Animation has given us more than great entertainment; it has given us remarkable leadership lessons. In Toy Story we are given a surprising leadership lesson by Slinky Dog. Slinky Dog is the head, feet, and tail end of a dog with the body made of Slinky. Imagine for a moment that you as the leader [...]
In Driven, two eminent Harvard professors, Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria, identify four core human drives
We experience two forms of energy (anabolic and catabolic) in our work and personal lives. How best can we use those forms of energy to perform?
To be an exceptional leader or follower you must be self-aware and to be self-aware it is essential to understand what are your needs? Discover your needs..
Job satisfaction can be increased by adapting the Motivation-Hygiene Theory both personally and organizationally. This explains how you can love and hate your job at the same time.
Building an organization or team often has massive gaps in capability between team member’s performance. Equalizing Team Performance is critical to success
Becoming a Leader: Challenge #10–Get 360° Feedback We have touched on using criticism to the best of your ability and improving your reaction to criticism. Sometimes it’s important to seek out criticism–and not just from the same old sources. If you’re serious about improving your self-awareness and Emotional Intelligence, get a 360. 360° feedback allows [...]
Becoming a Leader: Challenge #8–Encourage Dissent During a period in the late 1990′s, Korean Air had more plane crashes than any other airline in the world. Yet, their pilots (and co-pilots) were impeccably trained. So, why the rash of crashes? Ultimately it was determined that a culture that didn’t honor dissent, but rather honored a rigid hierarchical [...]
Becoming a Leader: Challenge #7–Engage Your Audience Words often stand alone. But words are usually more compelling when they’re spoken aloud and accompanied by something that engages the audience visually–whether it be graphs, pictures, or simply hand gestures and physical expressions. The words of Dr. Martin Luther King in his “I have a dream” speech, [...]
Becoming a Leader: Challenge #6–Own up to Mistakes Leaders are not expected to not make mistakes. Nobody is. And, yet, mistakes happen. While we can’t completely prevent mistakes from happening, we can learn from them and learn how to limit them. The first step in the learning process is a critical one: owning up to [...]
Becoming a Leader: Challenge #5–Create Change “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” –Mahatma Gandhi I had a very successful businessman tell me once that the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth. Creating change is not easy, it is not quick, and it can, and should, [...]
Becoming a Leader: Challenge #4–Show up and Follow Through “80% of success in life is just showing up.”–Woody Allen We all know that just showing up isn’t enough–and never was. You need to show up and perform once you’re there. I think Thomas Edison’s ratio for success is far more accurate than Woody’s: “Genius is [...]
Becoming a Leader: Challenge #3–Give Others an Opportunity to Shine This is, singularly, the most important concept that I learned during my 15+ years as an active duty Air Force officer. As a newly minted 2nd Lieutenant at my first duty station, I was put in charge of a group of about 100 men during [...]
Becoming a Leader: Challenge #2–Maintaining confidence during setbacks Don’t confuse setbacks with failures–and, by all means, don’t confuse setbacks with you being a failure. When you have a setback, take a step back. Learn from what went wrong, assess other perspectives, and recommit to yourself. In Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey offers [...]
Employee motivation is directly related to the expectations set by their manager. Discover the steps to keep expectations high to deliver great results.
