Leadership Articles

Insights, tips and more from David & the world's top leaders.

Let Them See You Sweat – Leaders who exercise make their whole teams healthier

So much has been written about the importance of regular exercise for one’s own physical and mental health, you’d have to be living under a rock not to recognize the benefits. And yet—some of us still struggle to commit to a regular exercise routine. Maybe we’re prioritizing other commitments. Or we’re just so stressed and […]

Are Hybrid Environments the Future? Wrong Question.

Lately, there’s been a lot of debate about hybrid work models that blend time at the office with remote work. Which is better: the hybrid approach or a more traditional model, where the entire team is in the same place most of the time? I think that’s asking the wrong question. The right question is: […]

Three Ways to Cultivate Creative Thinking in a Data-Driven Workplace

Businesses love to say they’re “data-driven,” and investors love to hear it. Data makes them feel safe, because “numbers don’t lie.” But let’s be honest, numbers don’t speak either. Only a human being can turn information into ideas. And that requires creative thinking. No matter what investors say, it’s creative thinking—not data alone—that drives business breakthroughs. And […]

Five Barriers to Creating a Growth Culture and How to Overcome Them

Have you ever noticed how fast the language of leadership changes? It seems like every day there’s a new word or phrase to add to your vocabulary. One I didn’t like when I first heard it was “culture.” To my ear, it sounds like a germ! Yet, I’ve spent my career cultivating that very thing. […]

The Lesson in Every Leap. Reframing Risk as Its Own Reward

As leaders we like to focus on outcomes: I took a chance—and look how well it paid off. We think of risk as the means to an end. No pain, no gain. No risk, no reward. I think this is a missed opportunity. Sure, we know that growth and innovation can only happen when we’re willing to […]

How Losing the Vision in My Right Eye Helped Me See the Power of Self-Coaching

Today’s edition is a guest post by Tony Amezcua. My good friend and co-author of Take Charge of You, Jason Goldsmith, tells his clients, “There’s no such thing as failure, only experience.” As a performance coach Jason often works with clients who are experiencing setbacks in their careers, teaching them powerful self-coaching techniques they can […]

3 Ways to Create Speed on Your Career Path

Recently, a reporter described my career as an “unconventional ascent.” Yes, somebody with a degree in journalism, who started out as a copywriter and never got an MBA, is an unusual candidate for CEO of one of the world’s largest corporations. What makes it more unusual, though, is how quickly it happened: I was 46 when I became CEO […]

Thinking About Changing Careers? Self-Coaching is Key, Guest Post by Larry Fitzgerald, Jr.

This month, it’s my great pleasure to share with you the words of my friend Larry Fitzgerald, Jr., a tremendous leader in the world of sports—and in the game of life. Larry is a future Hall of Famer, who spent 17 seasons in the NFL, playing wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals. He’s an 11-time […]

The Key to Repeat Success? Become a Self-Coaching Pro.

When I was in my early 40s, I faced a tough decision. I had been building a career as a leader with PepsiCo, which had 3 divisions—beverages, snack foods (Frito-Lay), and restaurants (Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell). At the time, I was serving as president of KFC and had led the company through a […]