The Biggest Leap You’ll Ever Make: From Team Member to First-Time Manager
The jump from the role of individual contributor to a first-time manager is one of the most dramatic and most challenging leaps one can make. It requires a complete shift in how you see your role and in how you deliver results. And unfortunately, most new managers are...
Do you serve your team or are you a self-serving team member?
Marcia confided, “I avoid the team meetings whenever I can. They take way too long and drive me crazy. There are a couple of guys who go on and on about stuff that doesn't matter." They might think they're showing how clever they are, but they're really showing they...
Leadership Love is a Competitive Advantage
Guest Post by Matt Tenney Some people think the word love should not be used in a business context. But love is one of the most powerful and unifying leadership attributes. Loving the people around us is incredibly rewarding personally and helps achieve better...
Stop Holding Meetings That Don’t Matter
Most managers spend about 35% to 50% of their time in meetings. And most team members report it is a waste of time. This is because they are meetings that don't matter to anyone other than the team leader. Although it is not clearly stated, the purpose of most...
Why You Fall Off Track and 4 Tips to Get Back on Track
You have a clear vision. Maybe it’s a vision of the kind of leader you want to be, or the kind of partner you want to be, or the kind of parent you want to be, or how you want to inhabit your body, or how you want to show up in the world. It's the new year. You've set...
Lincoln’s Secret to Greatness
Is greatness an attribute reserved for only a few special people? Abraham Lincoln didn't think so. He believed we are each capable of greatness. Most of the good of the world builds on the accumulated efforts of everyday people doing small things in a great way. A...
Great Leaders Assume a Listening Attitude
“I would knock on his door and ask if he had a moment to talk. He'd set aside what he was doing, sit back, and give me his full attention. He was a busy man, but he made me feel there was nothing more important than what I had to say,” Andres reminisced. “Were you his...
How I Learned About the Power of Authenticity
What happens when you have to admit you don't know what you're doing? Sometimes the power of authenticity is the key to turning things around. So I learned in my first job out of college. I had landed a prestigious job as a demonstration teacher at New Mexico State...
Why Most Change Efforts Fail and 7 Guidelines to Ensure Your Team Succeeds
Chances are you will initiate a change that affects your whole team or start a major team project in the near future. And chances are it will not make the impact you had hoped for. A 2008 study by IBM found that over 60 percent of change efforts fail to fully meet...
The Physics of Change
Masters of change like Martin Luther King, Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela understood that vision alone is rarely enough. Real change masters leverage the physics of change to bring about transformation. Newton’s First Law: An object at rest stays at rest and...
Develop Your Team – The Truth About the Bell Curve
The theory of a bell curve is that most people are average, with a small percent at the top being top performers and a small percent at the bottom being losers. But when it comes to performance, the truth is the bell curve only exists if you believe it does. Robert...
Vision is about serving.
Thursday Thought: Vision is about serving something greater than yourself. If not in service of a vision, your leadership can become self-serving. * * * * * * * * * * * * * *...