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Election Day - November 8, 2022

Twenty-eight years ago, my name was on the ballot for the first time. Four years ago, for the first time in twenty-four years, it wasn’t....

Give the work back

Like all of the leadership competencies we preach, giving the work back takes a lot of skill, patience and habit changing. In the...

Civil War

The retreat into tribalism that is today's politics poses an existential threat to this country and the world. There's no way to sugar...

On Purpose

If you're not standing in your purpose, you're standing in someone else's. Hugh O'Doherty

Ask the Candidate

Serving in public office is assuming enormous responsibility. The well-being of your community and, in these challenging times, the...

Leadership, in a sentence

Leadership entails moving yourself and your people from an aversion to an appreciation of uncertainty, conflict, not knowing, and...

On Conflict and Leadership

There is no person, couple, family, or group that doesn’t experience conflict. What’s your reaction to conflict? For most of us, it’s...

On Culture and Leadership

January 14, 2022 Under the headline “Dueling Crises in the U.K.,” today’s New York Times relates two stories about the misadventures of...

1775 to Today

Twice over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of co-leading (with Ed O’Malley first, Jill Hufnagel most recently) 1775 to Today:...

Leadership Essentials

Mobilizing people to confront tough, intractable problems, overcome differences, and move beyond the natural resistance to change...

Public Square, Public Education

A vibrant democracy demands an informed and engaged citizenry. How can we expect to have good citizens, much less good leaders, if we...

Loss

Marty Linsky wisely offered that "leadership entails dispensing loss to your people at a rate they can absorb." Leadership entails change...

Monday morning musing

Leadership in our public life can and should be a noble undertaking. The question for those of us aspiring to positions of leadership in...

Uncertain Fates

In 2001, I had the privilege of traveling in China as a Roosevelt Fellow. The fellowship, a visionary project of the now-sadly-shuttered...

Coda

My journey in public life was animated by a mix of youthful idealism about this country inherited from my immigrant parents and a...

Crossroads

Benjamin Franklin when asked whether our newly-minted Constitution produced a republic or a monarchy famously replied “A republic, if you...

The Price

Scot Lehigh’s column in today’s Boston Globe, “In GOP’s incipient civil war, who is standing up and who is toadying up,” we’re invited to...

Free speech, expensive speech

Corporate campaign contributions have been blessed by the Supreme Court as free speech and justified as a legitimate expression of...

The People's Inauguration

We each have been invited to affirm an oath, modeled on the Presidential oath of office heard yesterday as it is every four years, to...

Inauguration Day - Independence Day

Since launching Beacon Leadership Collaborative, I have (tongue deeply in cheek) thanked Donald J. Trump for helping me take the measure...

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