Leadership isn’t a game – it has real impact on real people doing real jobs. How your people think will shape how your team performs. How you think shapes how your team thinks. We’re still talking about the game between Survival and Mission. Set your personal mission, choose your missions…
110. What are you thinking?
Learning isn’t difficult. Your brain is programmed to learn. If you don’t stop it. Some say learning a new job is difficult, that’s not true. Learning a new job is easy because you want to learn. You think about it a lot so you learn it. At least until you…
109. Why Why?
The most visionary and inspirational people I know have one thing in common. It’s not high position or material wealth… They all know their Mission. The world can be divided between survivors and dreamers. Survivors aren’t materially poor, they’re trapped in today and tomorrow. Dreamers don’t have their head in…
108. What are you Afraid of?
I’ve worked in some great teams. The thing that set them apart was how smart they were. Or better yet – how smart they became. You see great teams aren’t born smart, they grow smart. They overcome the fears that hold back ordinary teams. Not in a passive or planned…
107. Do you choose Learning?
Learning is easy. It can be slow. It’s also easy to stop if you choose to. In a complex world you win when you control outcomes rather than they control you As a smart leader you control outcomes by giving your team control, not by controlling the team. You do…
106. Where are your boundaries?
Learning is easy. Once you set your mind on something. It’s impossible if you don’t. We talked last week about being open to new or different ideas. Now you’re at work, learning your job. Soon you discover that some things aren’t open to you. Maybe many things. What do you…
105. What do you Believe?
Belief is an integral part of being human, to accept some ideas as true. What we believe makes us what we are. There are upsides and downsides to belief however. The downsides have nothing to do with the spiritual or religious or political or social beliefs that you have. They…
104. Are you just a Leader?
I worked with someone, many years ago, who was promoted because he was great at solving technical problems but turned out to be a poor leader. Byron (not his real name) had some very serious personal flaws including his relationship with alcohol. Byron’s career was cut short in the end…
103. Do you know how Leadership works?
There’s a lot of pushing and pulling on sailing ships. Sailing ships combine simple things to achieve marvelous and complex outcomes. Wind pushes on canvas. Canvas pulls on rope and metal and wood, which then pushes on water, which pushes back on the keel. And so the ship moves forward.…
102. Are you the adult in the room?
Leadership is as simple as growing up. Or as difficult… Leaders act like adults – not like children.. Some poor leadership behaviors are just childish behaviors, so growing up is part of your leadership development. How? For one thing, as a child you know what you want & just try…