Tag: Shared Leadership
“Everyone is beautiful.” — Ariana Grande Jenny Edwards cleans and cares for the Hancock Lumber home office in Casco at night, after finishing her day job. I work an odd collection of hours, which brings me into the office at night once or twice a week. This is how Jenny and I met and then…
READ ARTICLE“Everything you can imagine is real.” —Pablo Picasso We were driving through rural, agricultural Florida just north of Lake Okeechobee when I saw it. “What is that?” I said, removing my sunglasses for a second look. Several vehicles ahead, on a four-way section of downtown road, was an old yellow school bus with the…
READ ARTICLEIn 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…
READ ARTICLEIn this interview, Kevin Hancock speaks about how he found the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and how the moments he spent there helped him and inspired him to write 48 Whispers. He shares that the thoughts and pictures that he takes while there have helped him find inner peace, a way of leading without overusing…
READ ARTICLE“Liberty means responsibility. That’s why most men dread it.” —George Bernard Shaw It was six a.m. when I left Route 44 and passed through the veritable ghost town of Scenic, South Dakota, onto Bombing Range Road. I was on my way to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to have breakfast with my friend Rosie…
READ ARTICLEIn this video, Kevin Hancock speaks with Kerry O’Shea Gorgone. Kerry talks with Kevin about his experience of the partial loss of his own voice, while initially considered to be a hindrance, was eventually seen as a gift – an invitation and a calling to lead differently, and to lift up others’ voices. They also…
READ ARTICLE“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….
READ ARTICLE“The problem with homelessness is not houselessness.” —Matt Haig Eugene, Oregon, is a city like no other. Nestled on the western edge of the Cascade Mountains, it’s surrounded by a valley of agricultural bounty. Sheep graze at the edge of the airport runway. The rivers flow and the flowers grow across a Disneyesque kingdom-like…
READ ARTICLEIn this article, Kevin Hancock is interviewed about his progressive view on shared leadership. He shares how the lumber industry is often misunderstood and seen as outdated, but he says this is inaccurate. Everything from the technology inside the sawmills to the culture fostered at the company is modern and innovative. Kevin explains more about…
READ ARTICLE“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?…
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