Friday, April 4, 2025

SPRING LEADERSHIP SERIES 2025 – Featuring Barbara McQuade


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 Barbara McQuade. Barb is a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where she teaches criminal law and national security law. She is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. From 2010 to 2017, she served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She was appointed by President Barack Obama, and was the first woman to serve in her position. She also served as vice chair of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee and co-chaired its Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee. Before her appointment as U.S. Attorney, McQuade served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Detroit for 12 years, including service as Deputy Chief of the National Security Unit. In that role, she prosecuted cases involving terrorism financing, foreign agents, threats, and export violations. She serves on a number of non-profit boards and served on the Biden-Harris Transition Team in 2020-2021. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and its law school and calls Ann Arbor, Michigan home.

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?

BARBARA MCQUADE: I appreciate the author's advice about patience. You have to wait for plants to grow and employees to thrive. You can't expect everyone to perform on your (the leader's) schedule or even the same schedule. It is important to meet each person where they are and give them the resources they each need to thrive. 

SHARE THIS: It is important to meet each person where they are and give them the resources they each need to thrive. ~@BarbMcQuade #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 #DebbieLaskeysBlog

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

BARBARA MCQUADE: In January, cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit her job at the Washington Post when an editor refused to print a cartoon in which she depicted the Post's owner laying bags of money at the feet of Donald Trump. One may agree or disagree with the viewpoint she was expressing, but she later wrote that she found the editor's refusal to publish the cartoon to amount to censorship. I admire her willingness to put her integrity above her ambition and livelihood. 

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

BARBARA MCQUADE: Ropes courses. People must work together or fail. Positive energy works, negative energy does not. 

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

BARBARA MCQUADE: SAYS WHO by Anne Curzan. I am a student of language and think words matter. 

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

BARBARA MCQUADE: In WICKED THE MOVIE, Elphaba resists the temptation of power to stand up for animals who are being abused by the wizard, even though it means she will be labeled as a villain.

My gratitude to Barb for sharing her 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: Rope-Park.com.


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/


Read Why I'm Quitting the Washington Post by Ann Telnaes (January 2025)

https://anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-quitting-the-washington-post


Read Barb's previous appearance here on my blog:

Information, Disinformation, and Leadership - Oh My! (September 2024)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/09/information-disinformation-and.html


Connect with Barb at these links:

Michigan Law: https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/our-faculty/barbara-l-mcquade

Website/Book: https://www.barbaramcquade.com

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


Thursday, April 3, 2025

Best Social Media Post of the Month for March 2025


How many social media posts do you recall? Do some go viral because they are for charity, like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? Or do some go viral because they happened at the right moment in time, like the Oreo tweet when the lights went out at the 2013 Super Bowl? Or do some go viral and become memorable simply because they're funny?

In a new monthly series on my blog - appearing during the first week of each month - I will share the best social media post of the preceding month. The choice may appear on Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.

According to Google, "The best social media post of the month is typically one that effectively combines high engagement with relevance to current events, holidays, or trending topics, while also aligning with your brand identity and authentically connecting with your audience; this could include a thought-provoking question, a relatable story, a visually appealing image, a timely meme, or a behind-the-scenes look, depending on your platform and target demographic."

Without further ado, the post that earns my recognition as the best social media post of the month from March 2025 was shared on March 2nd 2025, by the restaurant known for its Bloomin' Onion appetizer, Outback Steakhouse. On that day, the 97th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California (my hometown).

The post featured the trophy emoji followed by the words, "And the award for Best Steak in a Leading Role goes to...our Victoria's Barrel Cut Filet Mignon." The emojis for a steak and applause were also included.

This post was memorable because it combined one of its products with timely content. Since the Oscars were the topic of the day, the post was a humorous way to align with the Oscars. Brands that can align their products or services to an event that everyone is talking about have the potential to be memorable.

What brand do you think will stand out during April, and why?


Image Credit: Outback Steakhouse via Twitter/X.

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

How Will Your Brand Celebrate April Fools' Day?


One of the most important lessons for brand marketers is, "Don't make your customers feel like fools," however, that lesson may not apply on April Fools' Day. Customers and fans like a good joke and enjoy creativity when it comes to brand storytelling and brand marketing.

Here are five stand-out April Fools' Day campaigns since 2010:

OREO

In 2024, cookie brand Oreo posted the following message on Twitter/X:

"After time and consideration, we have made the decision to separate the cookie and the creme duo that you all know to be as OREO cookies. There are no secrets or anyone to blame, we are just two best friends who met at a very young age and have grown over the past 112 years in our own ways. We appreciate your continuous support as we enter this new chapter, separately."

On Instagram, @just_the_creme described itself as: "Better off alone."

On Instagram, @just_the_wafer described itself as: "This cookie won't crumble."

A follow-up post explained: "Just the Creme and Just the Wafer hit shelves 4/31."

However, April has only 30 days. So, if you had not realized that this content was an April Fools' Day joke, that final post provided the gotcha!

TIFFANY & CO.

In 2021, global jewelry company Tiffany & Co. changed its iconic blue color to yellow. The company announced the change on Instagram with a new hashtag #TiffanyYellow, but many followers were quick to point out a key detail: the announcement was made on April First, aka, April Fools' Day.

VOLKSWAGEN

In 2021, automaker Volkswagen announced that it had a new name for its American division: "Voltswagen" of America with the goal to raise awareness about the company's all-electric SUV model. It turned out that the announcement was part of an elaborate April Fools' Day joke - and even The Wall Street Journal reported the prank.

