These items intrigued the BIG team this past week. Reflec, then lead BIG, think BIG, dream BIG and be BIG.

Embracing Failure (Bruce Lynn, Leadership and Management / Turning Adversity to Advantage)

Three insights for embracing failure + great quotes + reading resources = good post to bolster your confidence and courage to pick yourself up and try again instead of giving up.

The trouble with big companies… (Hugh MacLeod, Gapingvoid)

Many times less is more; and for people who have worked in super large corporations where you’re little more than a number, well, this cartoon is a blast.

The Power Paradox (Dacher Keltner, Greater Good)

“True power requires modesty and empathy, not force and coercion. But what people want from leaders—social intelligence—is what is damaged by the experience of power.” Dacher offers three myths of power to be overcome so we can promote a “different model of power, one rooted in social intelligence, responsibility, and cooperation.”

10 Mistakes Every Leader Should Make (and learn from) before They Die (Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership)

In this timeless post, Dan lists ten teachable moments for leaders who are willing to “take a risk – fall down – pick themselves up and dust themselves off – reflect on what they’ve learned – learn new skills and behaviors, and incorporate them into their leadership repertoire.”

The Myth of Potential (Mike Myatt, N2Growth)

If you considering, even a smidge, of resting on your “potential” - don’t, says Mike. “The cold hard truth is you’re not special because of your potential, you’re special because of your dogged pursuit of your potential, and you’re even more special when you achieve your potential.”

Thoughts on our “immunity to change” from Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey: “That ‘change makes us uncomfortable’ is now one of the most widely promoted, widely accepted, and under-considered half-truths around…. [I]t is not change by itself that makes us uncomfortable; it is not even change that involves taking on something very difficult. Rather, it is change that leaves us feeling defenseless before the dangers we ‘know’ to be present that causes us anxiety.”