There is a leadership crisis in our culture. Politics. Business. Sports. Families. Wherever you turn the results of this crisis are evident. Some of the symptoms are political stalemate, lack of trust, dysfunctional teams, cheating in athletics or broken homes. There are a lot of approaches to fixing these symptoms. But the problem is we […]
Don’t play the blame game. Problem finders are everywhere. It does not take a PhD, a MBA or even a GED to be a good problem finder. It takes no skill or advanced education to point fingers. Problem finders usually wallow at the lower levels in organizations and rarely make it past middle management.
“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” -Samuel Johnson Is the problem with the forgetful followers or with their leaders? Samuel Johnson is saying that as a leader, we need to be the Chief Reminder Officer. If something is important it is worth repeating. If we find people forgetting what […]
Let’s clear something up. We are all called to lead! “But, I’m just not the leader type.” Some people say this because they misunderstand leadership. Some people say this because they don’t want the responsibility that comes with being a leader. But, avoiding leadership is next to impossible. Because leadership is influence and we all […]
Don’t be deceived. Self-discipline is not just about ourselves. We often think of self-discipline as it relates to diet, exercise, or other personal goals. But as a leader, our self-discipline effects those we are called to lead as well.
Thirty-four years ago this week, I entered the United States Military Academy at West Point as part of the Class of 1988. That first week, we had to learn the West Point Cadet Prayer. This week the Class of 2022 began their journey as part of the “Long Gray Line”.
Some organizations do not have people ready to step into a vacant leadership position. The issue in most of these situations is not a lack of talent, but a lack of people development. And that is the leader’s job. If you’re people are not growing, you are probably not leading.
Untrustworthy. Poor communication. Poor listening. Micromanaging. Selfishness. Uncaring. Demeaning. Many people believe if you fix these things you will fix a bad leader. But these are just the signs of a bad leader. They don’t identify the root cause of bad leadership.
What’s a disengaged team look like? Some people are afraid to speak up and challenge the boss. Some people don’t want to put forth the effort. And some just don’t care anymore. As a result, the leader never hears the truth about himself and his ideas. The people either become silent bystanders or self-serving sycophants. […]
Positivity or negativity? It boils down to making a choice. Choosing negativity limits who will follow us. The attitudes we display go a long way in determining what type of leader we are and how many followers we have. Do we choose our attitudes, or do we let our circumstances or other people choose them […]