BMW

In 2019, automaker BMW announced "Lunar Paint," a car paint that could charge electric vehicles by moonlight. According to the company, "Lunar Paint uses revolutionary photovoltaic technology to passively recharge your battery in the hours of darkness." The brand later thanked its fans with this message: "We hope you enjoyed this year's April Fools' Day. Whilst Lunar Paint may not be of this world yet, BMW does have an innovative range of existing technologies for you to discover - including solar and digital."

GOOGLE

In 2010, when people visited the Google homepage to conduct a search, they didn't see the familiar Google logo and search box. Instead, Google was replaced with the word Topeka. So instead of saying "Google it" when wanting to find an answer that day, users were forced to say "Topeka it." The Kansas capital city unofficially changed its name to Google as part of an effort to convince the search engine giant to select it as a test site for its planned super-fast, fiber-optic network.

And lastly, did any other brands stand out last year besides Oreo? According to USA Today, "Every April 1st, brands and companies want to get some laughs - and attention - with goofy new product launches." Here were some from 2024:

* Healthy soda brand OLIPOP and Pringles jointly announced a "Sour Cream and Onion Soda."

* The Dole Banana Peel Sleeping Bag was promoted as only available on April Fools' Day.

* Scotch Whisky was promoted by none other than Scotch Brand, the tape brand. The whisky was described as "featuring a nose of cherry wood and a delightfully smooth finish that hits like a well-wrapped gift."

* Dunkin' announced that it was returning to its roots on April 1st and would be rebranding to just "Donuts." According to a press release, "It's April 1, which means it's time for some spring cleaning, and we're not joking around! Out with the old and in with the new, as they say. Today, April 1, 2024, we are proud to announce that we are changing our name to DONUTS'. A few years ago, we moved to a first name basis with America and dropped "Donuts" from our name, but now we've changed our minds. DONUTS' sounds way better than Dunkin' - don't you think?"

* Auntie Anne's pretzels and Frontier Airlines collaborated on the newest addition to Frontier's fleet: the Pretzel Plane offering pretzels rolled seat-side as well as airplane-shaped pretzels.

Will your brand celebrate April Fools' Day with a clever and memorable joke?


Image Credits: USA Today.

Monday, March 31, 2025

SPRING LEADERSHIP SERIES 2025 – Featuring Eric Jacobson


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)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2025/01/top-10-new-years-resolutions-for.html

"Top 10" New Year's Resolutions for Leaders (January 2024)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/01/top-10-new-years-resolutions-for-leaders.html


Read Eric's previous appearances here on my blog:

HOLIDAY LEADERSHIP SERIES – Featuring Eric Jacobson (November 2024)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/11/holiday-leadership-series-featuring_0821075952.html


OLYMPICS LEADERSHIP SERIES – Featuring Eric Jacobson (July 2024)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/07/olympics-leadership-series-featuring.html


FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Eric Jacobson (September 2023)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2023/09/fall-back-to-reading-series-featuring.html


Let's Celebrate #NationalLeadershipDay! (February 2023)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2023/02/lets-celebrate-nationalleadershipday.html


How Leadership Crafts the #EmployeeExperience (May 2018)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2018/05/how-leadership-crafts-employeeexperience.html


Leadership Doesn't Have to Be Hard (May 2016)

http://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2016/05/leadership-doesnt-have-to-be-hard.html


The Importance of Mentorships (March 2013)

http://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2013/03/the-importance-of-mentorships.html


The Importance of Training, Customer Connections, and Leadership (March 2011)

http://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2011/03/importance-of-training-customer.html


Sunday, March 30, 2025

Marketing News of the Month: Brand Names, Personal Brands, Equality, and More


During the month of March, there were news stories that reflected brand identity, brand reputation, brand storytelling, co-branding, gender bias, product packaging, product pricing, personal branding, and more.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC ANNIVERSARY

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic, which led to stay at-home orders and shutdowns across the United States and the world.

According to ABC News, “As of March 6, 2025, at least 1,222,603 Americans have died of COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. has the highest number of deaths of any country in the world, according to the WHO, but experts believe the true death toll is higher.”

According to Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, “We know this emerged in China, around the city Wuhan. We know when [the] medical community identified it, but we don't know quite how long it was circulating before then.”

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES AND LUGGAGE

Announced in mid-March, for the first time in the nearly 60-years of Southwest Airlines existence, no more “Bags Fly Free.” The airline needs a new tagline and good public relations to deal with upset customers. Starting with flights booked on or after May 28, Southwest will begin charging for checked bags with some exceptions. The new policy aligns Southwest with other major airlines that already charge for checked baggage.

EQUAL PAY DAY

According to CNBC, “March 25 was Equal Pay Day, marking how many days the median woman would need to work into 2025 to earn what the median man earned in 2024. This day was designed to draw the public’s attention to the discrepancy in pay between men and women in the United States. It has been recognized annually since 1996. According to the most recent median income data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the national gender pay gap stood at approximately 84 percent in 2024. Said differently, for each dollar men earned, women earned $0.16 less.”

According to the World Economic Forum, “It could take roughly five generations to close the pay gap worldwide. Based on current data, it will take 134 years to reach full parity. In the Northern America region, despite equality in educational attainment, there are still wide disparities in earned income and women’s representation in senior leadership positions.”


SHARE THIS: Equal pay isn’t just about fairness – it’s about building a stronger economy, supporting working families, and ensuring that TALENT, not gender, determines success. ~Frederique Irwin, President/CEO of National Women’s History Museum #SheIsNotAFootnote #DebbieLaskeysBlog


SHARE THIS: Girls and women are told they can be anything. But when they look at the workforce, education, government, and healthcare system, they see a world where women are still the exception – not the norm. Underrepresentation isn’t a coincidence. It’s a system failure. ~The Young Women and Girls’ Aspiration Report via @WomensHistory #NWHM #DebbieLaskeysBlog


POWER OF PERSONAL BRANDS – PART ONE

Is Tesla CEO Elon Musk damaging his brand? Musk has closely attached himself to President Trump, which has resulted in protests and acts of vandalism. Signs featuring the message, “Unplug Musk” can be seen in cities across the United States.

