Leadership

Only If You Don’t Say So Yourself

July 3, 2012

In 10 Ways You Should Never Describe Yourself, on Inc.Com, Jeff Haden makes an extremely important distinction. He writes: Here are some words that are great when used by other people to describe you, but you should never use to describe yourself.  For example: motivated, creative, guru, passionate, innovative. Jeff lists 10 of them.  I didn’t [...]

Read the full article →

5 Excellent Leadership Tips for 2012

December 23, 2011

As the year draws down, a good time for reflection, I’d like to call your attention to Mike Myatt‘s 5 Leadership Tips for 2012 on Forbes.com, posted yesterday. I think he’s 5-for-5 on this. Here are my three favorites: Family. Mike says “If you’re struggling with the family balance thing my advice is simple: don’t attempt [...]

Read the full article →

10 Ways to Tell You Are Not a Leader

December 21, 2011

Everybody always agrees with you. Because they don’t. They’re lying to you. And it’s your fault they are, because you make them. You talk more than you listen. Nobody who works for you owns anything by themselves. And I mean ownership as owning a task, having responsibility, being empowered to operate, make decisions, and – [...]

Read the full article →

Bad News As a Test of Leadership

October 17, 2011

How does bad news flow where you are? I think the handling of the bad news is an interesting test of leadership and organizational health. Real leaders get the bad news first. If the boss isn’t the first one a person tells about problems and bad news, then there’s something wrong with that boss. Why [...]

Read the full article →

Test Your Leadership With These Two Questions

August 29, 2011

Are you running a business, or an organization, or a team? For a quick rating of your own leadership, ask yourself these questions about bad news: How quickly do you get the bad news? A real leader is the first person to hear bad news. People don’t wait to tell you. They don’t tell each [...]

Read the full article →

It's Analytes Vs. Justdoers in a Battle to Business Death

March 15, 2011

In a darkened arena with a spotlight on a fighting ring in the middle, the crowd hushes as an announcer walks to the middle of the ring and announces the next battle. “In this corner…” — his voice echoes through the arena — “… we have the analytes.” The analytes can’t move without the numbers. [...]

Read the full article →

Can You Define Good Management Technique?

March 4, 2011

With due respect to some of the great thinkers who have, I don’t understand how anybody even tries to define, teach, or even predict good management technique. Even if it’s just one manager and one person being managed, there are already three huge factors: the manager, the other person, and the situation. Both the people [...]

Read the full article →

Company Culture Is What You Are Not What You Want To Be

January 14, 2011

I got this business plan question in email: When you’re starting your business, does “company culture” have an impact in your business plan? Do you start your “culture” when the company is small and create one that will easily expand as your company expands. How important is that type of thing as you go forward [...]

Read the full article →

Leadership and the Man Killed 47 Years Ago Today

November 22, 2010

It’s November 22. Today 47 years ago I was sitting on the gym floor in high school physical education when a kid who’d been to the office told us President Kennedy had been shot and killed. How important was this? How much did it change our history? I don’t know and people debate that still. [...]

Read the full article →

Nice People Can be Bad Bosses. Way Too Often.

September 29, 2010

I’m troubled. The problem, in a nutshell, is that saying jerks and idiots are bad bosses is a bit too easy. It implies that not being a jerk or worse makes you a good boss. And that’s not always true. Nice people can be bad bosses. I like Bob Sutton’s work a lot. He blogs [...]

Read the full article →