Today’s featured blogger is Mike Figliuolo, the author of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership. Here’s Mike: Your team doesn’t trust you. Honestly. They don’t. Trust is key to effective working relationships; yet, as you climb the corporate ladder, trust seems harder to earn and easier to lose. What causes a team to not trust their … [Read more...]
Why Leadership Development is So Important in the Digital Age
As the twentieth century came to a close, the industrial age ended as well. Where most employees once worked in large manufacturing firms that relied on rote tasks performed on large assembly lines – from autoworkers to assemblers in all fields, today’s workers are more likely to work in service related jobs that require diverse tasks and interaction with many … [Read more...]
A Surprising Lesson on Training Teams
The first dog my wife and I got from the shelter was a big, happy blonde Labrador mix. We took the time and effort to train him, and went through about fifty bags of dog biscuits in teaching him to sit, stay, lie down, and fetch. It took time, but he was a great dog for almost a dozen years.The dog we have now is much smaller, but he is also a “good” dog, who has benefited … [Read more...]
Why It’s Critical to Put the Right Stuff In Front of You
A Facebook post by dear friend & mentor, Becky Robinson, caught my eye this week. Her post said: “My girls haven’t colored much this summer. Yesterday, I bought a new box of crayons. They’ve been coloring nonstop. If I had known that was all it would take, I would have bought them a new box of crayons sooner.”What a fabulous picture Becky paints! I can just see her girls, … [Read more...]
Leadership and Responsibility: What Will You Do with It?
Leadership is a popular word these days. Consultants preach it, journalists either praise it or bemoan it, companies, boards investors and customers demand it.The days when leaders were anointed at birth, except in a very few cases, are long gone. Today’s leaders may have great power… or none depending on the authority they wield. But whatever level that may be, with … [Read more...]
Three Secrets to Group Decision Making
Every time I sit in a meeting, I’m utterly fascinated by the way groups make decisions. What happens before, during and after the meeting is different depending upon an organization’s culture. I’m reminded of this during the recent debt ceiling talks … well, maybe we shouldn’t even go there.Charlie Judy, author of HR Fishbowl, wrote an interesting post titled “Stop Playing … [Read more...]
The Leadership Comb-Over: Dealing with Denial
Here is a leadership challenge for anyone who leads people: Step 1: A Deeper LookTake a look in the mirror. Take a really long look. Look deeply and intently into your own eyes. Do this for an extended period that may even outlast your normal attention span. Just stand there and look deeply at yourself. Look at who you have become. Examine the sum total of the decisions that … [Read more...]
Do You Have A Psychopathic Organization?
Before his untimely death, Heath Ledger put together an amazing performance as the Joker. He played a psychopath intent on creating mayhem as a part of his personal agenda in his warped sense of reality. We have developed a fascination with psychopathic behavior. Some of the most popular films and shows are focused on psychopathy: CSI, Criminal Minds, Silence of the Lambs, … [Read more...]
Go For Nervous
You know that little voice in your head, the one you hear as soon as you get nervous? The one that tells you to play it safe? It lies. It tells you that you should slow down, or even stop, when in fact you might just be on the verge of an extraordinary breakthrough, about to create something truly fascinating. If your goals are comfortable, they’re not big … [Read more...]
What Does GREAT Look Like?
Last week, I spent a couple of days with eighty leaders from across my state working on defining our collective vision for the future of the state. As a part of this process, we were asked to break into groups to define what makes something "great." This may seem like a fairly easy task. But, before you jump to any conclusions, try it for yourself. Write down how you … [Read more...]