Stories are a great way to reflect. They make us think, they make us laugh, they make us cry, and the best ones can move our emotions. I read this story in the Coaching and Leadership Journal by my friend Dan Spainhour. This is a monthly leadership journal sent directly to you hardcopy and via…
Dear friends, these are tricky times and have presented numerous challenges not only for educators but for families, small business owners, etc. There has been a ton of literature put out about how to lead through these times. I’d like to get back to several of my older scheduled posts. During these times there are…
As we hit March Madness in college basketball playoff time, I write the second in a series of leadership lessons I learned through my time officiating. Thanksgiving Eve, November 2003. My first big game! My first televised game! The Famous Peters/Curtis game. Well, I tried to be calm in the locker room, but I was…
Over the next couple of weeks, as we approach March Madness in the college basketball season, I’d like to share two stories from my officiating background that afforded life long lessons. The first is this week’s blog: Get It Right! It is the 2015-2016 college basketball season and on this particular Saturday, I’m officiating a…
I was absolutely appalled watching the press conference of the Houston Astros and their owner Jim Crane. On the first day of MLB’s spring training, I expected (and I believe many others did too) for the owner to stand up there, dressed professionally, and totally own the sign-stealing cheating scandal. For him to maybe say…
An old drunken man was wandering down by the river where a pastor was baptizing people from the local church. The pastor said to him “Are you ready to find Jesus?” The old man said “yes” and went to the pastor, where he was dunked in the water. The pastor pulled him out and asked:…
In last weeks #ELBlog, I wrote that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Yet what happens when you make a mistake or a slip of the tongue? We’re all human and we all make mistakes. The older I get the greater my filter gets. I was trained by…
We learned as kids that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all. My parents over and over reinforced that message. I was shocked when I began my refereeing career and heard the same thing. If you weren’t sure what to say to coaches or didn’t have anything nice to…
It was the week before Christmas, and my mom was driving to an appointment out on Staten Island. Staten Island can be a very busy place anytime but considering that it was the week before Christmas, the busyness was multiplied. While she was stopped at a stoplight, she got rear-ended. Mom is 77 years old,…
I recently went to my son’s indoor soccer game which was in a dome and on turf. The field was a bit smaller than a regulation soccer field. My son’s team lost all four games, yet it wasn’t for a lack of effort. The boys played hard and gave it everything they had. In looking…