Michael Erwin: Co-Author of "Lead Yourself First" & "Leadership is a Relationship"

Michael Erwin co-authors two books, Lead Yourself First, and Leadership is a Relationship.  He is a graduate of West Point and the founder of the veteran's organization, Team Red White, and Blue.  If that wasn’t enough, he is the president of The Positivity Project and the CEO of his company, the Character and Leadership Center.  Yes, I confirmed it, he is only one person.

In this episode, we cover a lot of ground, but I think it is important to note where it all started.  Michael is the child of two police officer parents, both of who worked for the Syracuse, New York, Police Department. His mother was the first female officer in the Department, and his dad was a detective.  He understands what it is like to grow up in a household where your name is purposely kept out of the phonebook, for those of you who remember what one of those is.

Lead Yourself First was co-authored with Raymond Kethledge.  The subtitle of the book, Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude, frames the important lessons that lie without this work.  They are timeless and will benefit all leaders in policing.  Stories from T.E. Lawrence, to Pope John Paul II, and Martin Luther King Jr., to Ulyses S. Grant and Dwight Eisenhower, and more, emphasis the importance of carving out time to think.  To sit in solitude.  

Of all fo the great examples provided in the book, the one that resonated the most with me might surprise you.  That is the story of Jane Goodall!  Why you ask?  Well, have you ever felt like, each day at work, you were walking into the jungle?  A place filled with unknown and exotic dangers and a thousand ways to might just kill you?  It  might not seem like a place to learn to “chill,” but that is what she did.  And, as a result of her courage and persistence, she changed the world.  

Listen in, learn the lesson of solitude, and enjoy!

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