Mark Miller's Blog

Every year, I attend the Global Leadership Summit. Over the last two decades, it has been a constant source of challenge, inspiration and encouragement. This year was no different. In the opening session, Bill Hybels shared some of his Hard Fought Leadership Lessons. Today, I want to recap one of those: How do you turn around a culture?

Bill shared the process he and his team used to transform the culture of their organization. He challenged the 200,000 leaders participating in the Summit to d...

I read a fun article today in Golf Digest: “The Top 40 Mistakes Golfers Make.” The list included: Wearing black socks with khakis, following a bad shot with a dumb one, and thinking a white belt makes you look hip! It was such a good list I decided to make my own: The top mistakes leaders make. Let me warn you, my list is not as fun as theirs.

1. Leading without a destination – Call this what you will, but don’t confuse it with leadership.

2. Forgetting vision leaks – The vast majority of leade...

Last winter in Atlanta, we had two major ice events. In both cases, many were unprepared. The consequences… a lot of scrambling to get ready and a lot of empty shelves. I guess that’s okay in the greater scheme of things. Ice events in Atlanta are fairly rare.

These events prompted me to think more seriously about the issue of being prepared. I’ve given the topic a fair amount of thought since the ice melted. I have several observations and ideas to share – too many for one post. So, today is...

As a photographer, I pay more attention to images than your average person. I often wonder how the photographer created the image? Something I’ve noticed over time, rarely do I find an out of focus image compelling. I think the same can be said for an out of focus leader.

As leaders, when you and I are focused, we add more value to our organizations. When we are out of focus, our impact is greatly diminished. Obviously, no leader sets out to be un-focused. So, how does it happen? The culprit m...

Who is your competition? It may not be who you think it is. I was reminded of this again recently as I read a Knowledge@Wharton interview with MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga. You might think MasterCard’s competition would be American Express or Citibank – no, Ajay says their competition is cash.

As Banga explained, 85% of the world’s transactions are conducted using cash. He asserts that to focus on his traditional competitors means wrestling with them for 15% of a global market. He’d rather go aft...

Have you ever had a feeling you could do more? Accomplish more? Congratulations, leaders are supposed to have that feeling. In Today’s Challenge, I’ll address the “problem” you face when you actually do have untapped leadership capacity.

I’ll start by saying congratulations again. You have more leadership horsepower to invest in the world! This is a very good problem to have. Many leaders find themselves unable to execute on the demands and expectations already placed on them. If you can do th...

Last week, I wrote about some of the ways a facilitator increases the odds of making a meeting successful. Today, I want to talk about the role of the facilitator in a different setting – a learning environment.

Let’s start with the same premise as last week: A facilitator removes barriers. In a meeting, a barrier is anything that stands in the way of accomplishing the objectives of the meeting. In a learning environment, the facilitator’s role is to remove any barriers, which might impede ins...

Can you think of a challenging situation you faced as a leader and later you realized it was a blessing rather than a curse? Today’s question may fall into that category. “How do you lead a team with vastly different personalities?”

I received this question after a recent speaking engagement. I’m not sure what the person thought I might say, but I told him congratulations! Teams perform at their highest level when they are comprised of people who are different. Teams who lack diversity are sev...

Have you been in a great meeting recently? I know for some of you that may sound like an impossibility. My fear is many of you can’t remember the last time you went to a great meeting. One reason we attend so many low impact meetings is absence of a skilled facilitator.

Although many elements must come together to create a successful meeting – none are more important than a good facilitator. Being a great facilitator is not hard to do if you clearly understand the role.

Have you ever thought ab...

My wife and I are in the process of building a new house. Well… we’re not actually building yet; we’re still in the design phase. We’re at the point where the builder asked us to pick out plumbing fixtures.

For those of you who’ve never built a house, this probably sounds like an easy step in the process. What we discovered were hundreds, if not thousands, of options. We started with the faucet for the kitchen sink – how hard could that be?

As we stood looking at this overwhelming array of opti...