Transformational Leadership: 5 Steps to a Brighter Future with Your Team
He found a creative way to complain about a relationship gone bad, but the words of his song reveal the difference between merely managing people and truly leading them. What did he say? Today I’ll share his thought-provoking quote and how it can inspire us to become transformative leaders in this edition of “Lines for […]
Making Noise: 3 Tips for Better Leading in a Noisy World
“Are we making progress, or just making noise?” Mark Twain has said a lot of funny and interesting things, but do you know what he said about chickens and eggs? Or how his comment applies to good leadership? Stick around and I’ll tell you in this edition of “Lines for Leaders.”
The Dangers of Taking the Easy Way
“What’s wrong with taking the easy way?” Sometimes the answer to our problem seems easy. But the easy solution may not always be the right one. Today in “Lines for Leaders” I’ll share what one famous person said about the dangers of taking the “easy way,” along with some thoughts about how we can make […]
Planning to Be Lucky: Are We Betting on the Wrong Thing?
Can we really plan to be lucky? He said, “Luck is the residue of design.” Who was it, and what did he mean? And more importantly, how can we put his idea to work so that the lucky breaks come when we roll the dice? All that and more in this edition of Lines for […]
Establishing Trust: Why the Details Matter
How do we establish trust? We know that establishing trust is a key to leading well, but how do we go about it? An unexpected encounter in the back of a dark garage shines a light on how we can build the trust we need to lead.
Leading Your Army: Is This Really the One You Wanted?
If leading your army feels like a parade, you might be doing it wrong. Appearances are important, and first impressions matter, but too often we can find ourselves overly focused on how things look at the expense of how well they function. When it comes to leading your army, what others see isn’t as important […]
Overloaded: The Thing That Keeps Us From Leading Well
“Are we carrying around things that make us poor leaders?” It’s easy to collect things, harder to let them go. But as leaders we have to be aware that some of those things, one in particular, can get in our way and prevent us from leading as effectively as we’d like.
Following the Follower: 15 Ways to Lead Better by Following Better
Can being better followers make us better leaders? Focusing on following may seem an odd way to tackle the challenges of leading, but there’s a power in this approach we can easily overlook. There’s a danger in ignoring it, too. That was a lesson I learned the hard way deep in the dry, burning pine […]
Setting Limits: 15 Ways to Do More By Giving Ourselves Less
Is having no limits really a good thing? We often find ourselves wishing that the limitations in our lives were gone. We yearn for a mythical time when we can do whatever we want however we want for as long as we want. Two things about this though: 1) It’s never going to happen; and […]
The Eraser Test: How to Know When It’s Time for a Change
How do we know when to change the plan? A casual remark by a friend last week got me thinking about the idea of flexibility and change. As leaders, we choose the objectives and set the course. But once we’re underway, how do we know if we should keep on keeping on, or if we […]
Change the Game: 7 Ways to Build Teammates Who Can Do More
How do we increase the odds of “winning” with the team we have? At the beginning of any game, everyone starts with the same number of players on the board. And in the rush to get things done, we focus on moving those players around the best we can. If we’re good, we might win. […]
Kings, Cannibals, and Cultural Bias: Overcoming the Limitations of Convention
A strange encounter between a French king and several cannibals from South America sheds light on cultural bias, and what it takes for leaders to see past the limits of our own experience.