No leader is perfect. We all have made serious mistakes. A defining characteristic of a true leader is not the absence of mistakes but rather how he or she responds after the error has occurred.
Oops I Made a Mistake!
August 11th, 2010Play Ball!!
July 15th, 2010When society’s outside measurements tell us we are not winning when we lost our jobs, our homes, our positions, our retirement dreams or even the cheers from the crowd, if you have kept your integrity, your humility and your character, you have won no matter what!
Are You Working In The Dark
May 6th, 2010An interesting finding…the strongest teams are committed to processes that strengthen the team in a continuous, ongoing fashion. Ironically, the “dimmest” teams routinely view such efforts as superfluous. Such teams are typically focused on yet another problem, justifying that time does not permit them the “luxury” of investing in their team’s growth.
Kindness, An Essential of Leadership
March 30th, 2010Wise are the leaders who encourage genuine kindness and courtesy as an essential aspect of their core leadership style. Do not underestimate its impact on your influence as a leader. Believe me, your followers will not!
Listening to Learn
March 8th, 2010Winning attitudes translate into success at all levels. Recognizing and emulating the winning attitude of a successful person is not just a compliment to a role model, it’s an essential element in developing your own success. A good friend, Joe, recently told a story which makes this point as relevant today as when he first learned it.
Joe possesses a winning attitude which has translated into a very successful company and he is a man that others watch; however, Joe began life focused on himself rather than on the successes of others, a flaw he had to overcome quickly in college:
“When I was a freshman playing football I was ready to set the world
on fire. I thought I had arrived and it was just a matter of showing it
to my teammates,” he laughed. “One day I was standing in line in the
weight room waiting for a machine and I was talking most of my wait.
After a while I heard an imposing voice behind me ask ‘Do you want
to be good?’ I turned around to find the 6’8” senior captain of the
football team behind me. He was revered for his athletic abilities
and leadership and I was surprised by his question.
Leadership and Getting Out of Its Way
February 15th, 2010While having coffee with a friend who possesses a larger-than-life personality, and the physique to match, he shared a story regarding his twelve year old son, the quarterback of a team for whom he is the head coach. Like everything else, my friend is big into leadership and relishes every opportunity to pass leadership principles onto his son.
My friend said that he had been pushing his son for some time to show more leadership, and to offer motivating challenges to his teammates while in the huddle between plays. The big man shared an important lesson he learned from his son regarding his attempts to lead by constant example:
During practice I had this habit of joining the huddle almost every play and offering words of wisdom to players who needed instruction and guidance. I was becoming annoyed with my son because I did not see him practice the same behavior with his teammates that I was attempting to instill in him. Over dinner one night, I pushed him to not merely be a player; I said he had a responsibility to be a leader and that he wasn’t exhibiting leadership with his teammates.
Leading Successfully Starts With WhoYou ARE, Not With What You DO!
February 1st, 2010One of my executive clients was interviewing for a leadership position at the helm of a prestigious national sports team. Asking for my help to prepare for the interview process, I readily agreed, and I asked him to be prepared for a mock interview.
At the onset of our practice interview, he pulled out a notebook and began to explain his system of interviewing and recruiting players that had been part of his success!
“Bill (not his real name), what are you doing?” I asked.
“This system is the key to my success,” he confided.
“Bill, if you go in there telling them what you do as the basis for your success, you will lose them right there. Everyone else competing for this job will do the same thing. It’s not about what you do, it’s about who you are that distinguishes you from the rest.”
Taking Control When All Else Feels Out of Control
November 12th, 2009The key to finding empowerment in fearful days is to take responsibility for the outcome you desire. Face your fear (everyone has fear). Develop a specific plan. Be prepared to make adjustments. Work the plan. Recommit to the plan each and every day, and correct the course along the way – as with any strategy, the odds of reaching your goals are much higher with the right attitude and a specific roadmap to guide your journey.
What does Leadership Success take?
October 26th, 2009At an organizational level, leaders must know the basic conditions that generate the greatest chance of success. According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review titled “Why teams don’t work”, there are five critical conditions that make the difference between success and failure – all of which are included in InitiativeOne leadership training.
The UpComing Resume Tsunami
October 16th, 2009In the September edition of Forbes Insights, research suggests that as the recovery continues, many corporate senior leaders may be blindsided by an unparalled employee exodus in their respective firms. Many of these leaders have misread the high retention rates during the recession as a sign of employee satisfaction. The truer picture is that large numbers of employees are dissatisfied and disillusioned by the bottom line, maximization of profit over people, short-term thinking demonstrated by many corporate leaders during the recession.