According to crisis management expert Eric Dezenhall, founder of Dezenhall Resources, "It's almost impossible to be a politically divisive figure while running a consumer brand. X/Twitter is one thing: You could make the argument that its purpose is political, and if you can build a consumer base on that, fine. But Tesla is something different. It's a consumer product that was marketed as an alternative to fossil fuel-burning cars. This was appealing to progressives and even some conservatives. It's lost its status as a progressive "badge" product.

A lot depends on two things: Does Musk stay in his DOGE position? If so, it will be hard to build Tesla back unless the product itself is so much more extraordinary than competitors — which it once was. If he leaves DOGE and gets back to what made him, the public can forget the recent unpleasantness over time. If he stays with DOGE and keeps the slash-and-burn at this pace, it will be hard to balance both.

My advice is simple: The aim of crisis management is to stop an attack, not improve an image. First, get back to business. Leave politics to somebody else. This isn't your thing. But that advice doesn't matter because he's at the center of global discourse.”

POWER OF PERSONAL BRANDS – PART TWO

While the gist of this article by Politico may seem crazy, how many people actually thought Trump would run and win the presidency on January 20, 2021 (the day Biden was inaugurated)?

Representative Brandon Gill of Texas and other legislators have introduced Congressional bills to show their support for Trump. These include: designate Trump’s birthday as a federal holiday (June 14), rename Washington, D.C.’s Dulles airport in Trump’s honor, carve Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore, and create a new $250 bill with Trump’s likeness.

According to Politico, “The multi-front effort to memorialize a president who is still alive, let alone still living in the White House, has no precedent in congressional history. While none of the bills are expected to become law, it underscores the lengths that some House Republicans are willing to go to curry favor with Trump. Some scholars of American history, however, view these bills through a darker lens. Some of the bills honoring Trump present practical difficulties. The National Park Service has said there is no suitable rock left to carve on Mount Rushmore, and putting Trump’s image on money would require repealing an 1866 law prohibiting the printing of a living person’s image on American currency.”

Princeton University Professor Sean Wilentz called it an effort “to transform a sitting president into a kind of deified figure,” something, he said, George Washington himself feared, “This is exactly what the American Revolution was fought to prevent.”

TRUMP’S TARIFFS ON NEW CARS

According to NPR, “President Trump [announced his decision on March 26] to impose 25 percent tariffs on imported cars and car parts starting [the following week], using his national security powers to take the action. The latest policy is yet another example of the president's tariff-centric second-term economic agenda. Thus far, Trump has imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, steel and aluminum, and some goods from Canada and Mexico. According to Commerce Department data, Mexico is by far the largest exporter of auto parts to the U.S., followed by Canada, China, Japan, and South Korea. The list of the biggest vehicle exporters is similar: Mexico far outstrips other countries, followed by Japan, South Korea, Canada, and Germany.”

How will this decision impact new automobile purchases? And how will it affect auto advertising?

PRICING AND WOMEN’S CLOTHING

Did you know that tariffs on imported clothing can have a gender bias? According to 19th News, “A bill from two Democratic representatives would investigate the ‘pink tariff,’ which encompasses the higher tax rates on imported items classified as women’s goods…Incoming clothing is classified by gender through government textile codes, and the tariffs on them aren’t always equal. Importers would pay an 8.5 percent tax rate for a men’s anorak, for example, while a woman’s coat in the same category is taxed at 14 percent. Even clothing that would eventually be labeled as “unisex” in stores is automatically tariffed as though it were women’s garments, per the government code, bearing those same, often-higher rates.”

According to Representative Lizzie Fletcher of Texas, “As President Trump has imposed tariffs and started a trade war with our trading partners, it is even more important that we understand how higher tariffs will raise costs for everyone, and women in particular.”

MESSAGE BEHIND ZELENSKYY’S CLOTHING

At a recent meeting at the White House between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, there was a kerfuffle about Zelenskyy’s clothing.

According to Politico, "The last time Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wore a suit was early on February 24, 2022, when he posted a video announcing martial law as Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Since then, Zelenskyy has largely sported combat-style black, gray or khaki cargo pants, boots, sweatshirts and polos decorated with Ukrainian national symbols. That leaves him strikingly underdressed compared to his peers. Yet that’s the point.”

Elvira Gasanova, designer of the Damirli brand that is one of Zelenskyy’s signature looks, explained, "When world leaders see Zelenskyy in military style, it is a signal: Ukraine is at war and I am part of this fight. A persistent call to return to the suit is a de facto demand to return to the usual format of political dialogue, which means enough of war, sit down at the negotiating table. During war, the president is not just a politician, but the supreme commander of the army and civilians under martial law. The classic suit would be perceived as a detachment from the reality of the front, and his clothes help him to keep the world’s attention on the war in Ukraine.”

Zoya Zvynyatskivska, a Ukrainian fashion critic and historian, explained that criticizing clothing is often more about fashion, “Manipulating dress requirements is an act of domination. Trump is a political bully, who does not disdain any opportunity to humiliate his opponent, to show him his place in the hierarchy. To paraphrase Churchill, if our man put on a tie to avoid public humiliation, he would receive the same humiliation — but in a tie.”

