Fear paralyzes; sometimes we allow it to, calling it “caution”. It’s good to be cautious. Not so good to be paralyzed. Either by over-analysis OR by fear. (Though, extreme analysis can combat fear; see Freakonomics for the statistics on child restraints…) A good nugget from Tim Ferriss’s Four-Hour Workweek is this (paraphrased): The thought of … Read more
Few things are more energizing than leaving a productive meeting with your team, set ablaze with fresh ideas that will set the wheels in motion. You’re ready to go. Your team is ready to go. You’ve established MT goals and are ready to tackle the world. It’s a great feeling. Until something, somewhere, gets a … Read more
Last week’s blog talked about the value of vision as a leader. With vision, you have a clear destination; a clear destination can aid in motivating your team. But with vision, comes goals. Goals serve as checkpoints on the way to your vision. But how do you know you have a goal worth pursuing? Enter: … Read more
“Employees want to constantly be better at what they do. If not challenged, they will look for challenges elsewhere.” –Ilya Pozin As a leader, you have a job to do: lead people (sounds simple enough, right?). Where you lead them requires vision. Knowing your destination makes it possible for you to challenge them in a … Read more
Clumsy attempts at self improvement are better than smooth successes at nailing the status quo. A good, and immediate, example is feedback. We know (really, proven scientifically and anecdotally time and time again) that this is how to engage employees: Provide frequent, specific, behavior-based feedback that is more often positive than negative. I’ve never met … Read more
An email I received yesterday: I would be interested in your thoughts about too much communication. It has been happening that with all the communication outlets, Facebook, Twitter, text, email, that keeping track of getting the word out is becoming overkill. I have some members that say they only check Twitter or Facebook and … Read more
Let’s make the assumption that, as a leader, you’ve taken a number of human behavior assessments (like the Leadership Practices Inventory, Everything DiSC®, Strengths Finders or Myers-Briggs), and therefore you have some sort of description (or two or five descriptions) as to what kind of leader you are. What happens to those analyses after you … Read more
I do quite a bit of work with youth organizations, with an emphasis on true empowerment of youth leaders to contribute to the organization’s work. It takes effort, so I was recently asked “Is it worth all the effort to have student leadership?” I said yes, and here is my full answer: Many would agree … Read more
Last fall, I spent two blog posts discussing how effective leaders stay organized. At that time, I was referring to your actual to-do list, which typically won’t have the actual words “pay attention to John on Monday.” But maybe you should consider it. A colleague of mine was telling me about a car salesman who … Read more
When I was in 6th grade, my music teacher, Mr. Jones, played us some “Switched-On Bach” – Bach performed on synthesizer. That was pretty cool back in 1980. If you’re over 40, I bet you know what I’m talking about. It actually got me really interested in “real” Bach music; I’m a fan to this … Read more