Everyone should be interested in leadership, because everyone will be called upon to lead sooner or later.  What surprises most people, is just how often they are thrust into a situation of leadership.  This may occur in small ways or big ways, or a thousand variations in between.  But rest assured: everyone must lead.    Every time we take a young child’s hand, we are called to lead.  Every time we are asked for advice, we are called to lead.  Every time we are looked to for our example, we are called to lead.  Any crisis t ..read more

Leaders assault the status quo, and somehow just can’t stand to leave things the way they find them.  For true leaders, this comes from a deep sense of hunger that burns inside.  Often this yearning is extremely costly to the individual pushing for the change.    What might have been a comfortable existence is traded for the pursuit of a vision the leader sees more clearly than anyone else.  This, in short, is what makes him or her a leader; he or she sees further than others see, sooner than others see, and with more conviction.  And ulti ..read more

One of the most frequent questions I am asked when I am out speaking or at book signings is, “What other books do you recommend?”  Because there seems to be such a hunger for good books and worthwhile leadership material, I guess it can’t hurt for me to share a list of books that have had a big impact on my life.  Today I would like to limit that list to the top leadership books I have read in the past few years.  I hope you find them as helpful and inspiring as I did!  (The toughest part about doing this was paring it down to a small enough list to be manageable.  The ..read more

There are a preponderance of leadership examples to be taken from the annals of military conflict.  These are both interesting and instructional.  Perhaps the reason so many demonstrations of the principles of leadership are available from battles and wars is true leadership becomes most visible at times of extreme circumstances.  War is as extreme as it gets.  But most of us are not engaged in wars and battles, at least not of the military variety.  We can benefit from the examples of everyday people living everyday lives that utilize and impl ..read more

Walt Disney the school boy was not a good student.  He would just as soon doodle and draw cartoons in class as learn something.  But, like most leaders, he was a big reader and a hard worker; holding down several odd jobs at once while still young.  His earliest dream was to become a cartoonist.  He sent dozens of submissions to publishers only to receive rejection after rejection.                  While still in his teens he formed a small company that produced cartoons.  He hired so ..read more

One of the key premises in the art of leadership is that one person can make a difference. In a complicated world, with forces for change coming at us from seemingly all directions, it is easy to feel small and incapable.  It is easy to shrug off our highest aspirations and think, “What’s the use?”  This becomes doubly tempting when meeting challenges, and when our best intentions turn out to be more difficult, and more work than we expected.  At that point it is more critical than ever to realize that we as an individual have enormous power to not only influence ..read more

The name Benjamin Franklin is so familiar it is almost a cliché.  School children are introduced to him as the gray haired man flying a kite in a thunderstorm, or as the contemplative elder statesman sitting in the Pennsylvania State House and advising upon the drafting of the Declaration of Independence or the United States Constitution.  Franklin is one of the most famous founding fathers, and after more than two centuries, there are still those who have trouble understanding why.  As author Gordon S. Wood wrote of Franklin’s return to North America after the si ..read more

The following excerpt was taken from the book, Financial Fitness for Teens, from the Life Essentials Series. Foreward below written by Chris Brady.  It’s funny when I think about how many times during my school years I had the thought, “When am I ever going to use this?” Usually this was in response to an obscure math problem or complicated chemical equation that some teacher was intent on teaching me to balance. Indeed, by the end of my college years, I could work mathematical equations with virtuoso skill. Given a few minutes, I could reduce any equation down to the much sought aft ..read more

The following excerpt was taken from the book, Wavemakers: How Small Acts of Courage Can Change the World, from the Life Essentials Series. [Foreward below written by Chris Brady.] The crowd was larger than usual for such an event, and it soon became evident that the venue would be packed. The amount of people who had turned out that day was indeed noteworthy, but even more so was the makeup of that crowd. For in those balcony seats sat a virtual “Who’s Who” of London high society. There were noblemen and ladies, Members of Parliament, other elected officials, and ambassadors. There were digni ..read more

The following excerpt was written by Chris Brady in the book, The Serious Power of Fun, from the Life Essentials Series.  When it comes to equipping oneself for leadership and success, many words come to mind: vision, goals, execution, teamwork, metrics, mentors, knowledge, perseverance,  and others. However, one particular word that is critical not only to success but to the very enjoyment of it is often overlooked and usually downright ignored. That word is fun. The concept of fun doesn’t get much focus. If anything, it is seen as a mere by-product of success, or perhaps one o ..read more