This book, “The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale, and Improve Bottom-line Performance,” by James A. Autry, is very much a how-to book, describing the way to implement servant leadership in many aspects of leading...
Read moreDisagreement vs. Conflict
Call it what you will – discussion, debate, disagreement, argument, conflict, confrontation – as a leader you face the task of keeping these encounters productive for the organization and preventing them from becoming debilitating. To gain the...
Read moreCongruity in Leadership
Congruity is a quality of agreement and appropriateness. Where there’s congruity, things fit together in a way that makes sense. In terms of our leadership, congruity is being the same person or leader in every situation. Leaders who lack...
Read moreAsk, Don’t Tell
One of the best ways for a leader to empower team members or the team is to adopt the practice of “ask, don’t tell.” This concept, sometimes called coaching for performance, moves decisions or solutions from solely the leader to a shared process...
Read more“The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle” by James C. Hunter
Jim Hunter’s previous book, “The Servant,” was an allegory that told the story of a business leader whose life was spiraling out of control in every arena. He attends a leadership retreat where the instructor, a former businessman now monk, leads...
Read moreLeadership and the Peter Principle
Most people are familiar with the Peter Principle. This principle was first published in a 1969 book, The Peter Principle, by Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull. The Peter Principle observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their own level...
Read moreSeeking and Accepting Feedback
Some years back I heard the story of a well-known minister and his response to feedback. After preaching, he would greet the members of the congregation as they exited. Of course, many of them simply offered a greeting of “Good morning” or...
Read moreLeading from Behind
In recent years the phrase, leading from behind, has become popular. People often mention Nelson Mandela as a person who popularized this leadership concept. In his 1994 autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom,” Mandela described his model of...
Read moreFeedback and Character
How to Deal with Character Issues when Providing Performance Feedback One of the most important guidelines for providing effective feedback is to focus on behavior or action and the results or effects that follow. This guideline makes feedback...
Read moreThe Best Bosses Are Humble Bosses
“After decades of screening potential leaders for charm and charisma, some employers are realizing they’ve been missing one of the most important traits of all: humility.” Thus begins an article by Sue Shellenbarger in an article written for The...
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