaster when you are "running" a retrospective it is easy to fall into the trap of actively participating in it. It is extremely difficult to do this well (if not impossible), because your role should be as a facilitator not a participant. The minute you start participating you are no longer neutral and severely impact your ability to effectively facilitate.
I am a proponent of pairing (not just for programming). Anytime I introduce it to a new team I get a number of objections. The most prominent is that pairing slows me down (because I am so awesome and everyone else sucks so bad).
Clay Shirky enlightens us in Cognitive Surplus that, the organization of sharing has many forms and that those forms have varying output values. He gives us a way we can identify four essential points on the spectrum
Gangplank is a community of creators that fuses family life, civic life, creating and earning a living into this unique blend where anything is possible. The support and tenderness offered is counter balanced by a gruff and forceful exterior making participation daunting to most.
People need to be understood that they matter. We are wired to belong. It doesn't matter if it is your spouse, child, employee or coworker every relationship you wish to maintain requires your attention. Most people consider attention to be measured in time. Time is in short supply and high demand in our connected and fast paced world.
Going to cross-functional teams for product delivery is always interesting, but DevOps seems to be particularly loaded in it's meaning. How to tell if your DevOps relationship is failing you?
Talking to science educators about collaboration. How can we better organize and enact polity that leads to greater innovation.
Changing a community is slow work. Paying attention to the details and working with discipline over time with patience is required to get real results.
Be the best parent you can. Prepare your children for the future.
Planning events is difficult. The hardest part is starting. Here is a quick 10 step guide to get you planning for that perfect event you have been dreaming about.
Consumption is rampant. What does is it mean to create?
I love Arizona. It's natural resources are one of it's greatest assets. I have been encouraging people to get out and ExploreAZ. If you didn't know our State Parks have become seriously under funded and need our help. So how can you help?
In Andre Agassi's Open he shows the authentic and human side of himself. He talks about giving a friend named Frankie the money he needs to put his children through school. He reflects on it in the following way:
I generally keep voice memos or written journals around as outlets for my thoughts when I am not regularly able to connect with people to share what is on my mind. I try to purge them into a digital format fairly quickly to prevent clutter. I don't recall why I recorded this segment, but I ran across it today and it made me smile.
In a blog post, Mark Turner has responded to the claim that Ruby is just a bunch of tools by stating that it is actually about making developers happy. I believe that the Ruby community is too focused on creating tools and lacks creativity and true innovation. Regional Ruby events have become more about showcasing tools and less about sharing cutting-edge ideas.
I have always liked Unix because of it's mentality that lots of small tools chained together could be more than an opaque larger tool. In this instance. I mean Rubyists are a bunch of Tools not of the useful kind. Maybe Zed is right an Rails is a Ghetto.
Whatever our exact ritual, the social act of eating together is important; it reunites us with our tribe. Transforming us from solitary beings to members of a group.
Notes from Joe Kalt talking about Arizona's economy from Arizona's 96th Town Hall on Building Arizona's Future: Jobs, Innovation & Competitiveness.
Random notes from the Arizona's 96th Town Hall on Building Arizona's Future: Jobs, Innovation & Competitiveness.
The benefit about working on a high performing team is that everyone expects excellence. There is always a drive that it could be better. Nail a perfect 10 and then ask how it could be an 11.
Why do we keep doing 1950 economic development? Capital first, then innovation and then people. Yet, companies wanting to be here say that it's lack of skilled people that keeps them out. What are we doing to invest in people? Keep and attract the best and brightest?
The basis of the 'Sharing Economy' operates on principles. How are you seeing them applied in the world around you? What can you learn from them? How are you applying them?
I am a fan of great service. When I see it exemplified I try to share it. For example, QuikTrip does a great job #winning. Another company that has always impressed me is Discount Tire. They always greet me right away. They fix my tires for free when repairable. They give me a free air check when my tires are low. All of this even on tires not purchased from them. WOW! They never give me problems when I need tires rotated or tires replaced under warranty that I did purchase from them.
When talking about Gangplank I always struggle to consider it to have anything to do with coworking. After doing some reading on collaborative learning vs. cooperative learning, I believe I can better articulate the difference between collaborative workspaces and coworking spaces.
Desert Code Camp has opened it's call for suggestions. This is a great FREE event that brings together technologists of all kinds together at a single location to learn (while feeding them breakfast and lunch) new technologies, improve on existing technology or share your favorite technology. There has been a good dynamic languages track in addition to a strong Microsoft track. There has been a track for kids (Gangplank Jr) and even sessions on sales or running a business.
The Greater Phoenix Economic Council released a report touting that Skysong actually is exceeding expectations and has been underestimated. Citing a $113 million impact which is largely calculated using salaries of people that have worked there over the last five years.
Develop authentic leadership that creates environments where others can excel and flourish.
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