Debbie Laskey's Blog: SPRING LEADERSHIP SERIES 2025

Last year, I launched a Spring Leadership Series to think about leadership in nontraditional ways. As 2024 continued, I presented additional ways to think about leadership during my Olympics Leadership Series and Holiday Leadership Series. With a new year upon us, I've invited 25 thought leaders to share their responses to five questions relating to team-building, reading, and leadership. My #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 began the first day of Spring and continues through June 20th, the first day of Summer.

Before we begin, I'd like to applaud two special individuals for providing the inspiration for this series. First, big applause goes to Erika Andersen, a leadership expert and author who I've had the pleasure of knowing for nearly 15 years, and she's appeared on my blog 13 times since 2011. She wrote an article for Forbes entitled, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders," and that article serves as the core of the series as its first question. Second, I also applaud Joseph Lalonde, a leadership expert and author of a book called REEL LEADERSHIP, for planting the seeds for last year's Spring Leadership Series on my blog. After I read Joe's book, I started looking at movies as well as works of fiction, TV shows, and TV characters with "leadership-tinted glasses."

For today's post, I'd like to introduce Eric Jacobson based in Kansas City, Missouri. Eric has three decades of experience in successfully leading employees and teams through periods of revenue growth, new product development, and re-engineering. He is an experienced mentor and coach and holds an MBA Degree from Keller Graduate School. His passion is helping individuals to become effective leaders at work, within organizations, and wherever they are called upon to lead and inspire. Eric's writings about leadership and management appear regularly on his blog, and he's a valued contributor to my many leadership series.

QUESTION: Leadership expert and author Erika Andersen wrote an article for Forbes entitled, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders." In the article, Erika compared gardening to management and leadership. What are your thoughts, or was there something that stood out from the article?

ERIC JACOBSON: This is a great article. Thanks for sharing it with me, Debbie. I liked how Erika compared gardening to management and leadership. Of the five analogies she makes, my favorite is the one about preparing the soil and listening. During my career, too often managers and leaders did not listen or did not listen often enough to both employees and customers. So many missed opportunities.

(Note, Eric's second-to-the-last sentence was tweaked for sharing.)

SHARE THIS: Too often managers and leaders do not listen or do not listen often enough to both employees and customers. So many missed opportunities. ~@EricJacobsonKC #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 #DebbieLaskeysBlog

QUESTION: What was the most recent example of inspiring leadership that made an impact on you?

ERIC JACOBSON: David Grossman of The Grossman Group inspires me every day with his teachings and expert advice via posts on social media, his company's blog, and through his podcasts. I learn so much from his instruction and guidance, which are always timely, practical, and immediately implementable. For the past 25 years, David and his team have shared their expertise on internal change management, strategy activation, leadership development, and organizational culture change. I have followed David since 2009 and became an instant fan of particularly his books on leadership; the most recent published in summer 2024.

QUESTION: What is your favorite team-building activity, and why?

ERIC JACOBSON: Even when you think you know your team members, when you do the wallet team building activity you inevitably learn something new about your colleagues. The wallet activity is simple to do and takes only a few minutes for each person on your team – a half hour or so for a 10-member team.

Gather your team in a room, preferably at a round or u-shaped table so everyone can see each other. Then, going one-by-one, ask each team member to remove three items from their wallet/purse and have them tell the group about each of those three things and why each is important.

When I participated in this activity, team members pulled out fishing licenses, library cards, pictures of new family members, past or future concert tickets, organ donor cards, money from a foreign country, etc. You are bound to learn something new about a team member that you thought you already knew incredibly well.

However, the younger generation may have some of their items on their smartphones instead of in their wallets. Something to consider.

QUESTION: Which book is on the top of your to-be-read pile, and why?

ERIC JACOBSON: I look forward to reading two books in particular; one book for pleasure and one so I can subsequently post about it on my leadership and management blog.

For pleasure, I will read, "The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory," by Thomas Fuller. This is the blurb about the book and why I am inspired to read it:

"The incredible story of an all-deaf high school football team's triumphant climb from underdog to undefeated, their inspirational brotherhood, a fascinating portrait of deafness in America, and the indefatigable head coach who spearheaded the team, by New York Times reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief, Thomas Fuller."

For my blog, I will read the upcoming, "The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance," by Zach Mercurio. Here is the blurb about this book and why I am so eager to learn from it:

"Leaders can learn the skills to ensure everyone around them feels valued and knows how they add value at work. Through a captivating exploration of the emerging science of mattering and drawing from hands-on work with hundreds of diverse occupations and organizations, researcher and speaker Zach Mercurio reveals how experiencing mattering to others is a fundamental—yet often overlooked—requirement for thriving. He introduces a simple yet effective framework for making daily interactions with your employees more meaningful."

QUESTION: In the past year, has a TV show, film, or work of fiction stood out as a result of its emphasis on leadership?

ERIC JACOBSON: The movie "The Holdovers" hit the screens in November 2023, so it is just a tad older than during the past year. It is a 2023 American Christmas comedy drama film directed by Alexander Payne, written by David Hemingson, and starring Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa. Set in 1970, it tells the story of a strict classics teacher at a New England boarding school who is forced to chaperone a handful of students who have nowhere to go during the school's Christmas break.

I won't share any more details, however, there are multiple lessons of leadership throughout the movie via Da'Vine Joy Randolph's role, and then particularly at the end of the film by Paul Giamatti.

My gratitude to Eric for sharing his leadership insights and for being a part of my #SpringLeadershipSeries2025. Did these questions open your eyes to think about leadership in nontraditional ways? That was the hope!

Image Credit: Ahaslides.

Read Erika Andersen's article, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2015/05/14/how-springtime-can-make-us-better-leaders/

Check out some inspiring links provided by Eric:

https://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/blog

and

https://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/books

Connect with Eric at these links:

Blog: https://ericjacobsononmanagement.blogspot.com

Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/EricJacobsonKC

Read my posts inspired by Eric:

"Top 10" New Year's Resolutions for Leaders for 2025 (January 2025)