As promised, this week’s blog is inspired by Veteran’s Day last week. These are two stories of veterans that I told at a local Memorial Day service this year. What’s the lesson? There may be more than one, but let’s lift humility out of this. No war hero brags; in fact, they share the credit … Read more
This week, five posts that will help you understand the value of great customer service, everyone’s role in it, and some ideas to make it happen. Disney’s Magic Trick Dig the Little Things Pause and Listen One of my favorite bad service stories… Non-leaders can lead, too… The plus one: Check out the Unsecret Shopper … Read more
It’s summer! Summer is a very busy time for me, personally and professionally. I originally planned to take the blog on hiatus, but there are too many people who are counting on it every Wednesday, which is great! So, to balance out the demands, here’s the summer plan: Each week, I’ll pick a topic. I’ll … Read more
I blog for a couple of reasons — mostly to spread the word about positive leadership and its effectiveness to as many people as possible, and make it “real” by providing examples and tools. Also, I do it to provide a “touchstone” for current and previous clients (although I truly consider “previous” clients to be … Read more
We are all ambassadors of every organization that we are a part of. Whether it’s our family, our workplace, our house of worship, our service club, our band, our athletic team, or our city/state/country, we are always “representing.” There’s a place in my town that serves food. Lots of people eat there. I don’t. Here’s … Read more
Something that strikes most visitors to Walt Disney World is how “nice” of a place it is. It’s very clean. The employees are called “cast members” because they’re playing a role and they have a reputation for great service and friendliness. Everyone knows that.
But there’s another unique element present at Disney World that is seemingly beyond
Last week, we covered the first four of nine simple things that an aspiring leader can do in order to stand out. Here are five more – I’m anxious for your opinions! 1) Whenever possible, communicate by phone or in person. Is the person you need to visit with in the same building? Walk up … Read more
In preparation for a breakout session at an upcoming conference, I developed a list of ten things a leader can do to stand out and get noticed. Not in a “look at me!” kind of way, but in a way that will help the leader connect more to others, and to enable others to connect as well.
While all ten pointers are applicable to all potential leaders, there are four that newer, more fast-paced leaders, might relate to more than the experienced. So, those four this week, the rest next week. Here we go:
What would it be like if the managers modeled the behavior that ought to be expected?
Ever seen a train? Ever seen the cars pass the engine? Never. If you’re a leader, and you do things at level 10, your followers will likely do them at an “8”. If you have a rough day, and your effort is a “7”, expect your followers to be at a “5”.
To paraphrase Kouzes and Posner:
Leaders model the way by setting the example for others in ways that are consistent with their values. This promotes consistent progress and building of commitment.
In a Group Dynamic workshop, we devote a lot of time to the value of modeling — behaving the way we want members of the team to behave. We also talk about the value of delegation. There are two big benefits to delegation of tasks: