You’re good, but do you have it in you to be great? I work with a lot of good professionals. These are smart people, all technically adept at their jobs and committed to working hard for their organizations. Only a few of these good individuals push themselves to become great.
I caught up with Eric Wallor recently, and during our inspiring discussion (I was the one inspired!), I was struck by the parallels between the life and lot of the distance runner and that of the leader.
I asked Eric to jot down his thoughts on what it takes to successfully prepare for and compete as a distance runner, and his words below offer priceless and timeless guidance for leaders in training everywhere. After all, as a leader, you’re always in training and the race is most definitely a marathon, not a sprint.
While some bosses are more challenging than others, you are well served to give it your best shot to understand as much about your boss’s working style, priorities, expectations and aspirations as possible. Here are 9 ideas that you can apply immediately to help improve your relationship with your boss.
I love this quote from Peter Drucker: “We spend a lot of time teaching our leaders what to do. We don’t spend enough time teaching them what to stop.” Here’s my small contribution on what to “stop doing” immediately. Please add your suggestions to the list.
Power and influence are not dirty words. Both are components of every organization’s environment and both must be carefully cultivated to succeed as a formal or informal leader. Power and influence provide the motive power behind organizations and initiatives and the lubrication that keeps the parts and people from binding and grinding and self-destructing. Here are 6 key reasons why cultivating power and influence is good for your career.
The lot of professionals inside many organizations can easily be characterized by a series of endless status meetings, hurried hallway conversations and messages quickly dispatched on a pda while walking, ignoring the meeting in process or consuming a protein bar on the run. Nonetheless, work gets done, customers are served and growth often created. I do however, worry and wonder about the human costs and the cost to the organization in lost-ideas, missed opportunities and a much more superficial existence.
Overheard: “If I don’t stay on top of my people, nothing gets done.” If lousy leadership were a crime, the owner of the quote above might just merit a short stretch of quality alone-time to reflect on the implications of his statement. There are so many things truly wrong with the style of leadership that the statement connotes, that I’m not certain where to start.
Here are 11 reminders that your job as a leader is to give people the room and tools to succeed.
“Easy” is not a term that should be on your mind, except when it comes to improving the experience for your customers. Outside of making life easier for your customers, there are few circumstances where “easy” shows up or where you are justified in expecting things to go that way. Here are my Top 15 Suggestions for Coping as a Professional.
Welcome to the first post and first interview for the Management Excellence Book Series, where I feature Bob Sutton, New York Times best-selling author and author of the forthcoming book Good Boss, Bad Boss. I had the great fortune to connect with Bob recently on a phone call/interview, and our scheduled 10-15 minutes turned into 30 minutes of fascinating insights about the book, and about Bob’s work as a professor and consultant. He was a delight to interview and I sincerely believe that you will find his insights and anecdotes as fascinating as I did. Enjoy the interview and enjoy the book!
This has been a productive period for my development of new programs and information offerings. While we all write and talk about the impact of great people on our organizations, it is truly palpable when you are on the receiving end of that help. Thanks to two outstanding young professionals, Eric and Amber, that are busy helping and holding me accountable to getting my work done, we’re adding new programs, tuning up prior offerings and extending our line-up of information products.
