Successful people don’t have 7 habits. More like 70. Or 700. The reason they’re successful is they have more good habits than bad. Just as great athletes or musicians train for muscle memory, so too great leaders train for behaviour memory. Almost all behaviour is habit based. Especially when stress…
152. Where do you meet?
I’ve worked with leaders who spent very little of their time with their own people in their workplace. Physical interaction wasn’t part of their job. They weren’t unfriendly, just distant. And isolated. And weaker as a result. They never knew what they were missing. Most failed as leaders. I’ve also…
151. How are we Connected?
Great football teams don’t play great basketball. They’re great at football because they focus on football. They live for football, think and talk about football, play football. Football is the cement that binds the team together. They might play basketball, but it’s not the game that they’re connected to. It’s…
150. Who don’t you like?
We all have blind spots. The trouble with blind spots is you don’t know you have them. You don’t know what you don’t know. There’s a clue you can use however. A hack that strong leaders make a habit. The trick is simply to be aware of what, and who…
149. Why Connect?
There are lots of things we do without personally interacting with other humans. Digital technology allows us to be less connected. Not just human interaction but physical connection with things we use or rely on. Where does your drinking water come from? Who fixes your plumbing? How was your phone…
96. How do you view your world?
The world is a complicated place. The only way we can make sense of it is by simplifying it down. We create a worldview that’s a representation of the real world. A simplified model. And we all have a different world view… The same is true in smaller groups like…
95. Are you in an invisible prison?
Prisons are a little more complicated form of punishment than most people realize. Prisons use physical walls to separate inmates from each other and society. Prisoners are not just socially isolated, they’re separated from people they trust. Prisons are mental punishment. Keeping a person in isolation isn’t just about keeping…
94. Are you Lucky?
I worked with a group of people once who each pooled $5 every week to buy lottery tickets. They were happy talking and dreaming about what they would do if they won, but they never won the big one. They hoped they’d get lucky, but never did. It’s true that…
90. Are you Efficient?
Efficiency is a key leadership challenge. How to achieve what you need to do at the lowest cost. Your challenge as a leader who has to manage costs is the struggle between what you say you want (lower costs), and all the other things you really want. Not just obvious…
89. Are you safe?
Employee engagement is not a “soft” topic. It’s hard work. Being nice is not enough. There are plenty of friendly, agreeable leaders with deeply unhappy teams, who have failed to deliver results. One reason for those “nice failures” is that friendliness and fairness alone don’t create engagement. Engagement doesn’t just…