TRAVEL ADVISORIES TO THE UNITED STATES

According to NPR, “Some European countries, as well as Canada, are warning their citizens who travel to the United States to strictly follow the country's entry rules or risk detention as the Trump administration cracks down on immigration enforcement. Ireland, The Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, and Canada have updated their travel guidelines after some travelers from those nations encountered detention by immigration officials. The heightened advisories come after citizens from European countries have been detained and deported by immigration officials while traveling to the United States. Some of the warnings also note that the State Department has suspended its policy allowing transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people to update the sex field on their passports – eliminating the X marker as an option… It's currently unclear how or if the travel warnings will have an impact on the economy. However, economists had previously warned that tariffs imposed by Trump, including on the European Union, could strain international relations and increase costs.”

What happened to welcoming visitors to the United States?

DEI VS. THE US MILITARY & THE US GOVERNMENT

According to NPR, "From 2005 to 2023, the number of women serving active-duty roles in the U.S. military rose by 12 percent, while the number of men fell by more than 10 percent, according to Pentagon data. A third of active-duty enlisted service members came from racial minority groups in 2023 – a higher percentage than in 2010. Those figures from the Department of Defense's most recent demographics report help explain why military experts who spoke with NPR are concerned that the Trump administration's orders to root out digital content "promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" could undermine military recruiters' ability to connect with potential service members from important demographics.”

"There's a strategic reason why you have a website about [Medal of Honor recipient Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers] or a website about the Navajo Code Talkers," explained Wayne Lee, a former Army officer who is a history professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "It's because we continue to want to recruit from populations who identify with those people and who see them as their ancestors and who want to emulate their service."

Continuing from NPR, "The Pentagon says its goal is to cull material related to diversity and cultural awareness, under orders from President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But the removal of webpages about American role models – from Jackie Robinson's military service to female pilots who have flown the B-2 stealth bomber – triggered outrage and suspicion. Some of those pages have been restored, with a Pentagon official telling NPR that the military's review of images, stories, and social media posts has been too hasty. Earlier, the U.S. Air Force said its basic training curriculum would once again include lessons about the Tuskegee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP."

According to NPR, "Arlington National Cemetery has begun wiping from its website histories highlighting Black, Hispanic, and women veterans. The change is in line with President Trump's directive to remove references to and support for diversity, equity and inclusion from the federal government. A U.S. official not authorized to talk to media told NPR the removal of links and sections about these groups have been dubbed a "digital content refresh" by top Pentagon officials. The story was first reported by Civil War historian Kevin M. Levin on his Substack newsletter and by Task & Purpose, a publication focused on military news. Articles, photos, and videos that are seen as promoting DEI will be removed under the new approach. Additionally, the Pentagon has marked thousands of photos representing diverse veterans to be removed from its website, according to the Associated Press. For example, Gen. Colin Powell was the first Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was the first corps comprised only of Black women to work overseas during World War II. Their stories are no longer prominent on the website but can still be found using the search function."

According to ESPN, "On March 19, the Department of Defense restored a story on its website highlighting Jackie Robinson's military service after deleting it as part of President Trump's efforts to purge references to diversity, equity and inclusion through a "digital content refresh." While it does not make any references to DEI, the story on Robinson was among a swath scrubbed from government websites in recent days. Before the story on Robinson's service was restored, the URL had redirected to one that added the letters “DEI” in front of “sports-heroes.”

KIRSTY COVENTRY’S NEW ROLE

On March 20, in Costa Navarino, Greece, Kirsty Coventry, the 41-year-old Zimbabwe sports minister and two-time Olympic swimming gold medalist, was elected president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). She will become the first woman and first African to lead what many refer to as the largest international sporting event. According to the AP, “Coventry will formally replace her mentor Thomas Bach at a June 23 handover, officially Olympic Day, as the 10th IOC president in its 131-year history.”

Coventry, whose term will be from 2025-2033, said, “This is a signal that we are truly global. I have been dealing with, let’s say, difficult men in high positions since I was 20 years old. What I have learned is that communication will be key.”

MARIAH CAREY’S GOOD NEWS

Mariah Carey had been battling over her hit Christmas song, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” after songwriters accused her of stealing the lyrics from their song in a complaint first filed in 2023. However, U.S. District Judge Monica Almadani ruled on March 19 that music experts could not prove enough objective similarity between the two songs through what's called an extrinsic test. So, Judge Almadani granted Carey’s request for summary judgment without the need to go to trial agreeing with the defense's claims that the 1994 song uses common tropes associated with Christmas songs that existed prior to 1989.

And how many of us associate the Christmas season with Mariah Carey and her song?

DEATH OF GEORGE FOREMAN

George Foreman passed away on March 21 at the age of 76. He won an Olympic gold medal in 1968, was a two-time heavyweight champion, and Hall of Fame boxer. Famous fights were against Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and he also served as a boxing analyst. Then, in 1994, he launched his “George Foreman Grill,” which went on to sell more than 100 million units worldwide, thanks in part to his memorable catchphrase, the “Lean Mean Grilling Machine.” In 1999, he sold the commercial rights to the George Foreman Grill for $138 million, more than he earned in boxing.

AMAZON AND LEBRON JAMES

According to the Hollywood Reporter, “Amazon has struck a multiyear deal for the LeBron James digital series, Mind the Game, which will be distributed across several Amazon properties. As part of the deal, Amazon’s Wondery will distribute Mind the Game across Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, Fire TV Channels and Echo devices, as well as on YouTube and wherever podcasts are available. In its second season, the series will see James host alongside new co-host NBA hall-of-famer Steve Nash. Wondery will also manage ad-sales representation for all audio and video episodes of the podcast, as well as back catalog content. Uninterrupted, which launched the show last year, will produce the series…This is Wondery’s latest big push into podcasting and sports media…Wondery CEO Jen Sargent called sports a “strategic priority of Wondery’s and Amazon’s,” and emphasized the company’s 360-degree approach to acquiring series, including moving involving Amazon and moving into video, merchandise, live events, and more.”

