Book Notes – Blue Ocean Strategy: How Leaders Drive Change
Leadership is about influencing people in a specific direction, but sometimes that direction needs to change. A book I just read provides a great framework to figure out when you need to change, and what strategic direction to head. But more importantly, it also provides several effective tools to help us drive change when the […]
How to be Decisive: 9 Ways to Make a Decision You Won’t Regret
How can you be decisive if you don’t know what decision to make? Yogi Berra once said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” That sounds like good advice, but how do you decide which fork to take? Which one will have the greatest payoff? Which will you be least likely […]
The Golden Rule, With a Twist
No written word nor spoken plea, Can teach your team what they should be, Nor all the books on all the shelves, It’s what the leader is himself. – from Wooden on Leadership The most powerful form of leading is personal example. It’s a simple idea. Be the way you want others to be. Do […]
Book Notes – Wooden on Leadership: Think Small
Why should leaders sweat the small stuff? Someone said that you shouldn’t “sweat the small stuff” but based on what I just read, they have it all wrong. Sometimes it’s the small things that can make all the difference. If you want to be effective as a leader, there’s good reason why you should pay […]
Independence Day: 7 Ways to Defuse Conflict and Assert Your Freedom
Do our reflexive reactions cause unnecessary fireworks? Conflict is inevitable in any human enterprise; how we handle that conflict is where leadership comes in. Too often we seem bound to react instinctively: voices rise, pressure grows, and soon it’s fireworks like the 4th of July. But to lead effectively requires us to cast off the […]
Book Notes – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
What do you do when your team is falling apart? We all know that in most cases you can accomplish more as a team than as an individual. But what happens when the “teamwork” part erodes away and all you have left is a group of individuals masquerading as a team? How do you diagnose […]
Wading the Mississippi: Six Surprising Secrets of Success I Learned from Ol’ Man River
What does it take to achieve great things? Recently, I waded across the Mississippi River. Really. And as I thought about that accomplishment, it seemed this great river had a lot to say about what it takes to achieve something great. Here are six secrets of success the mighty Mississippi taught me that day, and […]
Leadership Incubator
I think one thing often overlooked in the world of leadership is patience. We’re always in a hurry to get things done. We have to produce results immediately. Yesterday, if at all possible. To make that happen, some leaders reduce themselves to the idea of “the louder and harsher the better.” Kind of in the […]
Leading Spaghetti – How to Use Your Noodle to Lead Your Team
“If you’re a leader, you don’t push wet spaghetti, you pull it.” – Bill Mauldin Bill Mauldin was a famous cartoonist for Stars and Stripes, the newspaper widely read by American GIs during World War II. It’s easy to get his metaphor about leading spaghetti, and it makes sense, sort of. But since Bill was […]
Leader Isolation: 6 Ways to Conquer Loneliness at the Top
We are not alone… …but sometimes it can feel that way. Leadership can bring with it a sense of isolation. You seem to be the only one bearing the burden of responsibility, setting the standard, and trying to balance the demands of your boss with the realities on the ground. Today we’ll talk about how […]
Winning at Chaos: How to Succeed When it All Falls Apart
“How can you prepare to succeed in the midst of chaos?” Much has been written about the big strategic decisions before the massive D-Day invasion of World War II. What sometimes gets missed are the thousands of little, tactical decisions made on the ground afterwards. Yet those were what ultimately enabled success. Allied planners knew […]
New Leader Checklist: 4 Questions to Ask if You Want to Lead Effectively
Whether it’s your first leadership position or your fifty-first, taking over can be a challenging business. One key to success? Don’t start out by answering questions; start by asking them. Today we’ll talk about four new leader questions you should ask, and how to get the answers so that you can lead confidently and effectively.