When you write a blog centered around leadership development, the messages often repeat themselves.

Do a search for “leadership” on Google and you’ll come across hundreds of thousands of articles, posts, tips, principles, and illustrations to help you improve in the area of leadership.

Put all of the leadership development blogs out there together and you’ll see a lot of similar messages and material.

My hope on this site is to simplify some of those messages. To remind those of us, who strive to be lifelong leaders, to think like leaders think so we will do what leaders do. Continue Reading…

My good friend, Mike recently took me mountain biking on some of the trails running through the foothills above Boise. Before this, I mostly rode my bike on the street and on the local greenbelt. It became quickly obvious – hills are a game changer.

We rode up until I couldn’t go any farther. The sign that we had reached this point was me losing my breakfast out on the trail. Hills are also the ultimate weight-loss plan.

Once I was done throwing up, I started looking forward to the downhill portion of our ride. Less pedaling, more coasting. Definitely not as strenuous as the uphill.

But I quickly discoverd it was harder mentally.  Continue Reading…

In a couple of weeks, students will return to campus for another school year. It is our student leaders who show up first.

When they arrive we’ll tell our stories about the summer. We’ll go on a retreat and bond and laugh and prepare. Then we’ll focus on all of the things we have to do to get ready for the start of the school year.

At some point, I’ll share this message. It’s a message I share every single year:

We call you “student leaders” right now because you hold a student leader position. But you’re not a student leader…yet. If you do everything your position requires by yourself, you are a student worker. But if you get others involved – if you create a tribe of people for whom you cast vision, inspire, and motivate – then you will fulfill your role as student leader.

The truth is, we need student workers. But we don’t need you to be a student worker. We need you to be a student leader.

I repeat this message every year because it’s necessary every year. Doing it by yourself is not an option. One is too small a number for greatness!  Continue Reading…

The following is a guest post (reprinted from his site) by Garret Kramer, the author of Stillpower: Excellence with Ease in Sports and Life. Garret’s last guest post on timmilburn.com generated a lot of conversation. He will challenge your assumptions. Read this post with an open mind, then go out and pick up his book.

There are many, many coaching manuals and books on the market today. Unfortunately, virtually all of them provide an external blueprint or “positive” guide to successful coaching and leadership. Very few, however, point the coach inward to an intuitive understanding that he or she already possesses.

Below are fourteen examples of the inside-out coaching paradigm revealed in Stillpower. Consider theses attributes of great coaches for yourself; then see how they might apply to you, your team, classroom, company, or family. Continue Reading…

You’re the only one who can make the difference. Whatever your dream is, go for it.
-Earvin “Magic” Johnson

At the beginning of each school year, I invite student leaders to think about what they hope the end of the year will look like. I have never heard a student say he or she hopes the end of the year will be exactly as things are right now. In fact, one of the reasons they became involved in student leadership is because they had an idea of how things might look different if they had a chance to lead.

This is why I encourage student leaders to possess a “make-a-difference mindset.” It’s one of the five core leadership skills I teach every year.

Making a difference is all about inspiring and implementing change. It’s also one of the paths to leadership. Leaders look at where people are and point them to an ideal or better future. In other words, leaders create and cast vision. Continue Reading…

I’m back in the office after some time away.

Summer = one of the perks of working at an academic institution.

The first day back after summer is a bit surreal. You’re back, but you’re not really back.

It takes time to reconnect when you’ve been away. It could be summer break. It could be a vacation. It could be a new season for your sport. There are a lot of moments when we leave something and come back. Some are easy to jump back into while other times take a more intentional effort. Continue Reading…

The front of Beaver Stadium in Pennsylvania has a bare spot.

The spot was formerly the home of the Joe Paterno statue. The bronze image of a man who had coached a football program into a national powerhouse. The flattened, metal silhouettes of football players attached to the wall behind the statue removed as well.

The statue told a story of a man who led young men. It represented a piece of history for those who bled the blue-and-white of Penn State allegiance.

Yet as a different story came to light – a tale of corrupted power, cover-up, and unchallenged abuse – the statue came to mean something different as well.

Some might say, “it’s just a statue…it’s just a 900 pound piece of metal formed into the shape of a man.”

But we all know it’s more than metal – it’s a symbol. Symbols carry meaning. They carry the meaning we give them. Continue Reading…

Leaders aren’t exempt from following.

In fact, the leader who says he or she isn’t following anything or anyone is a dangerous person.

Every person who fills a leadership position or role is a follower of something or someone. Every leader operates under some type of authority. This authority comes in a variety of forms.

It could be a boss.
It could be a culture.
It could be the rules. Continue Reading…