The Cost of Integrity in Leadership
What integrity actually costs a leader - and why most writing on the subject misses it. Notes on staying whole in rooms that don't share your framework.
Writing
Reflections on leadership, loss, service, technology, and purpose.
Standards, Grace, and the Fragility of Human Nature
The best leaders hold high standards without being shocked by human weakness - because they've sat honestly with their own.
Excellence in Ordinary Work
Purpose rarely looks dramatic. Most of the work that actually changes a life is quiet, careful, and easy to overlook.
When Leaders Forget the Vulnerable
How a leader treats the people with no leverage over them tells you more than any title does.
Integrity When No One Is Watching
Character shows less in what you do on stage and more in what you do when no one would ever know the difference.
Suffering Is Not Strange
We treat suffering as an interruption to life. It isn't. It's part of life, and the only real question is what we do with it.
The Art of Discernment
Discernment is a skill you build slowly through practice, not a gift you are simply born with - and the cost of never building it is high.
The Subtle Danger of Pride
Pride doesn't announce itself. It slips in after your best moment, wearing the mask of gratitude.
A Leader's Accountability
How you deliver correction matters as much as whether the correction is right. Discipline done badly causes more harm than the original problem.
Dealing with Peer Pressure as an Adult
We act like peer pressure is something you outgrow. You don't. It just gets more sophisticated.
Choosing the Right Leaders: Lessons from an Ancient Story
An old parable about trees choosing a king has a sharp lesson about what happens when communities pick the wrong leaders, and why the best candidates often refuse the role.
The SEEDS Story: Starting Palliative Care from Nothing
We had no building, no opioid license, no funding, and a patient screaming in pain. This is how SEEDS began.
Walking Through Loss: What I Learned About Grief and Recovery
After losing my wife to cancer, I learned that grief is not a problem to solve; it is a wound that takes time to heal. Here is what I wish someone had told me.
Leadership Lessons from Eli's Sons
A leader's failure doesn't stay with the leader. It poisons how people feel about contributing to anything at all.
Humility: The Way Up Is Down
I used to think humility was a personality trait. I've come to think it's a decision - one the best leaders make again every morning.
Fighting for Life: My COVID Battle in 2021
At 3 AM, alone in a dark room with a worsening cough, I faced the hardest fight of my life - not against a virus, but against fear itself.
The Ministry of Generosity
Generosity is less about charity than people assume. It's a discipline that shapes the giver at least as much as it serves the receiver.
Are Leaders with Emotional Intelligence Born or Made?
The debate over whether leaders are born or made is old. Emotional intelligence, at least, is something you train into yourself over years.