Getting attention feels good. It releases Dopamine in your brain to stimulate your “reward center”. So does completing a task, or achieving a goal. Therein lies a problem that leaders have to deal with. Another game that leaders have to play. The problem is that getting attention can be easier…
91. Are you Perfect?
The Project Triangle hides an important leadership lesson. Put simply, the Triangle says you have 3 objectives when completing a task. You can have it good, fast or cheap. Pick any two. You can’t have all 3. Good and fast = not cheap Good and cheap = not fast Fast…
87. Do you pay Attention to Detail?
The world is made of somebody’s work Leadership isn’t an abstract topic, it’s a contact sport. Contact between what the leader thinks and does, and what those in the team think & do. Between what you think and what they do… If you’re not making contact are you leading, or…
82. Be careful what you pay attention to.
You can tell a lot about an organization by the quality of the leaders it appoints. Did you ever appoint someone to a role who failed badly? Did you ever have an incompetent peer or boss and wonder how they got promoted? Did you ever fail in a role you…
76. The Menu is not the Meal
A good plan can be a wonderful thing. A story well told with a call to action. Lots of charts showing results, and diagrams showing how they’ll be achieved. Enough details to ensure integrity. Clear objectives. Is it enough? A team’s plan is like a menu for a meal. The…
56. Q3: What’s Important?
Confusion can come from not understanding a problem. It can also come from having too many choices. Too many choices & not understanding are linked. Our 3rd Leadership Question is about targets and priorities. All leaders set Targets – good leaders ask “What’s important?” Target setting is easy – it…
51. Meeting with Confusion.
If you finish meetings confused or distressed, you’re likely experiencing symptoms of a deeper problem within that team. That confusion might be caused by you, but more likely it’s a leadership problem. There are 2 types of confusion – Passive and Active. Passive confusion is simply not knowing what the…
44. What are you hungry for?
Are you and your team hungry for the same thing? It seems an obvious question. Sadly, it’s surprisingly common for leaders to have different objectives from their team members.. It’s useful to think of targets as prey. Something you want to catch. Something you’re hungry for. An effective team works…
38. Where are we going?
There’s no excuse for a leader not sharing clear objectives with their team, unless the leader doesn’t trust their team or doesn’t know where they’re going. There are 2 ways of helping a team achieve an objective. Have them follow your directions all the way, or share the objective and…
32. It’s Good to be the King…
For most of human history people lived in small groups of no more than 150. These families or small villages could be sustained through a hierarchy led by strong individuals – we call them Rulers. The attributes of leaders which make them Rulers survive today and form the 2nd of…