NEW ROLE FOR DONATELLA VERSACE

Shared in a company press release, “Capri Holdings Limited, a global fashion luxury group, and Versace announce that Chief Creative Officer Donatella Versace will assume the role of Chief Brand Ambassador effective April 1. In her new role as Chief Brand Ambassador, Ms. Versace will dedicate herself to the support of Versace’s philanthropic and charitable endeavors and will remain an advocate for the brand globally.”

Donatella Versace explained, “Championing the next generation of designers has always been important to me. I am thrilled that Dario Vitale will be joining us, and excited to see Versace through new eyes. I want to thank my incredible design team and all the employees at Versace that I have had the privilege of working with for over three decades. It has been the greatest honor of my life to carry on my brother Gianni’s legacy. He was the true genius, but I hope I have some of his spirit and tenacity. In my new role as Chief Brand Ambassador, I will remain Versace’s most passionate supporter. Versace is in my DNA and always in my heart.”

PUMA AND HELLO KITTY

Puma unveiled a Hello Kitty Collection of limited-edition sneakers to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the lovable Japanese cartoon character. This is the second time that Puma has collaborated with Hello Kitty on a sneaker line.

STARBUCKS AND VERMONT

There are over 17,000 Starbucks retail venues across the United States, but did you know that one state capital does not have a Starbucks? While there are 10 Starbucks in the state of Vermont, its capital, Montpelier, with a population of 8,000 in an area of 10-square miles, has none. The reason is that the city imposes a corporate business tax of 8.5 percent on any profits above $25,000. On a related note, there are no other chains within the city limits of Montpelier either: McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, KFC, Burger King, Arby’s, and Sonic. Montpelier residents take pride in their unique and independently owned coffee shops and restaurants.

PERSONAL BRANDS AND CO-BRANDING

If you could pair your personal brand with anyone else’s, who would you choose? According to CNBC, “Four-time National Basketball Association champion Stephen Curry is teaming up with former First Lady Michelle Obama to release a healthier sports drink option. On March 26, Curry and Obama announced the launch of Plezi Hydration, through Obama’s public benefit company, Plezi Nutrition. The drink adds to Curry’s growing portfolio of off-court ventures [and while the] sports drink market is a crowded space, Curry said the beverage’s focus on health and wellness makes it different. The drink touts no added sugar or artificial sweeteners, less sodium than leading rivals and a full daily dose of vitamin C.” This partnership aligns with Obama’s focus on healthy eating during her time as First Lady.

STORY FROM A META INSIDER

According to Vulture, “Sarah Wynn-Williams can’t do interviews. She can’t post on social media or go on tour or give a talk. Her family can’t speak on her behalf, and her friends are afraid to. None of this has affected the sales of her first book, a memoir of the six years she spent working for Facebook. Instead, it may have helped them: The moment that an arbitrator (requested by Meta) slapped Wynn-Williams with a gag order, banning her from promoting her memoir, Careless People, he handed her the kind of publicity no book party could match. Suddenly, Careless People wasn’t just another tech whistleblower book; it was the book that Mark Zuckerberg didn’t want you to read, and for many, that’s enough to recommend it. In the week following its release on March 11, Careless People hit the top of The New York Times best-seller list and sold 60,000 copies.”

NEW $20 BILL?

According to NPR, "A measure to replace President Andrew Jackson with abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill again became an issue in Congress. This the latest push to honor Tubman on the currency and remove Jackson, the country's seventh president and a slaveholder. It follows a decade-long effort of previous attempts, including through legislation that has stalled in Congress. The March announcement also coincides with Harriet Tubman Day, a holiday honoring the activist who led enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad. The new bill, called the "Harriet Tubman Tribute Act of 2025," calls for the Treasury secretary to include the abolitionist's face on all $20 bills printed after December 31, 2030. The proposed legislation also stipulates that the production of these bills cannot be delayed more than two years unless it is determined that issuing the bills after the designated date ‘would create an unacceptable risk of counterfeiting or to the safe, secure, and speedy functioning of the United States economy.’”

Ernestine "Tina" Martin Wyatt, Tubman's great-great-great-grandniece appreciates the renewed effort but is not confident it will occur under the Trump administration, given its rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. And not only has the endeavor been held up in Congress, it has also faced delays with the White House and Treasury Department. According to Wyatt, “That's what was on her mind all the time. Freedom, inclusiveness, justice, and equality. That's what democracy is. How are we going to make a better country without including people, without justice, without equality, without freedom, most of all and freedom?"

END OF 23ANDME

According to The New York Times, "23andMe, maker of popular DNA test kits, announced on March 23 that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is looking for a buyer. Although the company has promised to continue protecting customer data amidst a possible sale, California’s attorney general has advised 23andMe users to consider deleting their information. The company’s decision to declare bankruptcy was not a surprising one. After a 2023 data breach in which attackers gained access to information from close to 7 million customer profiles, 23andMe’s stock price plummeted, and the company settled a class-action lawsuit for $30 million."

According to PC Magazine, "Did you delete your DNA data on 23andMe? The company's website has seen a surge in users after it launched a bankruptcy proceeding intended to attract a buyer. Visits to 23andMe.com increased by 526 percent from Sunday to Monday (March 23-24), according to Similarweb, which tracks Internet traffic trends after 23andMe announced its bankruptcy. 23andMe.com received an estimated 1.5 million visits on Monday (March 24), an increase from 239,000 visits the day before, or what’s closer to a typical daily traffic flow."

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

According to NPR, “At the heart of a hearing on Capitol Hill on March 26, entitled "Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable," was the question of whether public broadcasting should receive federal funding. The subcommittee chairperson, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican from Georgia., has said she wants to cut all federal funds to public broadcasting.” In fact, she has gone so far as to call both NPR and PBS “communist.”

