The door opened and the doctor rushed into the exam room with my chart in his hand. Without looking at me he quickly said, “I’m going to tell you what’s wrong and what we need to do, then I’ll take a look at your records and examine you.” He hurriedly… Read More »A Story of Two Doctors
It was a Saturday morning and no other customers were at the pharmacy. My wife and I were at a large military hospital’s pharmacy to get a prescription filled. The gentleman at the counter looked at the prescription form I presented and said he could not fill it until eligibility… Read More »Are You Telling Your People to do Stupid Things?
I’m appalled, though unfortunately I guess I’m not really surprised. Amidst all the rhetoric about equality and fair treatment, it turns out there is a lot of inequality and unfair treatment going on. Specifically, ever day now the news brings us another story detailing the sordid details of some new… Read More »I’m Appalled – Enough Already
Command and control (the beast) is not a popular form of leadership these days. Most of the time the method is unnecessary and a sign of a weak and insecure leader who knows no other way to be effective. The most effective leaders find some version of servant leadership (beauty)… Read More »Beauty and the Beast: Servant Leadership vs. Command and Control
Coach. Say the word and different pictures come to mind. Some might think of a favorite sports coach while others conjure images (good or bad) of their drill instructor, or perhaps a favorite teacher. Regardless of the situation, we find that coaches are individuals who provide assistance to someone to… Read More »9 Ways to Create the Perfect Coaching Relationship
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