While managing people can be described as assigning and monitoring tasks, leading people is based on a relationship of influence that is built upon trust and respect for the leader. Demonstration by the leader of strong, positive character traits...
Read moreJust the Way They Are
Meeting for breakfast with a friend and former co-worker recently, the conversation turned to a certain leader with whom we were both familiar. This leader had built a family of successful companies. It was easy to attribute the success of these...
Read moreThe Problem of Arrogance
One of the primary reasons for the downfall of many leaders is the problem of arrogance. Arrogance defeats leadership in many ways, especially in these two: 1) arrogance inhibits a person’s ability to learn or take in information and 2) arrogance...
Read moreThe Impact of Caring Carries this Team to the Super Bowl
“Show your team you care, and they’ll give you everything they have.” This is the philosophy of Sean McVay, the coach of the Los Angeles Rams football team, who is taking his team to Sunday’s Super Bowl game largely...
Read moreGet Real!
Authenticity brings the real person. Authenticity is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “the quality of being real or true.” It is also frequently defined as being genuine or worthy of belief. Of course, the opposite of being authentic is to...
Read moreCompetency and Character
Great leadership is based on a combination of both strong competencies and excellent character. The best skills without the positive character traits leaves people cold. Great skills alone can obtain results for the short term but a stressful or...
Read moreA Primer on Emotional Intelligence
“What did people do before there was emotional intelligence?” I was asked at a leadership workshop a short time ago. The term emotional intelligence has grown in popularity and become an important concept in leadership over the past twenty years...
Read moreSelf-Awareness Is Foundational to Leadership
The traits of leadership are often listed as characteristics such as integrity, confidence, vision, communicator, etc. Seldom do we see on these lists of important characteristics the trait that is foundational to them all – self-awareness...
Read more“Integrity” by Dr. Henry Cloud
When we hear the word integrity in the context of character we think of the definition of being honest and having strong moral principles. In his book, “Integrity”, Dr. Henry Cloud uses another definition of integrity, that of being whole or...
Read moreLeaders Lean In
The natural response to negative situations is to back away. Human nature is wired to be self-protective and so when confronting the negative the common response is to flee, fight, or freeze. But effective leaders learn to lean into the negative...
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