Let’s see how accurate this statement is: Elmo is a communist, Bert and Ernie are communists, and the Cookie Monster is a communist. Seriously?!


What other recent marketing buzz caught your attention? Since there’s always something happening that impacts marketing, read #DebbieLaskeysBlog for the scoop!


Image Credits: Puma/Hello Kitty, 23andMe, and Brian Kelly/Instagram.


Read Kirsty Coventry's Manifesto and Five Priorities as IOC President:

https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/International-Olympic-Committee/president-election/manifesto/COVENTRY-KIRSTY-manifesto-EN.pdf


Read or download a copy of The Young Women and Girls’ Aspiration Report from the National Women’s History Museum:

https://www.sheisnotafootnote.org/


Read The Global Gender Gap Report 2024 published by the World Economic Forum:

https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2024/digest/


Read the article about Jackie Robinson that disappeared and then re-appeared on the Department of Defense's website in mid-March:

https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/2490361/sports-heroes-who-served-baseball-great-jackie-robinson-was-wwii-soldier/


Read this post from Politico: 

Six times European leaders tried to make the power hoodie work (September 2024)

https://www.politico.eu/article/european-leaders-hoodies-fashion-politics-ramzan-kadyrov-rishi-sunak-donald-tusk-emmanuel-macron-volodymyr-zelenskyy/


Catch up with the marketing highlights from the first week of March:

Marketing News of the Week: Betty, Jane, Oscar, and More (March 6, 2025):

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2025/03/marketing-news-of-week-betty-jane-oscar.html


Monday, March 24, 2025

SPRING LEADERSHIP SERIES 2025 – Featuring Erika Andersen


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 12 times since 2011 - today marks her 13th appearance! 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 Erika Andersen. She is the founding partner of Proteus, where she and her colleagues support leaders at all levels to get ready and stay ready to meet the future. Erika advises senior executives and also shares her insights through her books, speaking engagements, and social media. In addition to her latest book, Change from the Inside Out, she is the author of four previous best-selling books: Be Bad First, Leading So People Will Follow, Being Strategic, and Growing Great Employees. Erika is also a popular leadership blogger at Forbes.com, and the creator and host of the Proteus Leader Show podcast.

QUESTION: You wrote an article for Forbes entitled, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders," and compared gardening to management and leadership. What was the background for the article, and how would you update it today?

ERIKA ANDERSEN: I started using gardening as a metaphor for people management many years ago – primarily for the reason I cite in the article, which is that just as gardeners can't "make plants grow," managers can't "make their people grow." In management, as in gardening, all you can do is choose a plant/person that's a good fit for your garden/team/organization, and provide the circumstances that are most likely to support their growth.

Because I found it such a useful and accurate metaphor, I also used it throughout my first book, Growing Great Employees, the "frame story" of which is my helping a friend learn to be a better gardener...and where, after a few garden-based paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter, I offer and teach a metaphorically related skill. Some of those metaphors showed up in this article, as well: listening as preparing the soil and giving corrective feedback as pruning.

I have to say, after not having re-read this article for a number of years, I wouldn't really change anything! I still find that we humans tend to get new energy and want to start new efforts and enterprises in the springtime – and I still think that gardening provides great metaphors for people management.

SHARE THIS: Gardening provides great metaphors for people management. ~@ErikaAndersen #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 #DebbieLaskeysBlog

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

ERIKA ANDERSEN: I read a wonderful article recently (in Letters from an American, by Heather Cox Richardson) that quoted Angus King, the independent senator from Maine, giving a speech in the senate chambers, pushing back against the unconstitutional actions of the current president and his unelected followers. I found it valiant, true and inspiring.

Here's the final paragraph:

"At a prior time of crisis, Abraham Lincoln defined the stakes for each of us, 'Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress, and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. Now is the time to establish a redline — the Constitution itself.'"

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

ERIKA ANDERSEN: Over decades of working with many senior teams, primarily in the US, I found that, quite often, the ones that had the hardest time collaborating and working together were those where there was little or no personal connection – or those where some of the members were connected and others weren't.

So it became a habit for me, when I was working with a team – especially one that was newly-formed, or had many new members, or where some people knew each other and others did not – to encourage the boss to schedule a dinner together, and very specifically to have dinner in a place that was quiet enough for them to converse, and at a table big enough for everyone to sit together.

When the team was all together, I'd start by saying some version of "The purpose of this meal is to have great food and get to know each other outside of work. So, I'd encourage you to strike up a conversation with at least one teammate that you don't know well." Then, partway through the meal (usually either between the appetizers and the main course, or after the main course), I'd have everyone get up and move to a new seat – and ask them to, if they could, sit next to someone new to them.

These dinners often happened the evening between a two-day session, and the group would invariably have a higher degree of comfort and interaction the following day – more laughter, more listening to each other, usually easier resolution of disagreements.

I think – especially now that so many more of our professional interactions are virtual than previously – it's all too easy to over-balance toward task and transaction, and forget that we human beings are, at heart, tribal and relational. I've found this is true even of people who are introverts or who don't place a lot of value on relationships; we've spent a hundred thousand years learning to build relationships so that we could live well together, and no matter who we are, it's core to how we operate.

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

ERIKA ANDERSEN: It's a book called Nosotros, Los Rivero. It was written by a woman named Dolores Medio, an unknown writer at the time who rocketed into literary renown in 1952 when this book won the Premio Nadal, the preeminent Spanish literary prize. It's primarily autobiographical, based on her life growing up in Oviedo (the city where we live in Spain) in the 1920's.

To be accurate, it's on my "being read" pile. I take it out and read a few pages at a time, both because the writing is more complex and layered than other things I'm reading in Spanish, so it goes more slowly, but also because it's so rich with history and meaning that I like to pause and reflect on what I've read.

