How I Created a C.U.L.T.

In my 30-year career, I’ve been bewildered by some of the poor leaders I’ve encountered and worked under. There were a few bright spots, but by and large it was dismal. And following their example, I probably made some of the biggest mistakes of my career during my own time as a leader.

I could have done so much better.

By the time I was 21, I had been taught the US Army Leadership course three times. When I began my career in the ad world, I convinced myself it had zero relevance to my work as an advertising creative. That those skills simply had no place in a corporate or creative environment.

And yet, under the right circumstances, my training kicked in with remarkable effect. Because of that, I had some of the brightest and most rewarding moments of my entire career as a leader.

It worked because when you peel away the military’s battle-focused, command-and-control doctrine (the yelling and screaming part), what remains is an inspiring, fundamental framework for how and why leadership actually works.

Then, much later in life than I wish, I underwent a years-long mental health journey. During that time, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy most likely saved my life. That process taught me powerful tools for emotional awareness and distress tolerance, among other things. And some of those tools had a striking overlap with the stress management techniques I’d learned in Drill Sergeant training.

These two things came together with a very satisfying click.

Things snapped into focus for me. I remembered that leadership is deeper than a set of skills. It’s not a checklist of principles and virtues to copy. It is a way of being and of being who we are.

I realized that the emotional intelligence, understanding, and thought processes required to lead aren’t fixed traits you’re born with. They are skills anyone can learn.

Together, these concepts form a simple but solid foundation, one that allows someone to discover and become the leader only they can be. This isn’t every single thing a leader needs to know or do in every situation. But it is the bedrock. And when you build on it, it can help anyone become an incredible leader, capable of inspiring the best from everyone in their charge.

So over the last three years, I’ve designed it into a course.

It’s called the College of Unifying Leadership Techniques (C.U.L.T. for short).

My hope is that this knowledge changes how people think about leadership entirely. That it helps them discover what kind of leader they can be, and then becomes a leader who inspires everyone around them. And that they carry these ideas forward, passing them to the next generation of leaders, and the one after that. A chain reaction. A snowball that keeps growing.

And I would be honored to start that with you.