What are Your Expectations of Leaders? (11/18/2025)

Happy Tuesday!

Today I’m writing about two things you may have taken for granted in the past – with very different futures. I’ll leave it at that and call it a tease. 😊

Before we get to those articles, I have an unrelated observation for you. Because of an early Christmas celebration with half of our family (December 6th!), and a busy schedule over the next few weeks, Lori and I have almost all our Christmas shopping done – and everything purchased is also wrapped. (When you do stockings for 17 people that is a pretty big deal.) Oh, and our tree is up, most of the inside decorations are up, and the lights outside are hung (though not turned on yet).

All by the middle of November.

Here is the observation. The actions described above made the putting up of lights and tress over the weekend seem far less “early” than it would have previously. The action of doing Christmas things (and perhaps with less urgency?) has me in the Christmas spirit before Thanksgiving. I even caught myself wondering yesterday why Walmart wasn’t playing Christmas music.

All of this is an example of how our actions influence our thinking. And it is just one of the messages of our Gratitude Challenge that began yesterday. It’s not too late to join us – I promise you haven’t missed too much that you can’t catch up – but you only have a couple more days to join us.

If you enjoy this issue – pass it on to someone or use the link below to encourage them to subscribe.

Make it a great Tuesday and remember …

You are Remarkable!

Kevin 😊

Change Lessons from the Penny

For 232 years, the U.S. Mint pumped out pennies, until last Wednesday, when the last penny was pressed.

The penny has been under attack for several years. There were economic reasons to stop production (when it cost 3.69 cents to create one, it does seem a bit upside-down), and the further proliferation of digital money (only 14% of transactions use cash) as forms of payment seems to mean less would be needed.

Did you know in fiscal year 2024, the last full year of production, the U.S. Mint produced 3.2 billion of them? (That in very rough numbers, is 1,000 for every American). And since the life span of a penny is considered thirty years, pennies are going to be around for a very long time.

But have you noticed how much the penny has been in the news in recent weeks?

President Trump announced on February 9th that penny production would end, and indeed the final pennies were minted November 12th – a ten-month window. Yet last week I heard news stories of retailers complaining they “didn’t have long enough to prepare for this transition.”

Retailers are already talking about not using pennies and rounding change back from purchases. People who haven’t thought about pennies for years are waxing poetic about them.

The penny story can serve as a reminder for us about some common and expected responses to change in your organization. Here are just a few:

• Even if many people see the logic in making a change, when the change comes, resistance arises.

• Nostalgia for the old (pre-change) way will surface.

• People will say they need more time to adapt to the change.

• Things people haven’t really thought much about now become top of mind – simply because they are changing.

And perhaps the biggest change lesson of all is this: that for any change, there will always be an emotional component to people’s response to the change.

What are Your Expectations of Leaders?

One of the most important inputs to the success of anyone in any role is to know what is expected of them. I have long spoken and written about the importance of expectations as both the descriptor of success and the foundation on which all types of coaching are based. While foundational, too many leaders aren’t setting expectations as clearly as they could. Perhaps part of the reason is that the expectations of leaders don’t include this important skill.

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