john bailie, PHD
Faith. Life. leadership.

Every great and truly interesting villain believes they are the good guy. Darth Vader believed he was bringing a more efficient galactic order to a chaotic universe. The Wicked Witch of the West was getting her props after some farm-girl dropped a house on her sister for no apparent reason. Thanos was just a super-woke dude concerned about the carbon footprint of cosmic over-population. Take any quality creative writing course, and you’ll learn that excellent bad guys should

Sometimes we must be broken before we are ready to change. I heard an impactful homily this year from a priest that I greatly respect. He started by calling to mind the popular image of Jesus carrying a lamb on His shoulders. Usually, Jesus is smiling and the lamb looks peaceful and content. At a quick glance these images usually convey a sense of peaceful Fatherly love. However, the priest said, the reality of that image is different and far more challenging. He said the f

The world is facing a hydra of social tensions unlike any other time in the last hundred years. Leaders and organizational cultures will be impacted – one way or another. The recent articles, Four Hard Lessons for New Leaders , The Kommissar , and Anti-Social Media , speak to some of these tensions and how they play out in workplaces and our lives as leaders. We are witnessing open struggle in real-time, not just between political parties, but between different dreams. In

Some of the best lessons in life are hard to hear. Early in my career, I was fortunate enough to have several key mentors who were willing to take risks with me. They told me the things I needed to hear, not the things I wanted to hear. Also, knowing my hard-headedness, the delivery needed to be direct and undiluted. Subtle suggestions wrapped in fashionable niceties might work for some, but not with me – especially as a young man. Here I’ll share four hard lessons with you

This series of articles explores the toxic behavior profiles that persistently generate workplace conflict and provides tips on how to respond. In Creative vs. Toxic Conflict at Work , I discussed one of the key features that distinguishes toxic conflict from creative conflict. Creative conflict is rooted in the dynamics between people . In creative conflict, the motives and goals of group members are typically healthy and focused on a sincere desire to solve concrete exte

In the wake of the 2016 US election season, I did a lot of reflecting about online behavior – for myself and leaders in general. As I discussed in the article, What Does Your Digital Persona Say About You? , leaders in the virtual age can no longer separate online from in-person behavior. How you appear, what you say, how you say it, and who you engage with online will definitively impact your professional relationships and perhaps your career trajectory whether you like it

In times of great upheaval, it’s important to remember that some things never really change. Human hardwiring, our basic needs, drives, and desires are the same today as they were 2000 years ago. Our external forms of living and conditions change, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Those forms might last for a thousand years (think Rome), or perhaps only a decade (think disco). But people, as the cliché goes, are people. Over the last few weeks, you’ve probably spent more

In the midst of crisis, many find their strength. Sometimes that strength takes surprising forms. There’s been plenty to worry about during this pandemic: health concerns, economic and job security, stressed relationships, running out of toilet paper, or worse… Nutella. If you’re lucky enough (like me) to have lived in affluent country for most of your life, we are used to a world where everything works. Stores shelves are always full. We can have nearly any item sent to our

Whether you’re the newest intern or CEO, most people in an organization recognize that everyone has a functional role to play in a highly organized setting. In fact, much of what we reward or punish in such systems revolves around the willingness and proficiency in playing one’s functional role in that system – not the ability to form quality relationships. Technocratic systems require highly specialized roles to function as intended. This isn’t necessarily an inherently bad

Nothing is inevitable. Success and failure have little to do with fate. They have everything to do with the ability to dream big, while engaging the small details of the real world. The recent article, You Are Not the Horse: Rules for Entrepreneurs , demonstrated a few simple tactics for managing the psychological and financial risks of starting a new venture. As I said in the article, whether you’re looking for a multi-million-dollar start-up investment or simply proposing a

Doing something new isn’t only hard. It’s risky. Sure, there’s the risk of failure. However, the fear of failure itself isn’t actually the scariest part. For most people, the scariest part is the fear of looking foolish, slipping on the proverbial banana peel, leading a parade with no one following. Managing that risk, psychologically and financially, is central to the art of the start. To be an entrepreneur, whether you’re looking for a multi-million-dollar start-up investme

Is your organization led by the best, or by the “survivors”? There are many reasons certain people find themselves in positions of leadership in an organization. Those reasons have as much to do with the culture of the organization as they do with the qualities of the individual. In the article Creating a Deliberately Developmental Organization , I discuss how organizations can strategically orient their cultures around personal growth and development – rewarding honesty and

New Year’s resolutions are boring. Most years, I simply pick something I should already be doing (or not doing) anyway. Eat more kale. Learn Spanish. Stop eating all of my children’s Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day candy in middle of the night. Yes, we all have a dark side… This year I’m choosing something unexpected. My resolution this year is simply this: laugh. This light bulb went off while working on an upcoming book for teachers. When writing the section on ho

Having a great idea is not enough. A great idea only comes to life when there’s an equally great story to go with it. In fact, your ability to craft a story around your idea, product, or mission, is more essential to success than the idea itself. Great ideas with uninspiring stories go nowhere. However, a powerful story can propel an otherwise good-enough idea to greatness. Here are four tips on how to lead through storytelling. 1. Nobody roots for Goliath. Focus on the under

I have good news. You need far less than you think in order make a fundamental change: personally, professionally, or organizationally. The tough news is that making a firm decision to actually change is hard. In fact, it’s the hardest part of any transformation process. Very few leaders have had the life-experience or the deliberate mentorship to learn how to do this strategically, deliberately, and on demand when circumstances require it. Most of us do not confidently sail

Ask a child to complete a maze in an activity book. If they are the savvy sort, they will likely begin at the part marked “end” and not at the place marked “start”. Through direct experience, children learn that it’s easier to complete a maze successfully when you do it in reverse. This was a recent lesson from a strategic planning mentor . Like a child staring at a maze, when an organization has a vision for how it wants to expand, evolve, or level-up, there’s usually a spag

As a mentor for leaders, there are some conversations you have over-and-over again. One common conversation begins with a statement like this: I’m having a problem with staff not taking direction and/or resisting our strategic vision and goals. Why aren’t staff listening to me? Why aren’t they doing what the leadership expects them to do? We’ve all participated in momentous meetings where a new idea, plan, or vision is birthed. As a leader, we’re excited. This launch is likel

Life lessons about interpersonal conflict sometimes come from unexpected sources. In this case, it's a maximum security prison. My father spent more than twenty-five years as a corrections officer. As a kid, I was always surprised when my father would assert that the work of being a guard was mostly “relationship management”. Sure, things would boil-over occasionally. My dad was on the internal “emergency response” team for many years. He had plenty of stories about respondin

How do you know when it’s time to let go? A wise friend once told me a story about a hunter. This hunter’s tribe lived in an area with scarce resources. They depended on the local population of monkeys as a primary source of food. The hunter was asked, “Isn’t it difficult to hunt monkeys? After all, they are extremely fast, agile, and clever.” The hunter replied, “Yes, the monkeys are very fast, much faster than people. It is hard to get close enough to use our bows. They are

Don't be fooled by those smilin' Irish eyes. Beneath that sunny disposition lurks a dark and terrible storm waiting to be unleashed. We all have our crosses to bear in life. One of mine is a significant amount of Irish blood. Everyone knows about the renown luck of the Irish, but few have ever heard about the "curse". In addition to being incredible dancers , immune to psychoanalysis , and natural-born pub-boxers , most Celts from Eire also carry two related but seemingly con