Books

Writing has become an essential part of how I process and share what I’ve learned. Through books, I can reach leaders I’ll never meet in person and hopefully make a small difference in how they approach their work and their people.

I wrote my first book, “Recipes for Success” as an exercise in learning how to write a book. I always wanted to be a writer but needed to learn the process. The first and most important step of this process is quite obvious – pick a subject. I was a little too ambitious. The year was 2008 and the world financial markets had just crashed, and we were headed into an indeterminate recession. I wrote a letter that Christmas to our two adult children to reinforce that we as a family could overcome anything together. We just needed to stay true to our purpose, work hard and focus on doing the right things for the right reasons. If you do that, life will take care of itself. I also shared my goal to write a book that year. I told them it would be either about cooking or self-motivation. I couldn’t decide which, so I wrote about both.

I went on to write other books with more technical subjects, such as “Building a Culture of Success” and my newest venture, “You Already Have a Culture.” Each book represents years of experience, reflection, and refinement. If you want to know how I think as a person, read my first book. If you want to know how I think about leadership, read the other two. My goal is always practical wisdom—ideas that readers can apply immediately to make their organizations and teams better.