Tag: Shared Leadership
“Everyone talks about building a relationship with your customer. I think you build one with your employees first.” —Angela Ahrendts The first mission of a modern company should be to advance and enhance the lives of the people who work there. All other corporate value creation is derived from this central priority. Companies that do…
READ ARTICLE“I am a wild, wandering nomad, I belong everywhere and nowhere all at the same time, and in that gap between worlds, I am free.” —Ritta Klint I’m fascinated by the nomadic past of the Sioux tribes on the northern plains. Before the reservation era, the Sioux moved freely across a vast territory stretching from…
READ ARTICLE“The collective unconscious contains the whole spiritual heritage of mankind’s evolution born anew in the brain structure of every individual.” —Carl Jung Speaking mostly in Lakota, Medicine Man begins to talk, then chant, then pray, then sing. Others, circled in darkness, echo in response. The heat within the hut quickly intensifies and the sweat comes…
READ ARTICLE“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom.” —Mahatma Gandhi The potential blessing of this essay series is that I am writing from experience. The potential problem with this essay series is that I am writing from experience. * * * When I decided to write this yearlong series about shared…
READ ARTICLEThe Softwood Forest Products Buyer is reaching out to company leaders across the industry to solicit their input on key issues that impact overall business success. In this publication, Kevin Hancock shares his insights. “Some organizations collect leadership power into the bureaucratic center, where a few people can make the majority of the decisions for…
READ ARTICLE“Strange what being slowed down could do to a person.” —Nicholas Sparks Even though the gymnasium was filled with whistles, shouting, and squeaking sneakers, I can still hear the coach’s wisdom nearly forty years later. I was at SWISH basketball camp at the University of Southern Maine, a junior in high school preparing for…
READ ARTICLE“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…
READ ARTICLE“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…
READ ARTICLE“Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” —Dalai Lama Several months ago I was sitting with the vice chair of our board of directors, Jim Buchanan, at the Hancock Lumber home office in Casco. Across the street logging trucks were arriving, the sawmill was churning, and the smell of sawdust was…
READ ARTICLE“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” —Martin Luther King This is essay #24, the halfway mark of my 2021 writing project. Two dozen essays have been shared and two dozen are yet to be created. Thank you for engaging and participating….
READ ARTICLE“The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.” —John Green I have trepidations about taking on this topic but even more about letting it go, so I’m diving in. Does civility in human dialogue and interaction matter? If it does matter, what causes it to disintegrate? How might it be elevated?…
READ ARTICLEIn 1938 the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was, in fact, “the Greatest Show on Earth.” Their annual tour opened in the spring of that year with a twenty-three-day sojurn at Madison Square Garden. The circus was so popular that it performed twice daily in New York (forty-six shows in all) before caravanning…
READ ARTICLEIn this video, Kevin Hancock is the keynote speaker at the Citrix Northeast Conference. Kevin speaks the shared leadership model, dispersed power, and respecting all voices. Kevin’s ideas on these topics have an immeasurable change on workplace happiness, employee engagement, and the work/life balance. “Work should enhance life – otherwise, what’s the point?” – Kevin…
READ ARTICLEIn this radio podcast, Kevin Hancock speaks with The Breakfast Club host Mark about his career, his newest book, 48 Whispers, and his mission to empower and strengthen the voices of those around him. During Kevin’s life journey, he has adapted Hancock Lumber to create balance for the employees and ensure that their voices are heard…
READ ARTICLEIn this podcast, Kevin Hancock speaks with host Rick Tocquigny about shared leadership. Kevin describes how losing the full use of his speaking voice led him to Pine Ridge, where he discovered an entire community that did not feel heard. The two events convinced Kevin that each human is here on earth in a personal…
READ ARTICLE“It is hard to follow one great vision in this world of darkness and of many changing shadows. Among those shadows men get lost.” —Black Elk I have dedicated the essays that I write this year to Black Elk, but I have not yet told you why. The answer is that I see deep truth…
READ ARTICLEIn this podcast, Kevin speaks to host Joel Fleischman about Kevin’s story of finding the power of shared leadership. Kevin explains how he struggled with losing his voice and the journey he started to gain inner acceptance and balance, as well as ways he could continue to lead his family’s company. He also speaks with…
READ ARTICLE“No future without forgiveness.” —Bishop Desmond Tutu It’s not just those in positions of leadership or privilege who must become more self-aware. In the last two essays I have discussed how it’s important for me as a white, Christian, male CEO to reconcile my inherent privilege in Western society. This is done not to engender…
READ ARTICLE“One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.” —Franklin Thomas Everyone I was looking at was white….
READ ARTICLE“Jesus’s inner circle of disciples includes both men and women on an equal footing. There is no distinction made between a male group of disciples and a female group of camp followers.” —Cynthia Bourgeault In AD 313 the Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and with a single edict elevated a banned set of spiritual…
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