Nobody likes admitting they've been duped. As leaders, we like to believe experience gives us an edge. We learn to trust our instincts, read situations, and identify problems before they become crises. After enough years in business, we assume we're less susceptible to being misled. One of the hardest lessons in leadership is accepting that appearances and reality are not always the same thing. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus observed that…
Recently, I found myself standing in a hometown crowd watching my dear friend Wes Dearth do what he's spent a lifetime pursuing. Wes, better known professionally as John Wesley, is a guitarist, songwriter, and one of rock's most respected touring musicians. For the past several years, he has served as lead guitarist for Vertical Horizon, the popular 90s band known for hits such as Everything You Want, You're a God,…
Midway through the session, the conversation shifted. Someone began sharing a decision they were struggling with. One of those defining leadership moments where there isn’t a clear right answer, only consequences. As they spoke, I found myself leaning in, not just out of interest, but recognition. I had faced that exact situation. And then someone else added their perspective. And another. Different industries. Different contexts. The same underlying challenge. I…
In my previous article on the Spectacle of Racing, I wrote about the beauty, precision, and sheer intensity of motorsports—how everything builds toward a single defining moment. What I didn’t explore then is what happens when that moment doesn’t go your way. And I mean, really doesn’t go your way! Because in racing, just as in leadership, many moments don’t. Few examples capture this better than David Malukas’ heartbreaking finish…
Leadership Lessons We Didn’t Learn in Business School (Some of Us May Have Learned Them at the Bar) I didn’t set out to build a career in workers’ compensation. Like many people in this industry, I landed here almost by accident. I took a claims adjuster role at Aetna Property & Casualty because I wanted a stable, business‑focused job. At the time, workers’ compensation wasn’t the coveted path—property and casualty…
Grit is often described as a powerful driver of long-term success, yet the real question for most leaders is how to cultivate it in practical, sustainable ways. In the earlier articles of this series, I explored what grit truly means and clarified what it is not, helping distinguish genuine perseverance from unproductive burnout or rigid persistence. This final piece shifts the focus from definition to application. The Four Pillars Leaders…
Grit is a powerful idea in leadership, often celebrated as the force that drives people to push forward through challenges. Yet its growing popularity has created just as much confusion as clarity. The word is used to describe everything from extreme perseverance to sheer stubbornness, and leaders are often encouraged to “be gritty” without a true understanding of what that means in practice. In my own leadership journey at ReEmployAbility,…
Tampa Bay offered a vivid illustration during the January 31 weekend of how communities and organizations thrive when they honor the traditions that ground them while actively driving the innovations that can propel them forward. On one side of the city, we celebrated Gasparilla. This is a tradition dating back to 1904 that now draws hundreds of thousands with its iconic pirate “invasion” and parade. On the other side, Tampa hosted the first outdoor NHL Stadium Series game ever held in a Florida football stadium, transforming…
Why Grit, Why Now During our strategic planning late last year, our leadership team selected “grit” as our word of the year. Each team member approached the whiteboard and wrote down words that resonated with them and would help define the year ahead. Words like resilience, perseverance, and adaptability all pointed us toward a single theme: grit. For several years, we’ve used the One Word approach inspired by bestselling author Jon Gordon. The exercise is simple: choose…
Music has been a constant thread woven through the fabric of my life. From my earliest memories, it has always been there. Sometimes in the background, sometimes taking center stage, but always present. On Sundays after Mass, while the Sunday Gravy was simmering on the stove (if you’re Italian, you know exactly what I mean), my dad would play recordings of the great operas—Tosca, Madame Butterfly, La Traviata. At the…
