Generosity is something I'm thinking and praying about lately. And I'm really paying attention to the acts of generosity I'm seeing and feeling around me - both personally and professionally. I believe good leaders are magnetic for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons is they live generously. And I think the same principle applies to organizations who are generous with the people vital to their success. But how do you really know the word "generous" applies to you? Here are the questions to ask yourself to test your own generosity:

The speaker next Friday at the Good Leadership Breakfast is an international leader who is living the dreams she set as a small-town, Iowa child. What started as an accounting career in Chicago has developed into one of the most important partnership agreements with the United Nations. Julie Kae, the Global Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and Executive Director of Qlik.org, is helping advance the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals for the people of planet earth. That’s big.

Summer is over and we’re staring at the end of another year. It's the time of year we jump-start our annual aspirations. Are you set up to finish strong? Maybe you have a nagging feeling that something is not quite right. Good leadership is about building a team of people who care about each other and work together in building plans and solving problems. A good team is the only way to create great results. So the question for today: Is your team set up to finish the year strong?

Ten years ago, blogs were all the rage. When we started our coaching business, a mentor suggested if I wanted to write best-selling books, I could benefit from creating a "writing practice" with regular deadlines. So I decided to write a 300+ word blog every Tuesday. So now, 9 1/2 years later, this is somewhere around my 500th blog. Yowsa! Today, we have access to a new medium to spread goodness...

Last Friday was the Masters Alliance Young Leaders episode of the Good Leadership Breakfast, presented by TCF Bank. It was the perfect example of our mantra: when good leaders, work together with good intentions, great things are possible. Looking back now on 77 of these breakfasts, I consider it a great outcome that we hosted more than 125 Young Leaders to hear the "Goodness Pays" message. It means the established leaders in our midst are paying their goodness forward.

I live and work in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota. It's the bold north! And while I really love raising a family and growing a business in the land of four seasons, I get kind of depressed this time of year. Mood and tone are crucial to good leadership. That's why this morning I'm creating a strategy to seize the summer - a Carpe Diem strategy before the leaves fall and the snow flies, to ensure I stay happy and positive.

The jarring headline on my morning paper yesterday was a renewed call-to-action for me: CARNAGE NUMBS NATION. The story was about two gunman who killed innocent people, apparently because they were angry at the world, and could not see a positive future. It's likely none of us who participate in this blog could have stopped either gunman in the act. But there is something we can do.

Alvin Abraham is a turn-around specialist and entrepreneur, working in the ancient and ever-changing field of education. Born in New York City to immigrant parents who left southern India, he grew up in suburban Houston, Texas. School was always important – emphasized as the pathway to prosperity. But after graduating from Texas A&M, his path was shaped by a two-year commitment to Teach for America (TFA).

My grandfather, Willis Kenneth Hunter, was a small business owner in a resort town. During the summer when life around the lake was in high-season, the town was buzzing with happy energy. At an early age I recall walking around the town with encouragement from my grandfather to meet his friends. He taught me how to offer my hand and a smile for a strong firm greeting. He called it: collecting handshakes.  In every person I met, I learned something about who I wanted to be when I grew up.

Good leadership is satisfying for so many reasons. The most satisfying part for me is assembling the teams who multiply our good. As business owners, Melinda and I have a business operations team, a marketing team, and a special team that produces the Good Leadership Breakfast. But the most significant team is the team Erin Wilken manages - our coaching team. They are a special group of people visiting us in Minneapolis today for our annual summer coaching retreat. Some traveled from afar. What makes them so special?