We all choose. 

We choose to declare ourselves or not.  To fall in line or to step out of line. To put ourselves ‘out there’ or not.  To recognize and reinforce someone else’s effort and risk, or to maintain silence.  To support what we believe by what we do.  To seize and expand a moment created by another.  Great leaders (and great followers) maintain a vigilance about such choices.  

Once again, I had the chance to attend Cape May’s now semi-annual jazz festival.  This one proved smaller than many, and yet it still offered a wide range of high-quality music (can you say ‘Grammy-winning artists’?)… 

Jimmy Carter died.  You most likely heard.  Here’s a story about Jimmy Carter that I wager you haven’t heard.

I am a born and bred Nutmegger, longtime fan of UConn’s women’s team, and father of two high school, college, and beyond female athletes/sport captains…And, I have a story with only one source and a secondhand one at that, namely another father talking about his child, in this case about a son ‘playing with girls’, but it’s a good story. 

Great leaders evolve, both themselves and their leadership and they help those who choose to follow them to evolve as well, as people and as co-creators of leadership.

All of us will face moments of challenge and even crisis over the coming months. So many moments will seem small and yet they will prove definitional.