Several years ago, I was having breakfast in Manhattan with my son Jared. As was often the case, we were talking about leadership.

Jared said, “Dad, Ben and I feel blessed with a super-power that you have given us, the power that gives us an advantage compared to other people our age, both at work and in our private lives.“

“A super-power?”, I said.  “Jared, what could that possibly be? “

“Self-awareness, dad.  Self-awareness.”

Jared’s answer stunned me. For years, I had been preaching to my sons the power of authenticity and self-awareness as the keys to effective leadership. It was so gratifying to realize that the lesson had been received.

For a long time, my two adult sons have encouraged me to share leadership lessons I’ve accumulated over the decades with people in my network instead of merely emailing them several times a week!  I’m finally ready to do that and I am beginning to do so with this newsletter.

In these weekly newsletters, I plan to share leadership tips I have learned through four decades as a leader in education, law and volunteer work, as a certified trainer in Stephen Covey’s  “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” as a leadership coach and as a keen observer of myself and other people.

So please take a moment to think about your own leadership lessons and feel free to share them with me via email.  I would love for this newsletter to be a two-way communications vehicle.

Let’s all practice excellent leadership and see it ripple out to positively affect the lives of other people in our professional and personal lives.