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
“Sam is a great leader.†“Why do you say that?†“Well, because…†What follows is usually a rather subjective description of certain characteristics that generally follow a pattern of traits we’ve found common to good leaders. As many times as I’ve done the good boss/bad boss exercise with leadership students… Read More »Are you an effective leader? Five ways to know.
“I have an interview for a new position. I know they are going to ask me how I would view my role as a supervisor but I’ve never been a supervisor before. I don’t know what to tell them?” It’s all too common to move people into supervisory positions without… Read More »Wow Them With Your Leadership Philosophy
Having recently been promoted, one person told me about over-hearing someone mention getting an email from “the bossâ€, only to come to the frightening realization that she was the one being referred to! Taking charge of a team of individuals is no trivial task. After all, not only are you… Read More »You’re the new leader, now what?
Have you noticed a member of your team who everyone seems to gravitate to. This is the man or woman who seems to be able to get others to do things and when there’s a big success, they are probably involved. This is your group’s informal leader. They don’t have… Read More »Your Ace in the Hole
“Your people will decide if you are a leader.” Some version of this quote appears from time to time attributed to various people who would have us believe that leaders must please their team to be a real leader. They believe a leader is not really a true leader until… Read More »Are You Waiting for Your Team to Accept You?
We’re excited to announce the first group completed The Confident LeaderTM workshop in Indianapolis this week. The Confident Leader is the first in a series of workshops formulated to provide the skills necessary to be successful leaders. Despite a small class we had great discussion and a lot of fun… Read More »The Confident Leader has launched in Indianapolis!
An article came through my feed the other day called 22 Habits of Successful Leaders from entrepreneur.com. It was an interesting article, but could have been more accurately titled, 22 Quirky Habits of some Famous Successful People. I realize it wouldn’t have gotten nearly the number of clicks, but why… Read More »Correlation or Causation – The Trouble with Studying Successful Leader Characteristics
The air around us was orange. That was pretty common after a dust storm as a fine powder of sand hung in the air. Through the orange haze, I could see the mechanics going through their morning inspections of the rescue helicopters that sat on alert, ready to rapidly respond… Read More »The Mission: That Others May Live
A very good friend of mine was recently promoted to lead the division in which she has been working for a number of years. She confided in me that in addition to the usual worries about taking a new position was the worry that the person who assumes her old… Read More »Moving up? Let go of the past!