BridgeBuilding Strategies

10/02/2025

Congratulations Dr. Mittleman!

Welcome new member Dr. Rachal Mittleman, Authentic Physician Healthcare, a concierge-style comprehensive direct primary care physician office. The practice is designed to feel like “vintage, small-town doctor” care: more personal, more access, fewer of the hassles from insurance companies.
Located in Oxford at 51 S. Washington Street, Suite G
Phone: 248.940.1211
Web: https://authenticdpc.com/

09/22/2025

I promised you metrics this week. Instead, I’m sharing another example of leadership in our current business/employment environment. Sorry/not sorry.

Adaptability and resilience are key skills for both leaders and individual contributors….and all of us. There are very few work-related instances that these skills are more tested than a sudden separation. Even more so when…

-You’ve been highly successful in your core role
-You are recognized as THE authority in your area by the top tier of the company
-You’ve built culture in addition to your core role
-The separation comes in an email at 5:07 AM

I’m so excited to hear Adam Bernard share his experience, and how his adaptability and resilience have led him to new experiences. He is generously sharing his wisdom at this Thursday’s “”Chalk Talk” event with the Automotive Women’s Alliance Foundation. Please join if you would benefit from Adam’s wisdom on:

-Following your passion
-Preparing for uncertainty
-Re-defining your career path
-Embracing opportunity

Members may join for free. Non-members donate $10 to AWAF, and I’m happy to sponsor anyone who would like to join.

Next week, metrics to help document your leadership vision!

09/17/2025

“I wisely started with a map.” J. R. R. Tolkien

Most non-profit and small business leaders share a common goal – build, grow, improve. But to what end?

“Start with the end in mind” (Stephen Covey) by using a simple business lifecycle roadmap.

How long do you plan to be engaged in the enterprise? What will your desired exit look like? What must be true to get there? This is not intended to be a point estimate locked-in plan…merely a way to think about the broader picture.

More important is the conversation around personal financial goals…which needs to happen with a personal financial advisor or planner. For business owners hoping to sell or transfer ownership, a planner that has exit planning expertise is critical to bring the whole picture together.

After drawing the big picture, the steps to get there become a little clearer.

Read the book “Finish Big” for some thought-provoking takes on the topic.
Next week, I’ll share some thoughts on the key metrics to use in this work.

09/03/2025

I can see clearly now.

"When you have a clear vision of your goal, it's easier to take the first step toward it." LL Cool J

In working with dozens of business leaders in my consulting practice, in addition to my corporate experience, I’ve learned that the most effective leaders check these boxes.

They:
1. Know the desired outcome
2. Drive a shared vision through effective communication
3. Encourage alignment across the team
4. Hold people accountable for their part in achieving the desired outcome
5. Support their team members based on their needs

The first one sounds easy, and perhaps in the corporate world, it may be. For entrepreneurs and even more established business leaders, the flurry of the daily can cloud the vision of the future. And sometimes the love of the solution clouds the vision of the pain point they are hoping to solve.

They started their company after seeing a connection between their skills and passions and a need in the marketplace. As they start adding team members, they convey this mission through conversations, and sometimes external and internal materials. Often, when someone quits, or a client pivots, or a technology fails, they lose sight of the vision.

A business plan is certainly an important navigation tool. When the time isn’t right to start it or revise it, and you just need to re-orient yourself and your team, try a vision statement.

What are we doing? Aligns the team on the mission
Why now? Reminds everyone of recent changes or learnings that need to be addressed
How will we know we are successful? Most importantly, helps to define what good looks like.

This tool is relevant for both for-profit and non-profit organizations.

Thank you, Red Adair for the gift of the vision statement, and for your lifetime leading fire-fighting teams with lower than typical casualties.

Next week, I’ll share how a business lifecycle roadmap can add clarity to an organization’s goals and can avoid scope creep.

08/28/2025

I really appreciate the wisdom from Clay Phillips about managing a post-corporate career: “say yes” to new things. So, I “said yes” when asked to join this amazing panel. I look forward to reflecting on learnings I’ve generated over the last two years:
1. Know the desired outcome
2. Drive a shared vision through effective communication
3. Encourage alignment across the team
4. Hold people accountable for their part in achieving the desired outcome
5. Support their team members based on their needs

Looking forward to talking about questions like…
 What is strategic planning and why do I need it when I am just starting out?
 What is the most common piece of strategic planning advice you find yourself giving?
 How can practices that large corporations use help me as a small business owner?
 What is the most valuable outcome most business owners get when they work with you
 Is strategic planning different for nonprofits?

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08/20/2025

After a quick trip to current times, we are heading back a few centuries for examples of leadership through history and fictionalized accounts.

Elizabeth Tudor was real, and we have so many ways to learn about her.
She definitely knew the desired outcome: a United Britain, and perhaps most fundamentally…keeping her head and body united.

A child of a VERY broken home, she knew the dangers surrounding her. That is probably the basis of one of my favorite quotes illustrating tradeoffs: “I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married.”

