Business Leadership
Leadership Reciprocity
Leadership Reciprocity may be a mouthful of a phrase. But it is a profoundly elegant principle.
First of all, let’s look at the Principle of Reciprocity itself. This principle means that when you do something in someone else’s best interest, they feel a sense of obligation to reciprocate. Robert Cialdini writes about this in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. In this best-selling book, Cialdini cites reciprocity as one of six foundational principles of influence.
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Read MoreLeadership Minute Video: Leaders should say "No" most of the time
"Thought Leadership" is oftentimes not
“Thought Leadership” is used far too often these days. Sorry for the negativity of the following blog, but I’ve got to get it off my chest.
For business consultants and professional speakers, “I’m a thought leader” is similar to saying “I’m proud of my humility.” You and I don’t get to call ourselves thought leaders. That is a label that can only be attached to us by others.
According to Wikipedia (perhaps the internet’s most-cited thought-leader!),
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Read MoreLeadership Minute Video: the chief of what?
Leadership Minute Video: Patti DeNucci
Leadership of self is the most important leadership . . . and the hardest. Here are 3 thoughts to keep in mind.
Who’s your most difficult leadership challenge? If you are honest and have at least a degree of self-awareness, you will join every good leader in realizing the most challenging leadership challenge you face is the one in the mirror.
Self-deception. Taking short-cuts. Being inconsistent. Holding others accountable when you don’t hold yourself accountable. Placing blame. Being clueless about the real issues.
Call it what you want: your biggest leadership challenge is yourself.
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Read MoreLeadership Insights from Joshua: 3 timeless principles
I just re-read the book of Joshua in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is the story of how the Jewish God helped them to begin the conquest of the Promised Land. For me, this book is one of the most inspiring books in the Hebrew Scriptures, mainly because of Joshua and his fellow leader, Caleb. Toward the end of my reading, I saw three clear leadership lessons emerge.
Leadership Lesson #1
Sometimes goals take a long time to accomplish.
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Read MoreLeadership Powerlessness
Leadership sounds wonderful. It’s not. Sometimes it’s downright scary.
She’s not making her numbers. More precisely, her division is significantly off our year-to-date forecast. She was strong through the first quarter, but started dipping at the beginning of the second quarter. Her third quarter is off to a very challenging start.
We had a very hard, very productive conversation about it recently. She owns the responsibility. She sees the reasons and doesn’t use them as excuses.
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Read MoreMark these dates
“The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why you were born.”
— Tom Walsh, American Airlines Magazine, February 1, 2010
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