In my last post I shared part of my interview with Mykola Onyshchanko, a survivor of the Holodomor of 1932 and 1933, during which millions of Ukrainian peasants were forcibly starved to death by Stalin’s Communist regime. Mykola, a young boy at the time, survived this period, and decades later, went on to become a…

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This bronze statue, titled Bitter Memory of Childhood, stands in the center of the walkway at the Holodomor Victims Memorial in Kiev, Ukraine, embodying the message that overreaching has consequences. “Death is the solution to all problems. No man—no problem.” —Joseph Stalin In 2017 I traveled to Kiev, Ukraine, to interview two survivors of the…

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Recently I got a new medicine cabinet above my sink in our bathroom at home. Its predecessor had been there for twenty years, so this was a big change for me and my stuff. Shortly after its installation, the trouble started. The fasteners that held the second glass shelf in place kept loosening. This in…

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The following is an excerpt from my book, The Seventh Power: One CEO’s Journey into the Business of Shared Leadership. For centuries, societies across the globe have been systematically indoctrinated into the belief system that power, control, and higher authority live “out there” somewhere, beyond our reach, in a faraway capital, with a government leader,…

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I would like to share this essay by Kayla McLean.  Kayla is a high school student here in Maine preparing for college and this is her college admissions essay. Her writing speaks for itself and through this post I am simply sharing and amplifying her already amazing voice. I would add that her message resonates…

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On June 17, 2024, I watched the Boston Celtics win their record-setting eighteenth NBA title at the TD Garden before a euphoric, sold-out crowd. As a lifetime basketball player, coach, and fan, this was a joyous experience for me. Under any circumstances I would have been deeply committed to the Celtics winning, but this season…

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“Democracy is a process, not a static condition. It is becoming, rather than being. It can easily be lost, but never is fully won. Its essence is eternal struggle.” —William Hastie On June 27, 2024, I watched the globally televised debate between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump in a semi-dazed state of…

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The Business of Shared Leadership and Hancock Lumber are excited to announce that Kevin Hancock has joined the Washington Speakers Bureau (WSB) network as a keynote speaker, bringing topics such as shared leadership, employee engagement, and healing from within to audiences across industries and geographies. The world’s largest talent agency specializing in corporate speaking events,…

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We had perhaps the best seats at the Royal River Grill House in Yarmouth, Maine: a table for two beside a big window, looking out onto a coastal winter landscape where the river makes its way to the open sea. Reflective and calm, it was a perfect place to think about leadership. Sara Binkhorst sat…

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Hancock Lumber and the Business of Shared Leadership are excited to announce Kevin Hancock, Chairman of Hancock Lumber and award-winning author, has been selected as one of the six world-class speakers to present at the upcoming Chief Executive Leadership Conference in Phoenix, AZ. This 2-day conference will allow attendees unparalleled access to the realm of extraordinary growth and strategic foresight…

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Change. It’s one of life’s constants, and one of the few guarantees that can be made to all humans. Although our Universe is in constant motion and flux, change management is rarely taught, or even discussed. What’s required for humans to engineer change? How do we become thoughtful agents of positive change? I’ve given these…

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On this podcast, Kevin Hancock speaks with JM Ryerson on his ‘Let’s Go Win’ podcast. Let’s Go Win is a peak performance interview show on leadership, mindset, and business development. JM features leaders and entrepreneurs with inspirational stories on personal development, achievements and success. On this episode, Kevin and JM discuss the power and potential…

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Rushing into action, you fail. Trying to grasp things, you lose them. Forcing a project to completion, you ruin what was almost ripe. Therefore the Master takes action by letting things take their course. He remains as calm at the end as at the beginning. He simply reminds people of who they have always been….

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In this video, Kevin Hancock speaks about how he became a champion for shared leadership and dispersed power. When Kevin lost the power of his voice, he turned to others for their ideas so he could speak less. He also speaks about how he found the Lakota tribe on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and…

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“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” —Buddha Earlier this year I shared the following short message with everyone at Hancock Lumber: Hello! I was doing some work with another company in another industry yesterday. The subject of their “mission statement” was on the agenda….

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“All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in the human DNA.” —Reid Hoffman Entrepreneur is one of the least-understood words in business, and possibly the entire English language. We tend to equate it with an elite and short list of icons. Bill Gates, Elon…

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“Do not wait for the green light. You are the green light.” —Dr. Jacinta Mpalyenkana Shortly after participating in the Leadership Learning Exchange for Equity sponsored by the Maine Community Foundation, I received a poignant question from one of my favorite global citizens within our company: What are we doing to bring more underrepresented groups…

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“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” —Ernest Hemingway On December 13, 2020, former secretary of state George Shultz turned one hundred years old. On that day he published an essay musing over what he had learned across a century of living, and a career that included…

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“For it is dangerous to attach one’s self to the crowd in front, and so long as each one of us is more willing to trust another than to judge for himself, we never show any judgement in the matter of living, but always a blind trust, and a mistake that has been passed on…

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2021 IDEA-SHARING ADVENTURE SERIES BY KEVIN HANCOCK “Your choices and efforts, be they small or grand, define who you are.” —Richelle Goodrich Henry and Mamie Wilson migrated north from South Carolina to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1921. “I believe he was about the first black man they ever hired at US Steel,” his son Tim would…

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