What do we need to do as a leader? Through the eyes of our people, a Blanchard/Training Mag study gives us some insight into what people think are the roles of their leaders and what is their responsibility. It is about leadership and followership, and how awareness of self is critical to assuming our new roles.
Listening is not always THEIR problem. Leaders need to be clear and people need to have time to digest either positive or negative news. Too often there is confusion and surprise. Here are 3 steps for leaders to make sure the news is heard and it makes a difference.
Resilience and leadership is a big topic. It is an important topic. Here is a formula that captures the essence of resilience.
Attitude is contagious. Smiles also become contagious, and people can hear smiles. Here is a thought about how leading with a smile makes a difference.
What do I believe? A question that is good to ask on occassion because it makes us think and put a stake in the ground on something. It might change, and even in that there is some learning. Here is what I believe.
Using a giving focus to building a business is one of the cornerstones of the book, The Go-Giver. It is a book that made me think, and it also made me wonder if a millenial would look at the message and wonder “What is the big deal about tha?”. They have it has part of their fabric already.
Some questions are hard to ask. Not because they are difficult to word correctly, but because the potential answers make us nervous. Actually, we are afraid of the answers. Here are 4 questions that leaders fear asking, and 4 habits that help us ask them.
High potential programs are a great way to focus limited development resources (time and money) on the right people. Too often selection of these people does not include the step of asking. After all, why would anyone turn down a chance to make more money and become an executive?
Coaching is often about helping people make significant changes through simple practices. The slow-flooding smile is one of those practices. Here is a way it might look, and the questions a coach might ask to reflect on the impact.
Leadership is about creating culture. Sometimes that gets lost in the mix when we look at large and complex organizations. There are great examples of how this looks in a startup, and INC. magazine highlighted some in their June 2011 issue. Here are three things I took away from the article.
Is ego in leaders bad? When we think of ego we too often point to examples where ego has been the destruction of people. Barry Bonds. Bill Clinton. Marion Jones. Richard Nixon. The list could get long. We too often forget that ego is the reason many of these people succeeded in the first place. Ego deserves some exploration.
Organizations are run much like our culture – at high speed. Might be fine for getting work done, but what is the impact on how we manage our greatest resource – our people? Look no farther than comparing the breathing rate in Africa vs the United States.