I have leadership and productivity on the mind today, which I’d say is a good mindset to be in, as I’ll be departing for PLANET’s Great Escape at Disneyland in the morning. If you’ll be there, give me a shout at mpalmieri@northcoastmedia.net. I’d love to hear what’s on your mind as the second month of 2014 wraps up (already!).

“David Foster Wallace on Leadership…”
Brain Pickings
“Leadership” is a much-discussed topic in business, but it’s hard to define concisely and there are many different meanings of the word. “Leadership” is a term my high school English teacher Ms. Merrill would describe as a “Louis Armstrong.” Referring to the legendary musician’s definition of jazz (“If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know”), Ms. Merrill reserved “Louis Armstrong” status for concepts that you can’t really explain. Things that just are. “Leadership” is that way for me. With that in mind, I read with great interest this Brain Pickings’ post about author David Foster Wallace’s definition of leadership. Here’s an excerpt: “…A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.” What do you think? What’s your definition of leader?

10 Things to Do Every Workday
Inc.
If you’re anything like me, a to-do list can be the bane of your existence or a boon to productivity. I thought this Inc. post’s point about having a daily checklist to ensure you’re doing many of the important things that get shoved aside was a good one. Use this list as a starting point to craft your own. I plan to do the same. And, if you keep your item No. 1 the same as O’Donnell’s (“Read something related to my industry,”) may I suggest you bookmark LandscapeManagement.net, subscribe to our print issues or enewsletters or follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+) to fulfill that duty?

Photo: Junior Libby/publicdomainpictures.net