In response to the post from a few days ago, “Why developing leaders is hard and the two most powerful ways to go about it“, Kurt Häusler (@Kurt_Haeusler) commented: “Both assume good leadership is already in place, nearby and available. It also encourages emulation over improvement.”. [If you’ve not read the post already, maybe take a…
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, which fundamentally is the improvement in an individual’s ability to take the lead and in their people skills, must start from, and be driven by, the learner. Leadership is an individual endeavor. Not solitary, but individual. This is one of the reasons leadership development programs are so often a waste of time and…
THOSE OF YOU who’ve been reading this blog for a while will know that I don’t see good leadership as having followers, but rather as a set of attributes that bring success not only to titled-leaders, but to anyone who embodies them. Independence, People Skills, Expertise, and Passion enable anyone to be successful, not just…
HAVE YOU GOT 18 minutes to spare? No, scratch that – just make 18 minutes available. Now, or maybe come back later. Either way, this is worth your time. Why you do what you do, whatever that is, is the key. The what you do and the how you do it are tertiary to the…
THERE IS A lot of leadership advice out there. Hundreds of books, thousands of websites; some helpful, most not. Much of it ignores fundamentals; instead offering adhoc, graft-on, band-aid, random, and arbitrary “solutions” with no foundation, little context and no integration. How are you supposed to remember, internalize, and successfully use “The 21 Immutable Laws…
WHEN YOU START a project, getting up and running can be hard. But, especially when it’s an exciting thing you’re starting, you have energy and enthusiasm. You push hard, and slowly the wheel begins to turn. Keep pushing, and the project starts to turn itself, running on its own inertia. You’ve gained momentum. It feels…
THE definition of leadership is: It’s not by accident that the first clause is about what you are setting out to achieve. It all starts with that. Good leadership is founded on vision. That term, “Vision”, is a bit over-used, and therefore perhaps compromised, sullied, clichéd, but it still fits. Good leaders don’t accept what…
EVERYBODY is in the business of giving good service, because everyone has at least internal customers whose productivity depends on being helped happily and efficiently. Unhappy, disgruntled, frustrated, or angry people rarely give good service. Bad vibes spread. And they spread quickest from the top. If the boss is having a bad day, chances are…
If you lead a team, why would you have any non-Team Players on it? * * * * * THE term “team player” gets used a lot. But what does it actually mean? Common usage suggests that a “team player” is one who puts team above self. That’s a false alternative with which I don’t…
YESTERDAY’S post was Leadership IS Creativity. Shortly afterwards I saw the post: “There Are A thousand Noes For Every Yes“, over at Alesandra Blakeson’s User Friendly blog, featuring a great short clip from Apple (re-posted below). I wish everyone who designs anything, understood this: Any act of creativity is ultimately an act of design. Even…