I'm reading it for lots of reasons: to better understand Oviedo and its history (I'm, quite frankly, in love with this city); to improve my Spanish; because I want to read important Spanish authors in their native language to better understand the culture and mindset of our adopted land; and because it's lovely.

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

ERIKA ANDERSEN: We've been watching a really good show on Apple TV called Silo – we just finished the second season, and now I'm sad that we're going to have to wait who knows how long for the third! The show has great leaders, mediocre leaders, and truly awful leaders, and all the depictions are both entertaining and deep.

The main character – a woman named Juliette Nichols, played by actress Rebecca Ferguson – is a wonderfully complex character who is shoved (by circumstances way beyond her control) into various positions of leadership. Her most abiding characteristic is that she is unable to turn away from difficult challenges that she is capable of addressing – and where she may be the only person who has that capability.

That kind of moral courage is in short supply and is a key component, in my mind, of good leadership. I was coaching a CEO once who used to avoid doing necessary but uncomfortable things by distracting himself with things he liked doing or fancied himself good at – but that others could do. I told him I thought that good leaders – and especially good CEO's – "Only do what only they can do." That seems to be Juliette Nichols' credo in Silo. Check it out.

My gratitude to Erika for sharing her 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: Pixabay via Wordswag.

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

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


Read the entire article Erika referenced in her response to my second question:

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-7-2024-144


Learn more about Dolores Medio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Medio


And good news for Erika, Apple TV+ renewed "Silo" for seasons three and four:

https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2024/12/apple-tv-renews-hit-world-building-drama-silo-for-seasons-three-and-four/



Read Erika's previous appearances here on my blog:

HOLIDAY LEADERSHIP SERIES – Featuring Erika Andersen (November 2024)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/11/holiday-leadership-series-featuring.html


Let's Celebrate #WomensEqualityDay with Erika Andersen! (August 2024)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/08/lets-celebrate-womensequalityday-with.html


Inspiring Tips to Celebrate #NationalLeadershipDay! (February 2024)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/02/inspiring-tips-to-celebrate.html


FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Erika Andersen (October 2023)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2023/10/fall-back-to-reading-series-featuring_01710409622.html


How Magic and Happiness Impact Leadership (April 2023)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2023/04/how-magic-and-happiness-impact.html


Tips to Become “Change-Capable (May 2022)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2022/05/tips-to-become-change-capable.html


Three Leadership Secrets: Build Consensus, Be Open to Challengers, and Delegate (May 2021)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2021/05/3-leadership-secrets-build-consensus-be.html


Review of: Leading So People Will Follow by Erika Andersen (October 2019)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2019/10/fall-back-to-reading-with-12-thought.html


Leadership + Strategy = Amazing Employee Experience (November 2018)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2018/11/leadership-strategy-amazing-employee.html


Review of: Be Bad First by Erika Andersen (October 2018)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2018/10/fall-reading-recap-leadership-branding.html


Are You the Type of Manager or Leader YOU Would Follow? (January 2014)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2014/01/are-you-type-of-manager-or-leader-you.html


Want to be Nicknamed Strategy Guru? (July 2011)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2011/07/want-to-be-nicknamed-strategy-guru.html


Connect with Erika at these links:

Website: https://erikaandersen.com

Website: https://www.proteus-international.com

Books: https://erikaandersen.com/books


Thursday, March 20, 2025

Introducing the #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 on #DebbieLaskeysBlog


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 related to team-building, reading, and leadership. 

My #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 begins today, the first day of Spring, with my series introduction post sharing my responses to the series questions. Then, the series will appear on my blog the next two Mondays during March on March 24th and 31st. It will then continue on my blog each Monday and Friday during April, May, and June with the series recap scheduled for 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 12 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."

And now, to introduce this year's series, MY responses follow below.

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

DEBBIE LASKEY: As leadership expert Erika Andersen wrote, "After a few seasons, I finally figured out that you can't actually make a plant grow. You can prepare the soil, buy the right plant for the space, create the optimum conditions for it to thrive – and then see what happens. As a manager, I came to the analogous conclusion: nothing I did would make employees grow. It became clear to me that, as in gardening, I could only establish a good environment, get the right "plant" for the workplace and the job, and create the optimum conditions for him or her to thrive."

As a supervisor, I have always provided the training, resources, feedback, and open-door policy for my team members. However, to my dismay, those elements are not always welcomed. Despite being reminded several times about a deadline, one employee once told me that she had not finished her project because she thought the deadline was a "suggestion." Therefore, I agree with Erika that sometimes, creating the best environment and providing the tools to do a job simply don't yield the thriving result that everyone wants, because as Erika wrote, "Even the best managers have employees who don’t work out."

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

DEBBIE LASKEY: There are two recent examples: The legacy of President Jimmy Carter and the election of Claudia Sheinbaum as Mexico's first female president last October.

Former President Jimmy Carter passed away on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100. Born in 1924, James Earl Carter Jr. was an American politician and humanitarian who served from 1977 to 1981 as the 39th President of the United States. 

According to President Joe Biden, "President Carter was an extraordinary leader, statesman, and humanitarian. Over six decades, we had the honor of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend. But what's extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well. With Carter's compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us. He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe."

Habitat for Humanity will forever be linked to Carter, because since 1984, the Carter Work Project took the former first couple across the United States and around the world to 14 countries, where he (and wife Rosalyn) helped to build, renovate, or repair more than 4,300 houses alongside more than 100,000 volunteers.

