Whether you’re leading a multinational organization or a family of 4, if you’re going to be a successful leader you need to take care of your health, get enough rest, move your body, and stay connected with people you care about. Yet, even with that knowledge, we all have those times when we hit the wall. It may be that you were traveling across multiple time zones, had several evening meetings in a row, or had a young one up…
One of the key aspects of being a good leader is determining the road forward and figuring out how to stay on that road despite the sometimes unfavorable conditions. We often meet individuals who turn off the road to success for what appears to be an immediate gain without considering how this short-term diversion will impact their long-term goal. Each of these distractions puts them on the road to nowhere. We’ve been working with a lot of organizations of late…
You may look at the title of today’s post and think to yourself, “Of course people matter! Why would they write about that?” And, while we know that you know that people matter, it’s not often we see evidence of it in a compelling way. So when we saw this snippet of video from the Olympics, we thought to ourselves: This is what it means to say people matter. As you will see when you watch the video, a pack…
One of the things many of our clients struggle with is how to get the most out of the negative people in their lives. Those people who are quick to see what’s wrong, or to resist a new idea, or who focus on all the potential “disastrous” consequences of a decision. Almost all of us have one or two in our lives and they can make moving an initiative forward challenging, unless you have the ability to tap into the…
One of the most challenging aspects of being a leader is having enough conviction to adhere to a decision and not be swayed by the opinions of others at the expense of what’s good for the organization. The leaders that can’t do this are described many ways: buffeted by the winds, spineless, and irresponsible. We imagine that some of you are saying, But isn’t that influence, and isn’t that part of leadership? Influence occurs when you’re presented with relevant data…
To ask him about it you would assume that it was no big deal. He’s just not the kind of guy who is going to hype it up. He isn’t the type to brag, or grab attention just because he saved someone’s life. Not Noah. He’s a soft-spoken guy who keeps his own counsel and is pretty low key. But, he’s willing to step up and lead when the situation calls for it and saving someone’s life is one of…
We had a meeting this week with a wonderful woman, Janis, who is a leader in a number of spheres in her life—in her business, her family, her community, and her church. She is warm, kind, and powerful. She is often looked to for her wisdom and perspective and has a thoughtfulness that many admire. So, when she came into our meeting furious and saying she wanted to scream, she was apologetic. We assured her that she was in the…
“If your actions inspire others to dream more,learn more, do more and become more,you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams We recently had a conversation with some young adults who we know through our young adult children. They are amazing young people with great passion and integrity. In our conversation, several of them talked about their belief that leadership is a role and that the people who pursue that role are power-hungry and self-absorbed. Since we had just…
On April 20, 2015, we shared with you Daniel Goleman’s list of the 4 traits his research has shown are essential to emotional intelligence. Each week, for four weeks, we are going to operationalize, or bring to life, each of these traits so that you can increase your emotional intelligence, and thereby increase your effectiveness at work and at home. Many people have told us that they read Goleman’s 4 traits but get stuck trying to figure out what they…
Last week, we shared with you Daniel Goleman’s list of the 4 traits his research has shown are essential to emotional intelligence. This week, we are going to talk with you about operationalizing the first of these traits so that you can increase your emotional intelligence, and thereby increase your effectiveness at work and at home. People read Goleman’s 4 traits and think they are great, but then get stuck trying to figure out the answer to the question, “How…