Category: Leadership
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Don’t Back Down (Life Lessons from Tom Petty)
Starting up a business or beginning a new job can provide a great lesson in humility. I know that I have felt that myself. You have great intentions, ideas, and determination. But “stuff happens” and gets in the way. Lots of roadblocks are thrown your way. You make progress, you gain optimism – then more…
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Can a Nice Boss Be Effective?
My friend, Jack Harvey, shared a very interesting HBR article on the truth about being a nice boss, from author Emma Seppala. Here were her key conclusions. #1. High Stress Reduces Productivity If “tough” managers create tremendous levels of stress on employees, the effect can be very negative. High levels of workplace stress have been…
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Strong Leaders Don’t Give In to the “Yeah, buts”
I recently worked with a CEO who taught me some great lessons in management. One of the best I learned was that strong leaders must set clear and steady vision, and the leader can’t get drawn into a battle of “Yeah, buts”. So, what is a “Yeah, but”? A “yeah, but” describes a tiny attack on your…
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Reading Bad News in the Morning Reduces Work Effectiveness
Have you ever wondered whether reading bad news in the morning can have a negative impact on your productivity? According to a new study by Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan in the latest Harvard Business Review, “consuming negative news CAN make you less effective at work.” In their study, participants who were exposed to negative…
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Macromanagement: Vision vs. Details
We have all heard the phrase “He can’t see the forest through the trees.” When people say this about leaders, it is certainly not meant to be positive. The suggestion is that the leader gets so bogged down in details that he can’t see the full picture; he can’t see or articulate a vision. Paula…
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Micromanagement Dragging You Down?
A struggle for many company leaders is resisting the urge to micromanage. What enabled you to rise in your organization was your ability to get things done – to take full responsibility of making something happen, based upon your own extraordinary skills in specific functional area. But now you are a leader. Yes, you probably…
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Be Courageous — Don’t Fear Failure
Reggie Jackson was known as “Mr. October”. During the regular season was a very good ballplayer. But during the postseason, especially late in games, Reggie was one of the greatest clutch hitters in baseball history. In 27 World Series games, he hit 10 home runs (including four in a row), had 24 RBI and batted…
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Marketing: Differentiate to Win
The quickest way to sink the value of your products in a crowded field is to make them a commodity. That is true for products, services and for yourself. Why would a customer pay more for your product if they see nothing different from your competitor’s offerings? Differentiation can be as simple as identifying what…
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Seek First to Understand
One of my favorite leadership books is Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. While all his habits are helpful, I continually go back to Habit #4: “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.” That involves BOTH understanding and communicating, but the first step is understanding. Sales people are notorious for spewing out…
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Leadership and Keeping Your Head
“If you can keep your head, when all about you are losing theirs…yours is the earth and everything in it” – From “If” by Rudyard Kipling. This is my all-time favorite poem. The message is simple: strong leaders keep their wits in difficult situations. They have learned that panic does not lead to sound decision…