Expertise Matters, Opinions Are Easy
Now more than ever, respecting expertise and thinking through our opinions before pushing an agenda may be critical to our short and long-term survival and success. It troubles me greatly when people make blanket statements like, “you can’t trust the media,” or “experts are often wrong, “or “you don’t know who to believe anymore.” This […]
Leadership Thought #492 – Too Much Judgment of Others Without Facts
Too much judgment can be dangerous! It feels like we live in a world today where rushing to judge the behaviors and actions of others without all the facts has become the norm. It is especially convenient when the person in question thinks or looks different than us. America is still a place where you’re […]
Leadership Thought #483 – Words Matter
I remember my mom telling me early on that “words matter.” Once you say something it cannot be unsaid. Even if you apologize and/or make excuses, the imprint on another person’s brain is still there. And, sometimes the repercussions can last for years or even a lifetime. There are many situations where I wish I […]
Leadership Thought #409 – Behavior Reflects Character
Anyone can manipulate words and stretch the facts to suit their short term objective. However, it is difficult long-term to fake behavior and eventually your words will catch up with you.
Leadership Thought #465 – Everyone Is A Critic
When you lead others, everyone is a critic to some degree. It’s next to impossible to be fully aligned with another person 100% of the time. As a leader, knowing this, you can’t fall into the trap of listening to every dissenting voice. The path to mediocrity is littered with individuals who gave up their leadership power unnecessarily and allowed themselves to be unduly influenced by the opinions of others. This doesn’t mean you avoid soliciting feedback, quite the contrary, but you need to be able to filter this feedback and trust your own judgment. The world looks much different when you are actually accountable for your decisions. It’s easy to be an expert when you don’t have to deal with the consequences of your actions.
Leadership Thought #362 – Never Stop Learning
Leaders should be in a constant learning mode. Once you think you know it all give up the reigns of power because you will become detrimental to your organization. While some basic fundamental beliefs may remain true regardless of the circumstances, most of what takes place in business is in a constant state of flux. Your goal should be to stay ahead of the change curve not fall behind it. One way to do this is to keep asking questions and seeking answers. You can never be smart enough.
Leadership Thought #315 – Have You Stopped Thinking?
Most of us prefer to occupy the realm of opinions rather than facts – whether we’d like to believe it or not. Instead of taking the time to actually prove something or find out the truth, it is much easier to form an opinion based on personal experience, values, attitude, hearsay, etc. This is especially true in our media where people with strong opinions (often with minimal or no grounding in the facts) dominate the airwaves. We’ve become a society dedicated to the easy answer and convenience in all things. It is certainly much easier and self-satisfying (we think) to find someone who represents our own point of view rather than pushes us to grow and challenge this perspective.
Leadership Thought #297 – Avoid the Popular Opinion Bandwagon
Everyone is too quick to jump on the popular opinion bandwagon these days. Instead of taking the time to understand the facts and make an educated decision about something, it is much easier for most people to just go along with the crowd and follow whatever the media or their particular brand of talking heads tells them to think. Just because something or someone resonates with you doesn’t mean this is an accurate reflection of reality.
Leadership Thought #291 – Don’t Fall in Love with Your Own Opinions
There is nothing wrong with having strong opinions but always remember this doesn’t mean you are right. There is a difference between a fact based opinion and experiential opinion. In one case you are actually using hard facts and objective data to state you position. In the other case, you are relying more on subjective experience and personal beliefs to make your point. The dangerous thing about experiential opinions is that they are grounded solely on the personal filters of the advocate. They are also based on a singular and usually somewhat stunted view of reality. Being louder and more passionate about something will certainly garner attention, however, once again this doesn’t mean you are right and very often means you are rude, close-minded and/or a poor listener.
Daily Leadership Thought #178 – Get Informed
There is no shortage of people who are unhappy with our government or political process these days, but very few of us actually do anything about it. It is much easier to complain and assume that one particular party has all the answers or not. In addition, instead of actually doing some research and using fact based arguments, we prefer to have strong opinions based on the rhetoric and propaganda of ill informed media personalities.
Daily Leadership Thought #142 – How Well Do You Disagree?
Disagreement is a fact of life. It is next to impossible to imagine that you will see “eye to eye” with someone else on every single issue. We all see the world with a slightly different perspective. What matters is how you navigate these disagreements. Do you take different opinions as a personal affront? Are you cordial to the other person who sees things differently? How important is it for you to be perceived as always having the right answer (and at what cost)? How open are you to different interpretations of the same set of facts? Are you willing to learn from your mistakes and admit when you are wrong?
Daily Leadership Thought #97 – Be Wary of Overly Strong Opinions
There are very few beliefs that can actually backed up as truths. Most things in life are open to interpretation. And, interpretation is mostly a subjective exercise. No one person has all the answers or a full understanding of the facts.