I am often asked for secrets to successful leadership. There really aren’t any secrets, but saying that makes me seem less of an expert so I just put on my best wise looking smile and provide a short list of key leadership principles. While it’s tough to pick out just… Read More »It’s Not Really a Secret
Business owners often complain that they don’t know about everything happening in the business. It’s s a truth many leaders don’t realize: the higher you go, the less you know! For various reasons, the more senior a leader is, the less he or she knows about what is going on… Read More »What You Don’t Know Is More Than You Realize
Among the many sculptures and works of art in Washington D.C. is a piece titled “The Awakening,” a large aluminum sculpture of a man either struggling to rise from, or being consumed by the Earth. Created by J. Seward Johnson Jr., the sculpture was first installed at Haines Point in… Read More »The Awakening
This article was submitted by guest blogger Sophia Katrina. In this day and age of digital dependency, employees are more isolated than ever before, even if they are working in the same office. This might make you wonder if it’s still essential for bosses to foster teamwork and collaboration. It… Read More »How Can You Foster a Collaborative Spirit?
In 1968, Dr Laurence Peter published The Peter Principle. He said that, in any organization, employees will rise to their own level of incompetence. Kind of a sobering thought. I’m sure you have seen organizations that seem to prove his theory. I know I have. That’s unfortunate because it doesn’t… Read More »Avoiding the Peter Principle
The question was posed to me recently by an executive level client. He was upset that his project managers didn’t seem to want to go beyond the way things were normally done. He wanted them to try different approaches and new ideas. The executive is an engineer and very experienced… Read More »How Do I Get My People To Be More Innovative?
A basic tenet of a military organization is the ability to pack up and move out quickly. Being proficient at that skill requires planning and practice. Although I’ve been involved in many such efforts, both as rehearsals and as real deployments, one example has always stuck in my mind. It… Read More »It’s Okay to Have Fun – In Fact it’s Necessary
Articles lamenting the failure of leadership training to produce lasting effects have become a regular addition to my article feeds. All sorts of experts are telling me that, although companies are spending more than ever on leadership training, the results are universally disappointing. My experience tells a different story and… Read More »Is Leadership Training Really Failing? If It Is, Here’s Why
He was a new supervisor and he seemed frustrated as we spoke. “Why do I have to ask people to do things? Shouldn’t I be able to just tell them to do it?” The short answer is, “Yes, you can tell them and they should respond.” But is that the… Read More »The Magic and Power of Please and Thank You
I was asked this question in a workshop recently. In addition to my team in the company, I work with subcontractors. It’s like a team, but they don’t really report to me and they work for a completely different company. How can I be effective when I don’t have such… Read More »Tips for the Authorityless Leader