Helping Everyday People Become Extraordinary Leaders
Providing Small Business Owners with Professional Development Resources for Themselves and Their Employees to:
- improve interpersonal interactions
- increase engagement & satisfaction
- strengthen team work
- minimize conflict
- raise productivity & effectiveness
- unleash talent & potential
- reduce worry & stress
- enhance leadership
Michael's Journey
In the 35 years that I have been studying and learning about leadership, he remembers reading Jim Collins' book, "Good to Great", published in 2001. He was studying what distinguishing characteristics would cause a company to go from good to great. As he and his research team dug into the data and explored all the possibilities, Collins wrote:
"We came to think of our research effort as akin to looking inside a black box. ... Our research exposed [leadership] as a key component inside the black box of what it takes to shift a company from good to great. ... Yet inside that black box is another black box – namely, the inner development of a person to [become an effective leader]."
The emphasis in the quote is mine because those were the words that leaped out to me. I knew I had fallen in love with the study of leadership more than five years before I read this book and I realized while reading this particular passage that it was the other black box Collins wrote about that was my passion, my love, and what I hoped would be my life's work.
This reference stayed with me for more than 20 years and it seemed like an obvious choice for me to use it when coming up with the name of my business. Hence, Black Box Leadership.
For more than 30 years now I have been presenting workshops, seminars, and conferences to college students, faculty & administrators, business professionals, and during in-house customized training sessions as well as during public seminars. I've worked with Personality Insights, Inc. to learn about the DISC Model of Human Behavior and over my 10+ year association with them have become an Advanced Accredited DISC Consultant, teaching thousands of people how to interact more effectively, communicate more meaningfully, and enjoy relationships more fully. It is a primary tool I use to help improve relationships among employees and help small business owners make better connections with the teams they have hired.
About 10 years ago I fully committed to my association with Gallup and the CliftonStrengths assessment. In the course of my study and learning about their nearly 60 years of research and work, I have come to believe that this is a tool with tremendous benefit and value to anyone wanting to unlock their own potential and the talents of others. I use it frequently to help people better understand their own talents, recognize how to more effectively use them, and capitalize on their uniqueness to propel them towards their goals and through their challenges.
Since completing my Strengths Coaching Certification in 2017, I have had the privilege of coaching people from all walks of life. I've helped college students become more capable of managing all that they love to do in addition to studying and earning a degree. I've also coached small business owners, corporate business professionals, clergy, & volunteers.
Having spent more than 35 years reading, researching, and exploring all I could about leadership, you can imagine I've learned a lot of different models and theories. So, what's my go-to approach to leadership these days?
I use two approaches:
- Intent Based Leadership
- Black Box Leader Development Model
Intent Based Leadership was developed by David Marquet. He first called it, the "leader-leader" approach in his book, "Turn the Ship Around". Since using it so effectively as the commander of the USS Santa Fe nuclear submarine, he has revised and refined it, changing the name to Intent Based Leadership. I've had the opportunity to talk with David and other members of his team. His work is outstanding and a powerful new way of seeing leadership. Having used it myself for the past 8 years, I can personally attest to the results one can get when using it.
The Black Box Leader Development Model is, of course, my own. It is based on more than 3 decades of study, research, and in-the-trenches work to help others become better leaders. The emphasis is not one what leadership is, but what does it take for a person to become a leader. That is, it shows how someone becomes a person of influence, an individual others will listen to and follow. It has six core components that an individual can use at their own pace, in whatever order & sequence best suits their needs. For more information and insights on this model, just click on the link "Tools > Resources" in the navigation bar at the top of this page.
In all that I've done through my leadership journey I can clearly say my knowledge has expanded, my skill set has been honed, and I have found tremendous joy and fulfillment seeing passion ignite and increased thriving take hold in others' lives. I have loved - and continue to love - learning about leadership and helping others become better leaders. My driving passion is still to see others enjoy life as they learn how to develop better relationships, be more productive, and be more effective.
I would be thrilled to use what I have learned to see how we can add a vibrancy to your work as a small business owner, greater joy to your work, and increased thriving in everything you do.
