308: The Power of Solitude, with Mike Erwin
Coaching for Leaders
Dave Stachowiak
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2017
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mike Erwin: Lead Yourself First
Mike Erwin is the CEO of the Character & Leadership Center and the Founder and President of The Positivity Project, a non-profit organization with the mission to help America’s youth build stronger relationships by recognizing the character strengths in themselves and others. He is the co-author of the book Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude*.
Key Points
- Solitude helps both in intense thinking and also in giving the brain a chance to quiet down.
- It’s hard to think intensively with a lot going on around you.
- Even extroverts can benefit from solitude.
- Start small. Just find a few minutes throughout the day to build a habit of solitude.
- Social media and solitude can coexist.
The four ways solitude benefits leaders:
- Clarity
- Creativity
- Moral Courage
- Emotional Balance
Resources Mentioned
- Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude* by Raymond M. Kethledge and Mike Erwin
- The Character & Leadership Center
- Team Red, White, & Blue
- The Positivity Project
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One of the best ways to lead well is to lead yourself first. |
| 0:05.0 | On today's episode, the power of solitude in leadership and the history to back it up. |
| 0:11.0 | This is coaching for Leaders, episode 308. Produced by Innovate Learning, |
| 0:17.0 | Maximizing Human Potential. |
| 0:20.0 | Greetings to you from Orange County, California. This is coaching for leaders and I'm your host |
| 0:29.6 | Dave Stahoviac. Leaders aren't born, they're made, and this weekly show gives you access |
| 0:36.1 | to the practical wisdom that will empower you to become a better leader. And you've heard me say |
| 0:42.4 | it many times on the show that as much as |
| 0:45.7 | leadership is about others and how we influence others and about our organizations |
| 0:51.4 | it starts with ourselves. |
| 0:53.7 | And that's one of the reasons that today's guest came onto my radar screen, |
| 0:58.2 | because he has done a tremendous amount of work on how as leaders we can really lead ourselves first and in fact |
| 1:05.2 | that's the title of almost the title of his book that's recently come out I'm really |
| 1:09.3 | pleased to welcome Mike Irwin to the show today he is the CEO of the Character and Leadership Center |
| 1:15.4 | and the founder and president of the Positivity Project, a nonprofit organization with |
| 1:20.4 | the mission to help America's youth build stronger relationships by recognizing the character strengths in themselves and others. He is the co-author of the book Lead Yourself First, inspiring leadership through solitude with co-author Raymond |
| 1:35.1 | Kethledge. Mike is also a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserves assigned to |
| 1:39.4 | the United States Military Academy at West Point where he serves as an assistant professor in |
| 1:44.2 | leadership and psychology. Mike, I'm so glad to welcome you to coaching for |
| 1:48.1 | leaders. Thanks so much, Dave. It's really exciting to be here and looking forward |
| 1:51.8 | to the conversation. Well I'm really glad to be here and looking forward to the conversation. |
| 1:53.0 | Well, I'm really glad to have you along on the show today, Mike, because I first heard about the book from Susan Kane, and she had tweeted about it. |
... |
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