Monthly Archives: May 2021

The power of mentorship.

Let me ask you a question, "Did you get here alone?  Are you really self-made?"  Probably not. Am I right?  Whatever we have accomplished up to this point in life, it’s likely the result of someone helping guide you. It may have been a coach, a boss, a co-worker, teacher or a parent -- and maybe several people. As leaders, we make investments and decisions on a daily basis. When we decide to invest our time in mentoring someone, we expand the enterprise, we help move it forward.  In the book, “The Leadership Challenge,” authors Kouzes and Pozner state “Leaders are pioneers; they guide us to new and often unfamiliar destinations.  Leaders move us forward.” The positive result of mentoring [...]

By |2021-05-26T01:06:09+00:00May 26th, 2021|Coaching|0 Comments

The main thing is the main thing. 

Steven R. Covey the late author of, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People noted, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." I believe it is true that  individuals and companies with too many priorities have no priorities and are at risk of spinning their wheels. In turn, laser -focusing everyone on a single priority--today, this week, this month, quarter, etc. creates the clarity and power throughout the organization. As leaders, one of our responsibilities is to obtain from team members alignment on what is the priority. For example, "If we could do only one thing this week, month, quarter what would that be?" Get agreement, get commitment and start the plan. We all spend plenty of [...]

By |2021-05-18T17:39:20+00:00May 19th, 2021|Coaching|0 Comments

Three things your people want to know. 

We all know one critical aspect of building a productive team is the selection of the right talent. Once you believe you have the right person for the opportunity, they intuitively have three questions they want answers to. Keep in mind they may not ask these questions of you directly, but deep down the answers may be deal breakers. The last thing you want is to have the person at risk of walking, especially when you have invested the time to identify the right person for the job. The questions are: 1. Do you care about me?  The challenge here for most leaders is how to sincerely demonstrate care. Ask yourself, "Do I really know this person? Do I know [...]

By |2021-05-12T11:49:47+00:00May 12th, 2021|Leadership|0 Comments

Serve and lead — really?

As you may be aware, there are volumes written on the topic of being a servant leader. Perhaps one of the first works came from Robert Greenleaf's book "Servant Leadership: a journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness." I must confess for quite a while when I thought about servanthood, I had a vision of an activity performed by a relatively low-skilled person. My "old school mindset" assumed that if we serve, people will have a lesser view of us. Over the years I have come to learn that couldn't be further from the truth. To prove the point, think about a mother. They naturally serve their family members. Mother's are typically the one person in our life [...]

By |2021-05-05T11:51:30+00:00May 5th, 2021|Connecting, Leadership|0 Comments
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