Leadership Thought #475 – 3 Key Factors That Lead To Employee Success
Most leaders have an uneven record of accomplishment when it comes to ensuring employee success. The wonderful thing about my job is that I can find inspiration everywhere, from all walks of life and fields of practice. It is often cliché that leadership development professionals lean on sports and military examples (at least my male […]
Leadership Thought #317 – You Have To Learn To Hit Curve Balls Or Find Someone Who Can
There comes a time in every young baseball player’s career where he has to learn to hit a curve ball. It isn’t easy to learn this skill. With fastballs it’s just a matter of focus, timing and reflexes. Curve balls are often unpredictable and anticipating ball movement can be quite difficult. The same thing happens in business. At first you just need to pick up the fundamentals. Much of this knowledge is easily acquired and is just a matter of applying what you learn. With certain skills sets, practice will make perfect. However, as you become more successful and the stakes get higher, the level of complexity will tend to increase in a corresponding manner. It no longer becomes just about fundamentals.
Leadership Thought #246 – Winning The Games You Should Win
High performing businesses often resemble their sports counterparts. Starting at the top, there is predictability to their concentration and effort. Nothing is taken for granted. People know what is expected of them and they do it on a daily basis. Crises are few are far between. Business units don’t beat themselves and are quick to notice and leverage performance advantages. Individuals are self-motivated and do not require external stimuli. Winning is an expectation not a surprise or the result of an imbalance of effort. With all truly great teams, victory is a foregone conclusion.
Daily Leadership Thought #154 – The Importance of Acknowledgment
Everyone likes to be acknowledged and appreciated. It’s basic human nature. Hard work, determination and skill should be recognized. It’s been proven by many studies that top performers in all walks of life like it when you keep score. It’s no so much to feed their ego but more about being transparent about results and progress. You can only move the bar if you know where it already exists. Moreover, our innate competitive nature likes to know how we are doing vis-à-vis our peers and colleagues.