Dave Anderson | Leadership Training and Consultation

December 25, 2016 maximios

Below is the You Tube video to David McCullough Jr.’s speech to the graduating Class of 2012 at Wellesley High School. This is an in your face yet inspiring speech to the coming generation.

The Bottom Line:

His last words to them are about being selfless. Being selfless is truly the most likely way any of us will become special.

Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion–and those who will follow them. And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special.

Continue Reading…

You see, if everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless. In our unspoken but not so subtle Darwinian competition with one another–which springs, I think, from our fear of our own insignificance, a subset of our dread of mortality — we have of late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement. We have come to see them as the point — and we’re happy to compromise standards, or ignore reality, if we suspect that’s the quickest way, or only way, to have something to put on the mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to leverage ourselves into a better spot on the social totem pole.

No longer is it how you play the game, no longer is it even whether you win or lose, or learn or grow, or enjoy yourself doing it… Now it’s “So what does this get me?” As a consequence, we cheapen worthy endeavors, and building a Guatemalan medical clinic becomes more about the application to Bowdoin than the well being of Guatemalans.

-David McCullough Jr. Wellesley High School 2012 Commencement Speech

I read the text from a commencement address given at Wellesley High School by David McCullough Jr. this weekend. The truth in it is hard to argue with. The brilliance of the prose floored me.

His message, simply stated was, “You are not special.” Some may say it is a harsh message to hear on graduation. But I ask you, when were they going to hear it? In 18 years these seniors probably never had!

I have met way too many bosses, peers, and job seekers who I know never heard that message. We all need to hear it. I know I did. You do too. Trust me. Sometimes it hurts to be reminded, I AM NOT SPECIAL. But pain can be helpful in learning. Continue Reading…

My last 5 years leading sales teams I noticed a shift in our corporate culture. Because of increased regulations corporate compliance became a mantra throughout the organization.

Playing within the rules is a given in business. But, the increased communication around compliance had a negative side effect. Compliance became a goal in and of itself. The implication was that if I had a compliant team, I was a successful leader.

Truly great teams are not built around compliance. To me, that means I have a team who follows the rules out of fear of punishment. I want a team that is committed not just compliant. Continue Reading…

People couldn’t believe he jumped to another company. Tom was an all-star salesman who won multiple sales awards over the last 5 years. He earned sizable raises year after year and large bonuses. It didn’t make sense to some.

Tom called me multiple times during his final 6 months with the company. He did not call to discuss his salary, bonus, or benefits. His frustration was with his boss. Continue Reading…

Every male freshman (plebe) entering West Point has a mandatory class that few other colleges offer much less require. Boxing.

Each morning that boxing was on my schedule I woke up thinking about it. I would sit in calculus, chemistry or computer programing class thinking about boxing. It didn’t matter that I had tests or other graded exercises in those classes. Boxing dominated my thoughts.

I knew that day, no matter how well I did when I stepped into the ring, I was going to get hit multiple times in the face. What did I learn during plebe boxing that prepared me to lead? Continue Reading…

At the Refresh Leadership Live conference (Twitter: #refreshleadership) I went to recently, Dr. Bertrice Berry read a poem with a line in it that said: “You ain’t free to do what you want to do. You are free to what you’re meant to do.”

These days I feel free because I believe I am doing what I am meant to do. I am building leaders. In fact I have been building leaders for a long time. I just needed to recognize that is what I am meant to do. Continue Reading…

If a blogger/consultant screams on the internet does anyone notice? I was wondering when I left my comfortable job in the corporate world if people would hear me when I screamed.

I read a lot about consulting in the months before starting my company and in the months since. There was a lot of great advice for me to get my ideas launched into cyberspace and begin to build a tribe.

I have been thinking about writing an un-resume. This would be the list of all the things I have done wrong. It is a long and sometimes scary list. I always tell people a resume should never be more than two pages long. Unfortunately my un-resume would break that rule! Continue Reading…

My son saw a quote this week that said, “Metta World Peace is the dirtiest player since Ron Artest.” We both laughed about that one. But just claiming a name like World Peace or Low Maintenance Team, does not ensure you act like your title.

Look, I am not a genius or a visionary guru who developed this Low Maintenance Team (LMT) in theory and then put processes in place to prove the theory. Most of the processes I implemented came from making mistakes that made my life more difficult.

I was looking for solutions that would make my life easier while increasing productivity. Any leader who doesn’t want to a simpler life with a more productive team is deranged. That was my goal. That is how I came up with the solutions I am sharing here. Continue Reading…