Carter's funeral took place on January 9, 2025. As President Biden said in his eulogy, "Throughout his life, Jimmy Carter showed us what it means to be a practitioner of good works, a good and faithful servant of God and of the people. Today, many think he was from a bygone era. But in reality, he saw well into the future. A white Southern Baptist who led civil rights. A decorated Navy veteran who brokered peace. A brilliant nuclear engineer who led nuclear proliferation. A hard-working farmer who championed conservation and clean energy. The president who redefined a relationship with the vice president. And as you know, Jimmy Carter also established a model of post-presidency by making a powerful difference as a private citizen in America, and I might add, as you all know, around the world. Through it all, (he showed us how) to make every minute of our time here on Earth count...To young people, to anyone, in search of meaning and purpose, study the power of Jimmy Carter's example."

In October 2024, Claudia Sheinbaum was elected and took office as Mexico's first female president in the nation's more than 200 years of independence. Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory to become the country's first female president and the country's first Jewish head of state. According to Reuters, "Victory for Sheinbaum is a major step for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture and home to the world's second largest Roman Catholic population, which for years pushed more traditional values and roles for women. (Let's not forget, women have only voted in Mexico since 1953.) Sheinbaum has a complicated path ahead. She must balance promises to increase popular welfare policies while inheriting a hefty budget and low economic growth...And among the new President's challenges will be tense negotiations with the United States over the huge flows of US-bound migrants crossing Mexico and security cooperation over drug trafficking at a time when the US fentanyl epidemic rages."

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

DEBBIE LASKEY: Volunteering as a group for a nonprofit is my favorite team-building activity because it is a win-win: employees learn how to work together in an out-of-the-office environment, and a non-profit gets much-needed volunteers - and possibly donors. Examples include building a house, cleaning up a park or beach, planting trees at a community garden, reading books to children at a local library or school, cooking meals at a senior/memory care facility, serving meals at a homeless shelter, leading job skill workshops at a domestic violence shelter, assembling care packages for members of the military, volunteering time at an animal shelter, etc.

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

DEBBIE LASKEY: During the last year, I read and enjoyed ALL THE SINNERS BLEED and RAZORBLADE TEARS by S.A. Cosby. The writing style, the use of language, the plots, and the characters were engaging and thought-provoking. So I decided that I also want to read his book BLACKTOP WASTELAND. It's marketed as a book about racial tension, crime, and family; and according to NPR, "Blacktop Wasteland is the kind of book that should be part of every conversation about why we need diverse books...Call shotgun, buckle up, and take a dangerous ride with Cosby, but keep the radio down because he has something to tell you."

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

DEBBIE LASKEY: My film choice is WICKED, and my TV show choice is THE DIPLOMAT. 

According to Variety, "Universal's adaptation of Act One of the popular Broadway musical was number one in North America with $114 million from 3,888 theaters over its first weekend...Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu and starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, landed in theaters after more than a decade in development and a promotional push (including 400 brand partnerships) that rivaled the ubiquity of Barbie. Universal needed the song-and-dance film to strike a chord with moviegoers because Wicked: Part Two, which chronicles the musical's second act, arrives on the big screen in November 2025. The two films cost a combined $300 million to produce, not including the mega marketing budget."

Two leadership lessons stood out from the film:

LEADERSHIP LESSON #1: BEWARE OF TITLES

Madame Morrible, the head teacher at Shiz University, called Elphaba "The Wicked Witch," but at the time, that statement was not true. Since titles are not always accurate depictions of people, one does not need a title to be a leader.

LEADERSHIP LESSON #2: BE DIFFERENT

Elphaba knows she's green and different, and she happily tells people, "I'm not afraid to be different." This demonstrated the importance of being genuine, of being one's true self. As a leader, do not duplicate the actions of other people because your followers will see right through you.

SHARE THIS: A leadership lesson from WICKED was "beware of titles." Madame Morrible called Elphaba "The Wicked Witch," but at the time, that wasn't true. Since titles are not always accurate, one does not need a title to be a leader. ~@DebbieLaskeyMBA #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 #DebbieLaskeysBlog

THE DIPLOMAT stood out because a woman diplomat was propelled into the limelight.

Two leadership lessons stood out:

LEADERSHIP LESSON #1: LEARN FROM YOUR TEAM

Kate Wyler, the new US Ambassador to the UK, had to defuse an international crisis, forge strategic alliances, and adjust to her new place in the spotlight - while also managing her deteriorating marriage to fellow career diplomat Hal Wyler. She did not act as if she knew everything, but instead, asked the people around her for information so that she could quickly get up-to-speed and be successful.

LEADERSHIP LESSON #2: BUILD CONSENSUS

According to Google, "A successful diplomat strives to find common ground and compromise rather than forcing their own agenda, fostering collaboration and wider acceptance of decision." Kate Wyler was constantly in demand as the US Ambassador to build consensus between different governments and officials.

According to TVLine, "Netflix has not yet announced a release date for Season 3, but it is expected to pick up where the Season 2 cliffhanger left off, with Allison Janney's character — formerly the shady vice president — receiving the ultimate promotion following President Rayburn's fatal heart attack." I cannot wait!

Did these questions open your eyes to think about leadership in nontraditional ways? That was the hope!

Lastly, remember to mark your calendars and swing by #DebbieLaskeysBlog the final two Mondays in March (March 24th and March 31st) and then each Monday and Friday during April, May, and June. The #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 recap will appear on June 20th. Thank you for reading!


Image Credit: Lightsource via Depositphotos.


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/


Read last year's Introduction to My #SpringLeadershipSeries (March 2024)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/03/introducing-springleadershipseries-on.html


Read last year's Highlights of My #SpringLeadershipSeries (June 2024)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/06/highlights-of-my-springleadershipseries.html


Read "Leadership Legacy and Consensus" (October 2013)

https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2013/10/what-kind-of-leadership-legacy-are-you.html