Author: Chet

In the recorded history of marathons only 51 men have run the 26.2 miles in under 2:06. Forty seven of them are from Kenya and Ethiopia. In the London Olympics, British cyclists won 12 medals in road and track cycling - double any other nation. And, the British have won six of the last eight … Continue reading Study, learn, apply…

Recently, during a difficult one on one practice, I stumbled onto something that may be useful. Listening to my client describe a relationship that was not working, suddenly this thought flew into my consciousness. He must decide to unite or untie. He's been loosely coupled and the relationship is wobbling. He looked drained. Loose ends … Continue reading Unite or untie…

You and I suck at action in ambiguity. Humans can handle all kinds of adversity and get through it to the other side. We give up quickly, however, when our mind thinks this thing (whatever it is) doesn’t have an end. We stop swimming from Catalina to LA on a foggy morning when we simply … Continue reading Act in ambiguity…

A few years back, Socrates made a fairly bold claim - "The unexamined life is not worth living." Upon reflection I would propose a word change. For giggles, lets replace the word "worth" with great. The unexamined life is not great living. So, what is? At BTL we propose great lives are lived by humans … Continue reading Phronesis…

Leader listen up. Shaming works, just not the way most leaders think of shaming. Don’t waste your time shaming the bottom feeders in your system. Instead, shame the best. Yes, you read this correctly - shame your best. Parade around your top performers shamelessly. Make everybody sick of hearing about how good your very best … Continue reading Shaming works…

One of the habits of the elite is fairly straightforward - they set their own goals and they set lots of them. This doesn’t make them bad teammates, it makes them better ones. You see, excellence is always individual before it becomes organizational. In other words there are never excellent organizations or teams without at … Continue reading Goals are good…

We recently celebrated practice 105 with a team that I began with years ago by naming them the Next four. They were four young leaders at one of my long standing clients and we were building them into one (as we always are). As time went on and tough practices led us to trust each … Continue reading No mo…

Praus is a Greek word I recently learned from my good friend, jmo. He mentioned it to me after reading my rant about meekness. Praus translates to meek. Here’s what jmo wrote me this morning and I’m passing it along. Enjoy. Meekness is not something that has ever been taught in western civilizations. The word … Continue reading Praus…