It’s easy to start believing the praise you hear in the hallways about your leadership approach. Easy and dangerous. I’ve always been leery of the unfounded and saccharine-sweet praise that is bestowed upon leaders. While you may call me cynical, I prefer to think of myself as pragmatic. Here are 5 ideas for delicately and appropriately coping with positive praise:
Of the many important themes espoused by the late and arguably pre-eminent management thinker of the latter part of the twentieth century, Peter Drucker, perhaps the most valuable to us as individuals, is his constant reminder that we are responsible for our own self-development. One of Drucker’s more provocative suggestions as described in William A. Cohen’s enjoyable read, “A Class with Drucker-The Lost Lessons of the World’s Greatest Management Teacher,” is for managers to actively work at developing expertise outside of their chosen field as a tool to preparing to become a senior or strategic leader. (Read More…)
Leadership Dragons are the outward behaviors driven by misguided underlying beliefs that keep many in leadership roles from truly meriting the label of leader. Here are 4 examples of common Leadership Dragons and some ideas for keeping them reined in:
It’s often politically unpopular and seemingly risky to hire for a key role outside of the boundaries of your firm’s industry. It also might be just the right thing to infuse your team or organization with fresh perspectives and new ideas.
Many of the most accomplished professionals and leaders I’ve encountered point not to mentors as sources of guidance and inspiration, but rather to a particular workplace peer-level partnership as having been critical to their success. Here are some important Do’s and Don’ts when seeking to cultivate powerful workplace partnerships:
While there’s no substitute for live-fire action in learning to develop as a leader, well-honed skills of observation can provide useful perspectives on the actions and reactions of people to various leadership styles and approaches. Here are eight sets of questions/topics that will hone your leadership anthropology skills and support your own professional development program:
Lack of self-confidence is a limiting factor in the leadership careers of many good professionals. This is a difficult and extremely personal topic. Here’s some added context to help you recognize that we all struggle with many of the same issues, however, with deliberate daily actions on the right issues, we can strengthen our confidence and improve our performance.
Performance counts. Efforts are nice, but ultimately, you are evaluated on the results of your team, not the amount of work you put into achieving your results. Here are 7 ideas to promote high performance with your team:
Yesterday, a valued colleague described a fascinating professional interaction and used the phrase, “listening with intent.”While I imagine it is something on the level of “seek first to understand,” the phrasing works for me. It connotes a significant and deep personal investment in focusing on another human…something lacking from most of our interchanges in life and in the workplace.
We tend to love our life and work routines. They are comfortable and comforting. And while there’s a certain amount of routine that’s inherent in successfully running any organization, the best leaders seek and create opportunities to breakaway from the mind-numbing, sense-dulling pursuit of routine. Here are 5 ideas to stimulate your own-thinking on breaking the routine with your team:
