Leadership Series: Negotiating
Leadership Series: Negotiating “Negotiating? Well, that’s not for me. I’m not a salesman, lawyer or politician. Surely negotiating isn’t important in leadership.” The authors or “Getting to Yes” disagree. Their best seller starts: “Like it or not, you’re a negotiator. Negotiation is a fact of life. You discuss a raise with your boss. You try to agree with a stranger on a price for his house.” You negotiate with your co-workers on where capital investment should be allocated and what new products to deploy. Or, to provide two more examples from Getting to Yes, perhaps you’re...
Read MoreLeadership Series: Emotional Intelligence
Leadership series: Emotional Intelligence Today’s topic will be introduced by a thought provoking fact: people with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70% of the time (source). Wait, you got that backward, right? So, if it isn’t smarts that drives success, what is it? Research suggests that it’s emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is “the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically” (source). This is an indispensable capability of any true leader. Leaders inspire,...
Read MoreLeadership Series: Storytelling
Leadership Series: Storytelling A key role of any leader is to inspire. A very effective way to inspire is through storytelling. Think of some of the most compelling accounts from history and how they’ve shaped us. The amazing tale of the forefathers and how they claimed the independence of the United States as the pilgrims immigrated across the ocean and began a new life. The great leadership of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and others and their incredible histories. All of these stories engender in US citizens a spirit of values, self-reliance and independence. Now think of your...
Read MoreLeadership Series: Sharpen the Saw
Leadership Series: Sharpen the Saw As we discuss the topic of leadership it might be easy to become overwhelmed with a list of skills, capabilities and practices of effective leaders; enough to make us put our feet to the floor more hours each day and more days each week. But today we’ll discuss another essential and even invaluable habit of great leaders. This is what the famous Dr. Stephen R. Covey calls “sharpening the saw.” Abraham Lincoln, an experienced axman, taught a powerful life lesson that illustrates well this idea when he said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I...
Read MoreLeadership Series: Decision Making
Leadership Series: Decision Making It’s often said that being a decision maker is a necessary attribute to be a leader. But this is only, at best, a half-truth. Why? Well, on the one hand, it’s very important for a leader to be able to move an issue forward by making a sound decision but on the other, being the one that has to make the decision could be your organization’s biggest bottleneck. If you’re making all the decisions, you’re either too involved (i.e. you don’t trust your people) or you’re just plain egotistical (i.e. you don’t think your people are smart enough to make...
Read MoreLeadership Series: Debate
Leadership Series: Debate In our most recent Leadership Series post we spoke about the importance of conflict; and today, we’ll talk about the importance of a related but unique interaction necessary for organizational/team success—debate. Oftentimes it’s said of good leaders that they’re decision makers—and this may well be true in certain cases. But decision making leaders often leave something behind. The knowledge, ideas and intelligence of everyone else. Liz Wiseman, in her best seller, Multipliers, teaches us how to make sure we’re seeking fact based, well thought through...
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