One thing is almost universally true about this time of year, people are busy. One student lamented to me last year that she had a long list of leadership priorities for her team but that she didn’t have the time to do any of it because her boss had come… Read More »Three Things Great Leaders Do When They Are “Too Busy to Leadâ€
This week the United States Air Force celebrated its 70th birthday. I first joined the Air Force in 1978 so I’ve been associated with the service for almost half its life. Here are a few things I learned from the experience. Take leadership development seriously. The success of our Air… Read More »What Thirty Years Taught Me About Leadership
The Daedalus Group has partnered with the University of New Mexico Continuing Education to provide the Leader’s Confidence Course, an intense 2-day experience that gives new supervisors and managers basic skills to effectively lead their teams. Leading other people can be a daunting and even frightening experience. Faced with strong-willed… Read More »The Leader’s Confidence Course Offered Through University of New Mexico Continuing Education
We called him Sergeant Joe. He was from Thailand and we could not pronounce his real name. It barely fit on his name tag so he took pity on us and let us call him Sergeant Joe. Three of us brand new aircraft mechanics were assigned as his trainees, which… Read More »A Leadership Story About Sergeant Joe
A prerequisite for effective and high-performing teams is trust among its members. According to Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, trust is foundational to team effectiveness. Improving an absence of trust due to unfamiliarity, personality and cultural differences, or ambiguous roles and responsibilities is “relatively†straight forward… Read More »Toxic Behavior Destroys Team Trust
Are your team members engaged? Unfortunately, many business leaders complain that some of their team members are not reliable and will shirk their responsibilities whenever they can? Since much of my leadership experience comes from a long career in the military, I’m often asked why the military seems to have… Read More »The Three-Step Foundation for Employee Engagement any Leader Can Use
“I’m not sure about that new guy. He doesn’t seem to be fitting in and doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. Why’d you hire him?†Ever have someone walk into your office and say something like this? Ever find yourself wondering why a new person on the team isn’t… Read More »Five Steps to Helping the New Hire Fit In
As we went around the table, each staff member introduced themselves with their name and a brief job description. When it was the custodian’s turn, instead of telling us she was the custodian, she proudly announced that she was the “Manager of First Impressions.” It was obvious that the rest… Read More »The First 4 Essential Steps to Achieve Team Engagement
“Sure, I know where we’re going, follow me.†As you set off for the restaurant with friends in tow, you are filled with confidence. But after a couple of wrong turns things aren’t looking familiar and it occurs to you that you really don’t know where you are going. Embarrassing?… Read More »â€œFollow me!†Are you ready to say this?
Many years ago, as an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force, I was selected for a small, four-person team challenged to reassemble two F-111 aircraft which had not flown for some time; one for over two and a half years. It was a daunting challenge, made even more so by… Read More »The Power of Risk: A Team Challenge Story