Posts From: Leadership

Team leaders are responsible for catalyzing and aligning the energy, activities and focus of the team to achieve the common goal. If you need to appoint someone to lead a team, what qualities should you look for?

Read More

I'm not a fan of rap or rappers. I've got a number of issues with this genre of music, and the individuals who perform it. These issues exist on a lot of levels. As fate would have it, however, I recently received a revelation that let me know that I needed to have a better understanding of this music and the people who make it. I’m the father of a teen. As you might have already guessed, he listens to rap. The revelation occurred when my namesake was given a school assignment to write a report about who he thought was the person of the year. To my surprise he didn't choose his father or even the president of the United States as his subject. His candidate for the person of the year was Waka Flocka Flame, a rapper. Upon hearing his choice I immediately did a Google search to find out who in the world was Waka Flocka. To my dismay, the images were not ones that I hoped my son would aspire to emulate, and the lyrics of Waka's music were, in my opinion, crude at best.

Read More

You should never be told to quiet your voice, limit your creativity or suppress your spirit because, “The Company says you have to do it this way.” The company or corporation does not have a mouth. Yet the company was built on values and a brand. To be successful, there has to be a match between your personal brand and the one that represents the team, alliance or organization you work with.

Read More

The following is a guest blog by my colleague, David Spader, which I’ve decided to run at this time because of its timeliness for those companies experiencing a leadership crisis that demographic changes predict will become much more significant. David is a leadership development consultant with Spader Business Management (www.spader.com), a company with a proven track record of providing both financial and human performance guidance for a variety of industries for the past thirty years. - What happens when you don’t have a strong bench? The Indianapolis Colts just found out. Quarterback great Peyton Manning did not lead his team onto the field at the start of this season for the first time in 227 consecutive games. Apparently the coaches were caught off guard since nobody seems to ...

Read More

Many of us can recount stories of organizational change initiatives that did not deliver the outcomes promised. This lack of success is not limited to a particular type of initiative. There is an alphabet soup of changes that your organization might have tried with disappointing results. No matter what the acronym, sabotage and resistance are often blamed for such failures. I cannot count the number of times participants in my workshop on organizational change focus on—perhaps blame—resisters as the main source of the problem implementing change. It might feel better to have a scapegoat, but it is rarely a sign of progress.

Read More

As you wade through the stress of a turbulent and uncertain world, do you find yourself demanding more from yourself and your employees? This often happens when your brain is trapped in protection mode. According to a blog post published by the Harvard Business Review, "...research has shown that the more executives have to do, the less their company earns."

Read More

In my previous blog, I addressed the fact that most MANAGERS are not effective and why. Now, we will turn our attention to the same problem as it applies to LEADERS. The supporting research for this was provided in the previous blog “Our Problem Is ... That Most Managers And Leaders Are NOT Effective” (see for reference). So let’s address the difference between “Managers” and “Leaders,” as a starting point. To begin, while the “Manager” role is a formal one, “Leaders” may be either formal or informal. In fact our research (and another previous blog on Followership, “The Other Half Of Leadership”) point out that about half of the characteristics of leaders

Read More

A friend started a small business involving a great deal of transcribing. A colleague recommended that he try an expensive program to reduce the amount of repetitive typing. He scoffed at the idea, saying he couldn’t count all the spam emails he received for similar labor-saving software. His colleague persisted. She showed him how the program worked, and how it increased productivity. He adopted it in his business and has reaped the benefits ever since. Every one of us can recall occasions of deciding to try something new on the recommendation of a friend or colleague. It could have been something simple, like choosing a particular movie or book, or trying a new restaurant. Trusting people whose experiences and values are similar to our own is natural. We seek out their opinions and value them more than advertising, rating services, and reviews.

Read More

I recently attended my neighbor's daughter's graduation. She was graduating from a military combat program that was conducted at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. Besides being happy for my neighbors, proud of the young lady that used to babysit my children, and humbled by the commitment that the brave men and women of the armed services make for our country every day, I was fascinated at how the army had integrated its vision, mission, and core values into every aspect of the operation, including its reward criteria.

Read More

People don’t remember things just because you told them it was important to remember. The more they passively listen to you, the less likely they will remember. Worse, they are less likely to do anything creative with what you tell them.

Read More