Leadership discussions often focus on the subject of motivation. In traditional terms, leaders are somehow understood to be the “motivators.” They must create within the employees the driving force, the need, the rationale, the raison d’etre. It’s as if leadership must have some power to inject, to force feed, to create a sense of urgency in the employee. Years ago, as an Air Force Academy cadet, I spent multiple hours in the office of the [...]

When I was eight years old, I found my father’s stamp collection in “the sweathouse;” an old wooden shed that was a storage place behind my great-grandmother’s house. It had originally been where the washing was done before electric washing machines and air conditioning were generally available (the old manual tub and wringer washing machine was still there). I was fascinated with the stamps that seemed to tell the story of the U.S. and the [...]