Posts in the ‘Leadership My Dad’s Way’ category
Last month, I spoke to over 700 people about the role of courage in leadership. I had 10 minutes to speak. Courage goes beyond the physical courage displayed by our soldiers on the battlefield. Moral courage is needed from leaders in the hallways and boardrooms of businesses and non-profits as well. Click on the image […]
I knew some brilliant people in high school. They made good grades and graduated without even trying. They went to good colleges and got impressive degrees. I also knew some people in high school who struggled with grades. Try as they might, they fought to make it to graduation day. Some went to community college […]
I am an optimist. If you have read my blogs in the past, you know this. Few people follow pessimists anywhere. Pessimists usually keep themselves and those around them from making any progress or experiencing growth. I understand that past experiences may cause some people to be pessimists. But I do believe being an optimist […]
5 years experience. 10 years experience. 20 years experience. Which one is better? There are many times when no experience may be better than 20 years. An employee with 20 years of tenure can help or hurt a team. That’s why I hate the idea that tenure alone is used in making employment decisions. Tenure […]
At 2:30 in the afternoon, I took a risk. An audience of 700 people had been listening to best selling leadership gurus since 8:00 AM. Now I had 10 minutes to make an impact on this group. I decided to change the first half of my talk and ask the 700 attendees to actively participate […]
In my fifteen years of leading sales people I rejoiced with my new hires when they had a great first year. But, experience also taught me that early success could be the worst thing for some people. Success in sales or in any aspect of business is often determined by a person’s response to failure. […]
What if we did not allow early failure to become enduring failure? We all try. But do we try long enough? Do we persevere? What makes some persevere and others quit? For a lot of us, it is the habit of making excuses. The willingness to make excuses stops many people from going past Plan […]
Many people are not prepared for leadership because their leader has not prepared them. Some leaders fail to develop the people around them because they don’t allow them to make decisions. When a leader prevents people from making decisions at lower levels, the organization is creating an environment where low potential followers flourish and future […]
My people were sick of training. In every meeting, we did some sort of sales training. The term “sharpening the saw” was being overused. I agree a dull blade is ineffective. But, poor sharpening will make the blade duller. Plus, a blade can be ground down to nothing with too much sharpening. We had reached […]
Ready – Shoot – Aim! Unfortunately that can be my decision-making process. On the other end of the spectrum are leaders who tend to be Ready – Aim – Aim – Aim…. Both styles can be problematic. One causes a lot of starting and a lot of stopping to happen. The other causes nothing to […]
