Leadership

What if your team improved 1%?

I spend a lot of time reading books and articles on leadership, peak performance, and innovation to help my clients reach their strategic goals. In my book Water The Bamboo® I encourage leaders and teams to identify their Bamboo Dream (vision) and to faithfully water it for five years before it grows 90 feet in 60 days. The watering (effort) is essential to success.

Manage Your Own Punch Bowl

Being a leader requires emotional energy. There are lots of demands on your time and energy. I was recently leading a seminar with a group of upcoming leaders and I was asked, "How can I stay positive in such a demanding world as a leader with the complexity of all my roles?" I responded that it’s up to you to fill your punch bowl. Every day I think about what activities I will engage in that will fill my punch bowl.
 

Can you and your team survive a punch in the face?

As the great American “philosopher” Mike Tyson once said after he was told that a boxing challenger had a plan to defeat him, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” I am not a Mike Tyson fan but no matter what you think about him, he had at least one moment of genius.

Key Principles of Chess Can Help You Become a Better Leader

My youngest daughter and I have been playing a lot of chess. In my youth I was my third grade class chess champion but of course only a few kids knew how the chess pieces moved. As I coach my daughter on some of the key principles of chess I realized that many of these principles could be applied to leadership.

7 Tips to Becoming a Better Listener

Recently, one of my daughters received an award that caused me to pause. Among the awards she received was the best listener award at her Dance Team banquet. Instead of the certificate below, I thought she should have been given a gold embossed ear trophy! This is an award that I would have never won as a teenager but it is one that I have strived for as an adult, both in my personal and business life.

Better Questions Lead to Better Engagement

A recent Gallup study indicated that over 71 percent of the workforce is either not engaged or actively disengaged. This has caused many leaders and organizations to put large amounts of effort and energy into holding their employees accountable.