Parker Houston

In an Over-Committed Culture, Margin Is Your Secret Weapon

by Parker Houston | May 22, 2025 | Self Leadership

“Overload is the disease of our time. Margin is the cure.” –Richard Swenson, M.D. Probably my favorite thing in the world to do is backpacking. For me, there is nothing...

Five Leadership Books Everyone Should Read (and a Few More)

by Parker Houston | May 15, 2025 | Personal Leadership

A while back, one of my mentors told gave me some important life advice, “you have to read what you want to become.” Life is short, and the books we choose to read with our...

The Superpower of Effective Delegation

by Parker Houston | May 8, 2025 | Productivity Best Practices

The Big Idea: Delegation is a superpower that helps great leaders get more done faster. Few leaders do it effectively. Today’s article will provide some best practices to...

Mudita: The Antidote To Envy

by Parker Houston | May 1, 2025 | Personal Leadership

“It is in the character of very few, to honor without envy, a friend who has prospered.” –Aeschylus There is a famous story about the Buddha which teaches an essential life...

Good Thinking Begins With a Growth Mindset

by Parker Houston | Apr 24, 2025 | Personal Leadership, The Science of Mindset

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.” –Henry Ford Regarding core principles of personal leadership, few things are more important than...

The Parable of the Lost Son—Wisdom for Every Parent

by Parker Houston | Apr 17, 2025 | Family Leadership

I recently stumbled across a beautiful song At the Table (YouTube link) by artist Josh Garrels, based on the parable of the lost son (also called the prodigal son). The song...

When Helping Hurts

by Parker Houston | Apr 10, 2025 | Family Leadership, Personal Leadership

“Give a person a fish and they eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and they eat for a lifetime.” –Lao Tzu A few years ago, I was getting my daughter ready for pre-school...

Want to Create the Best Possible Team? Do These Two Things

by Parker Houston | Apr 3, 2025 | Boost Your Organizational Health, Top Teams Made Simple

“Teams are the fundamental unit of the organization. If a company wants to outstrip its competitors, it needs to influence not only how people work, but how they work...

Show Me Your Friends and I’ll Show You Your Future

by Parker Houston | Mar 27, 2025 | How People Change

Every so often, you hear a quote that changes your whole perspective. This one did that for me several years ago: “You are the average of the top 5 people you spend the...

14 Behaviors That Increase Trust

by Parker Houston | Mar 20, 2025 | Top Teams Made Simple

“All things being equal, people work with people they like and trust. All things not being equal, people still work with people they like and trust.” –John Maxwell There is...

Solve Your Problems By Subtraction

by Parker Houston | Mar 13, 2025 | Personal Leadership, Self Leadership

The Big Idea: According to research, the human brain tries to solve most of life’s problems through adding solutions, instead of removing things that might easily fix the...

What Leaders Can Learn from Volunteer Organizations

by Parker Houston | Mar 6, 2025 | Boost Your Organizational Health

“All things being equal, people work with people they like and trust. All things not being equal, people still work with people they like and trust.” –John Maxwell Several...

Unjack Yourself—Eliminate Chronic Busyness To Improve Your Health, Your Relationships, and Your Thinking

by Parker Houston | Feb 27, 2025 | Mind and Body, Optimal Performance

“Who can make muddy waters clear? Let it be only still, and it will gradually clear itself.” –Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu penned these words more than 2500 years ago,...

People Who Use More Emojis May Have Higher Emotional Intelligence

by Parker Houston | Feb 20, 2025 | Personal Leadership

“The single biggest problem in human communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” –George Bernard Shaw Thanks to my colleague Dr. Kari Glenn for sharing this...

How Do You Define Success?

by Parker Houston | Feb 13, 2025 | Personal Leadership, The Science of Happiness

What is your definition of a “successful” life? It’s a question worth thinking about—and continually trying to answer. We are constantly bombarded with false—and...

Post-Traumatic Growth—8 Personal Practices for Navigating Crisis

by Parker Houston | Feb 6, 2025 | The Science of Mindset

Most of you have probably heard of PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but you may not have heard of Post-Traumatic Growth. Many people who experience a traumatic event...

Successful Failures

by Parker Houston | Jan 30, 2025 | Personal Leadership, The Science of Mindset

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, double your rate of failure.” –Thomas Watson (CEO of IBM) I don’t know about you, but I personally...

Leadership During Crisis: Principles & Best Practices

by Parker Houston | Jan 23, 2025 | Boost Your Organizational Health, Top Teams Made Simple

With the recent events in Southern California, many of you may know people seriously affected by the fires. For that reason, I received a suggestion to post an article on...

Five Books on Money Everyone Should Read

by Parker Houston | Jan 16, 2025 | Personal Leadership

“You either learn to manage money, or the lack of that skill will manage you for the rest of your life.” –Dave Ramsey At the start of a new year and after the holiday...

We Are What We Repeatedly Do

by Parker Houston | Jan 9, 2025 | How People Change

Today’s Big Idea—To a great extent, your life is the sum total of your habits. 99% of the time, people don’t change overnight. Change is almost always cumulative, it occurs...

Do Not Despise Small Beginnings

by Parker Houston | Jan 2, 2025 | How People Change

“An overnight success is 15 years in the making.” –Dave Ramsey Above is a picture of the common water hyacinth—pontederia crassipes—a plant that is native to tropical and...

Have You Written Your 2025 Life Plan Yet?

by Parker Houston | Dec 26, 2024 | Family Leadership, Personal Leadership

One morning in 1972 Yogi Berra awakened his wife and three sons and piled them into the car to drive to his Hall of Fame ceremony. They were in a bit of a hurry, and it soon...

The Willingness to Look Foolish

by Parker Houston | Dec 19, 2024 | Personal Leadership

“A wise person can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.” –Bruce Lee A few years ago I read a passage in a book from one of my...

Alone

by Parker Houston | Dec 12, 2024 | Personal Leadership

If you have not seen the TV show Alone, it is one of my favorites, and well worth watching. For those of you unfamiliar with Alone, it is an American survival competition...

What Do You Need to Amputate to Get Unstuck?

by Parker Houston | Dec 5, 2024 | Personal Leadership

*Photo by Gautier Salles “Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than hanging on.” –Eckhart Tolle Aron Lee Ralston was born on October 27, 1975, in...