By: Josh

What are your organization’s defined values? Do you know them?

What about your people, do they know your organization’s values?

More importantly, what do these values do? How do they guide the day-to-day attitudes and behaviors of individuals and the collective group?

I remember spendin...

By: Josh

I was standing among a small huddle of senior leaders within my organization and witnessed a really interesting conversation take place. All the leaders were very experienced, serving in senior positions amongst their 700-person departments. In this huddle, they were talking casually with ...

By: Shawn

Organizational norms often elevate leaders to near-mythical entities, as if they exist in a realm entirely separate from the very teams they are tasked to direct. Leaders are often viewed solely as organizational decision-makers, and rarely do you hear a leader characterized as a teammate...

By: Josh

Where does humility rank on your list of most important leader qualities? I imagine it is not necessarily one that makes it toward the top of many of our lists, let alone a quality we initially think of at all. Socially, groups tend to rally around bold, brash, and charismatic characters ...

By: Josh

Several years ago, I was transitioning out of a job managing a mid-level team of about 100 people (company command for the Army readers out there) and into a new role in a different organization. I loved this team and had given everything I had to them over the 18 months I had the privileg...

By: Josh

Having moved into a new role on a new team a few months ago, I have felt a bit overwhelmed with what seems to be a mountain of tasks requiring immediate attention. While my team and I have been working diligently to get into a sustainable rhythm, we have been in a sort of crisis mode worki...

By: Josh

Are you a critical leader, a pessimistic one, or an optimistic one? Let’s consider a thought by famed businessman and leadership author, Max De Pree:

“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.”

This has l...

By: Josh

Why should people follow you? What makes you credible in your peoples’ eyes and the eyes of the organization?

Popular leadership author, John Maxwell, describes that if you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following you, then you are just taking a walk.

So, why are peo...

By: Josh

Leaders are busy. We have meetings, engagements, emails, decisions to assess and make, and the hope to manage time to enable personal growth and reflection…all in a single day. And we still strive to get out of the office to be with and pour into your family. It’s easy to get consumed with...

By: Josh

How do you solicit and receive feedback as a leader? Do you? How regularly if so?

We require feedback for our growth as leaders. Nothing is more important for our self-awareness than understanding how people view and receive us. We can reflect, take self-assessments, and gain new informat...

By: Josh

 “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”

Looking back at his 35 years of service i...

By: Josh

We can pull inspiration and conviction from a lot of different sources in life. And while I don't really consider social media to be one of those regular sources for me, I was surprised to recently find a post that did just that - offered a little inspiration and a little conviction, which...

By: Josh

I am preparing to transition out of a challenging role and a season at work that was defined by long hours, a consistently overwhelming list of tasks and responsibilities, the need to manage organizational issues and urgencies every day, and not enough time accomplish half these things. Th...

I once worked with a colleague who was undeniably brilliant. He possessed an impressive command of information—about our work, about the world, about almost any topic you could imagine. He was well-read, current on events, and able to engage in conversation with charisma and ease. I respected the de...

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

This observation from Mark Twain returns to me often. Whether I am writing for work, writing for 3x5 Leadership, or simply talking with others about the discipline of writing, his point is unavoidable: writing is hard! Cla...

By: JJ

You and your team have just finished a significant amount of work crafting a clear and purpose driven vision statement. You’ve carefully laid out your long-term goals, developed the strategy necessary to achieve those goals, and are motivated to get after it. Now fast-forward six months. You...

The less I talk, the better the discussion.

This conviction sits at the center of how I aim to lead, facilitate conversations, run meetings, and create developmental space for others. Over time, I have learned that leadership presence is not measured by how much we say, but by the quality of space ...

When exploring management strategies and tools, a common one you can expect to encounter is the Eisenhower Matrix, used by Dwight D. Eisenhower during his military career and presidency, and popularized by Stephen Covey, the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The matrix is a deceptiv...

By: Shawn

Think back to the last time you actually stopped someone and asked them for directions. Not so long ago, this was a pretty common occurrence, and we placed our full trust in a random stranger on the side of the road. Now, with instant access to numerous digital maps, many of us prefer to ...

There are few things that energize me more as a leader than helping others develop a genuine sense of ownership. The difference between a team that owns its work and one that merely completes its assignments is profound. In the first, people feel personal responsibility for outcomes. They take pride...

By: Josh

Leadership is connecting with others and developing them.

It’s identifying the need for organizational change and leading those monumental efforts.

It’s crafting deliberate, intentional messages and communication.

It’s investing in stakeholders, building relationships, and spending time...

By: Sam

Open your favorite news app, scroll through your go-to social media page, or, if you are feeling daring, turn on the live news. With today’s nearly limitless access to information, I have found myself overwhelmed by information. But it wasn’t until a few months ago that I started to recogni...

When you think back to all the bosses you’ve had over your career, who are the thoughtful, positive, and inspiring ones you remember?

Why do you remember them so well?

In my first year working out of college, I remember one boss who backed up a decision I made in what felt like an overwhelming cha...

“I don’t feel like I’m even part of this conversation.”
“He just won’t stop talking.”
“She never asks for my input.”
“He thinks he has all the answers.”

If you’ve ever caught yourself with one of these thoughts at work, you’re not alone.

And if you’re a leader, that’s a problem.

Leaders are a...