She communicated her power and single-minded focus through clothing and statements about her role as a prince, the child of lion, and referred to England as her husband. She also participated powerfully in her council, and held them accountable by varying her leadership style to the moment – listening, guiding, cajoling, berating, and sometimes misleading her leadership team. She was also famous for deferring decisions to the optimal time such as the decision to execute her treasonous cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, for as long as possible, to avoid the precedent of regicide.

So after considering how three historical leaders and one amazing current one walk the talk, and in a world where we all know what culture eats for breakfast, how do we take action?

Stay tuned.

Note: I acknowledge that while Elizabeth Tudor was fascinating in many ways, she was also brutal to the Irish and citizens who opposed her.

08/14/2025

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
― Marcel Proust

This week, we will deviate from the review of past leadership examples to one from our time.

So grateful to have a quick check-in with Mike Gigiovanni at the GM Student Corps event. For those that don’t know, Mike helped to start the Student Corps to pair high school and college students with GM retirees to build the skills needed for a successful future.

Mike has been a transformational leader since well before we started using those terms so frequently. With his unique combination of analytically-driven vision, communication flair, and no-caffeine-needed-omigoshthisistoomuchfor8AM-energy, he created a space for many, many people to grow and achieve their best. He first did this while building a world-class market research operation at GM, then in building an iconic brand, and finally, in this current act, growing the next generation of leaders in our community.

Mike was one of a few, very excellent, very demanding set of people in my career who saw more potential in me than I saw in myself, and then held me accountable to achieve it. The training I received from him formed the core of my “brand.” Mike helped me to teach my MBA brain to go beyond the insights of “what” to the wisdom of “so what do we do about it?” Even when I moved to my next role – with his support and sponsorship – I wanted to make sure I lived up to his expectations.

I wish you all could have experienced the room full of current and future leaders that I was blessed to join last week as a guest. Perhaps one day I can report back to you as a participant in this program.

Mike, although I’m not sure you would have ever called yourself a charming gardener, you have helped so many of our souls to blossom! Thank you.
For anyone reading, please feel free to use the comments as a gratitude shout-out to an exceptional leader.

Next Wednesday, we will wrap up the historical leaders’ summer fiction stories with Elizabeth Tudor.

08/06/2025

Destiny is all

As part of some “light summer reading,” I’ll share some more leadership insights from another fictionalized real person. Uhtred of Bamburgh was a real person. He was ruler of the northern stronghold of Bamburgh/Bebbenburgh. We don’t know much more about him. Bernard Cornwell creates his character on paper and Alexander Dreymon portrays him on screen in “The Last Kingdom.”

What I love about Cornwell’s depiction is a leader who:
- Knows the desired outcome - he wants to retake his birthright after it he is usurped by his uncle. Although it takes him longer, he is more successful in his goal by taking the long view and fulfilling his commitment to help Alfred the Great hold his throne against raiding Danes (Vikings) to gain Alfred’s support to retake Bamburgh.
- Communicates clearly to the team for each mission
- Holds his team accountable through reciprocal personal loyalty
- Adjusts his strategy based on his team’s strength position– with direct battles when he has the forces, and acting as a sceadugengan *shadow walker” when he doesn’t.

His signature saying is “destiny is all…” but he forms his destiny intentionally.

If you need a great action-packed series to fuel your workouts, I highly recommend this audio or film series.

Alfred is also an interesting character – a ruler who sees the benefit of a united region in the southern part of modern Britain.

Next week, I’ll share some thoughts on Elizabeth Tudor, who fascinates the historical fiction world through the unlikely feat of holding onto royal power for 50 years.

08/05/2025

"I must ride with my knights to defend what was, and the dream of what could be. " Arthur Pendragon, Excalibur

To continue on some "summer reading" about leadership examples in film and literature, let's talk about Arthur. I’ve read a lot of the Arthurian stories, because there is a grain of truth in the legend set during the historical inflection points of the 6th Century: Briton/Roman/Saxon culture shifts, footsoldier to horse-backed troops and related weaponry changes, pagan to Christian religious shifts, tribal to regional allegiances.

The Antoine Fuqua “King Arthur” film of 20 years ago has always inspired me, and I watch it every year. Clive Owens’ Arthur:
· Had a vision (desired outcome) of a unified Britain, with Pelagian principles
· Was transparent and respectful with his team when communicating
· Held his team accountable through their final mission
· Led his team to adapt to changing circumstances
· Supported each team member in a way that made sense for them

What comes through the film is the loyalty between leader and team, and agility of the team to adapt to changing circumstances, including an unexpected alliance. All with the goal of unity. The dynamics contrast with the brutalism of Saxons Cerdic and Cynric.

I watch the film one time each year to remind myself that a leader exists for his/her team in order to accomplish a purpose. Not the other way around.

Warning: the battle scenes are tough. Also, yes, I recognize anachronism of the image.

Next I’ll share one of my favorite characters, Uhtred of Bamberg.

08/01/2025

So much history in one building!!!

06/27/2025

What a great opportunity for local business leaders to learn from each other!!!