Are you an Idea Monkey or a Ringleader? Pick one.
At the Vistage Executive Summit in Los Angeles, speaker Mike Maddock asked us to identify which we were. When I turned to a couple of CEO’s I knew well and
Do you hold 1-2-1’s with all your direct reports?
You probably think you communicate regularly and effectively with all your direct reports. What would they say? My sense from working with a lot of team members just below the CEO is that they
Can you make a decision?
You probably know that the word “decide” means to kill choice. It may have been your experience that you rose through an organization, because you were willing
Who works for a company when the workday never ends?
The simple answer may be all of us. It may be all of us at some time in our lives. It may be that some of us can’t
How do you align the daily activities of the team with your long-term plans?
Many companies have created alignment within the management team by yearly corporate meetings, weekly tactical meetings and all the impromptu conversations that keep
How do you teach crisis management to your team?
There is something about the first time – the first kiss, the first time we live away from home, the first job – that has a special meaning for all of us. It is exciting, it is scary, it is all new. The first time you lose a major customer, the first time you have […]
What makes us trust a leader?
Instinctively, we trust some people and don’t trust others. We put our faith in unscrupulous folks sometimes and don’t immediately recognize the truly trustworthy ones. So we begin to doubt our instincts. Trust is a difficult concept to parse. The part of the brain where we analyze trust must be near the Amygdala where flight […]
What differentiates a leader?- Willingness to take charge/risk
Ultimately, someone has to do it. Someone has to make the decision. It is fascinating to watch in a team meeting. When no one is “the boss”, who ultimately pushes the group to decide and move on? If you are familiar with Myers-Briggs personality inventory, these are the high “j”s. They tend to hate ambiguity- […]
What differentiates a leader?
You see conversations about this on LinkedIn, there are a thousand business books that talk about it. It is studied in military colleges, the political arena, business schools and multi-national corporations. We think it is vital to the success
Where did you learn to be a leader?
In our society, it seems like being a leader is supposed to be like being a parent-you’ll figure it out when you need to. The analogy goes further, we instinctively copy