We’re entering a time of year when lots of people have professional development and conference opportunities. Lots of time when attending such an event, you get lots of ideas from the exhibit hall, from networking, from breakout sessions, and from keynote speakers and plenary sessions. You come home with lots of materials, then life happens, … Read more
Leaders must have vision. Not just in the “creatively imagined future” way, but also in the way of “I have an accurate assessment of the way things are right now.”
Leaders must (in the words of those wise men, Kouzes and Posner) “inspire a shared vision.”
We’ve always heard that the space program has done more for us than explore space, the moon, and Mars– but that we have NASA to thank for some other, “accidental,” by-products: Teflon and Velcro come to mind — and I use those daily, I think. What’s your space program? In other words, what crazy big … Read more
The Olympics have a way of shining a new light on the meaning of dedication.
The opening ceremonies were comprised of one spectacular vignette after another, with thousands of performers, musicians and athletes knowing exactly where to go and what to do during every minute of their moment in the spotlight. That’s dedication.
Every commercial that runs during the Olympic Games tells the athlete’s tale of foregoing dessert, not watching TV, not skipping a single day’s workout in order to be the best. That’s dedication.
Then there was the Chinese farmer who spent the last two years traveling to London via rickshaw just to see the Olympic games. A little extreme, but yes – that’s dedication.
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 the “worst-case scenario” keeps us from acting, yet the worst-case scenario almost never occurs.
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?
“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 “directionally appropriate” manner.
This post will be a part of a local effort from author and change agent Danny Heggen that is worth your attention, but I share it here as an example of how
Last week we explored the first concept of “The Big Three.”
This week, we’ll outline the second one.
This one is quite simple – It’s merely a suggested two-word definition of leadership.
Anyone who has been following the rise and acceptance of Dwolla is aware of the T-shirts. Ben Milne and company have been giving away and asking folks to wear their T-shirt, and to take pictures of it being worn in interesting places. This has been fun for me for two reasons, which I will illustrate with two stories.
Story one: