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The Difference Between a Gold Medal and 8th Place
Who on our team do we really care about? Who are the people whose performance is critical to our organization meeting its goals? It...

John W Bailie, PhD
Jul 19, 20222 min read


How to Be A Good Egg
“A good egg is an egg that hatches.” – Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Life is Worth Living. Many years ago, a few days after the...

John W Bailie, PhD
Jan 24, 20224 min read


Unequivocal Responsibility-taking
I take full responsibility for my behavior. This is what I did and my part in what happened. How has what I’ve done affected you? I am...

John W Bailie, PhD
Dec 2, 20212 min read


Liabilities Have Numbers. Assets Have Names.
An aging facility in need of environmental remediation, an overfunded unit producing a product past its prime, or a culture that prizes...

John W Bailie, PhD
Nov 19, 20212 min read


The Golden 5%
The Golden 5% is that last bit of maximum contribution that is inside all of us. It’s the full expression of our ability, multiplied by...

John W Bailie, PhD
Oct 7, 20212 min read


Generosity as Strategy
What if being generous was a better business strategy than clinging to control? Many years ago, one of my first entrepreneurial...

John W Bailie, PhD
Sep 16, 20214 min read


Great to Good
Not all organizations that are great are good. But all organizations that are good, achieve a form of greatness. For further proof of the...

John W Bailie, PhD
Jul 16, 20214 min read


Kobayashi Maru
How do you win when you’re in a position that is strategically unwinnable? A “Kobayashi Maru” is any situation in which all available...

John W Bailie, PhD
Jan 8, 20213 min read


Anti-Social Media
In the wake of the 2016 US election season, I did a lot of reflecting about online behavior – for myself and leaders in general. As I...

John W Bailie, PhD
Jun 25, 20205 min read


Your Bathrobe and the Post-Quarantine Business Environment
In times of great upheaval, it’s important to remember that some things never really change. Human hardwiring, our basic needs, drives,...

John W Bailie, PhD
May 21, 20203 min read


Cancel the Apocalypse
Nothing is inevitable. Success and failure have little to do with fate. They have everything to do with the ability to dream big, while...

John W Bailie, PhD
Feb 25, 20204 min read


You Are Not the Horse: Rules for Entrepreneurs
Doing something new isn’t only hard. It’s risky. Sure, there’s the risk of failure. However, the fear of failure itself isn’t actually...

John W Bailie, PhD
Feb 12, 20204 min read


The Survivor Bottleneck
Is your organization led by the best, or by the “survivors”? There are many reasons certain people find themselves in positions of...

John W Bailie, PhD
Jan 23, 20203 min read


Laugh Off Your Resolutions
New Year’s resolutions are boring. Most years, I simply pick something I should already be doing (or not doing) anyway. Eat more kale....

John W Bailie, PhD
Jan 7, 20204 min read


Nobody Roots for Goliath: How to Lead with Storytelling
Having a great idea is not enough. A great idea only comes to life when there’s an equally great story to go with it. In fact, your...

John W Bailie, PhD
Dec 19, 20193 min read


The Art of Following
A subscriber recently asked me, “How do you follow a bad boss?” The answer is, “The same way you follow a good one.” Great leaders are...

John W Bailie, PhD
Jun 6, 20194 min read


How to Get Fired for All the Right Reasons
A subscriber recently asked me during an event, “How do you know when it’s time to quit a job?” They faced some serious challenges with...

John W Bailie, PhD
May 22, 20195 min read


Grow or Go
Sometimes a colleague needs to decide: it’s time to grow, or time to go. In the previous article, Seek Problems, Not Solutions: Leading...

John W Bailie, PhD
May 7, 20194 min read


Lie To Me
Every month, the small alternative school for at-risk youth where I worked as a young man ran a “recovery” group. This group was for...

John W Bailie, PhD
Apr 9, 20196 min read


Compromise Kills Excellence
Compromise is rarely the best resolution to an argument. Here’s an example. King Solomon was renown for his wisdom among the Hebrew...

John W Bailie, PhD
Apr 3, 20193 min read
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