25 Leadership Quotes And Lessons From McFarland, USA

McFarland, USA is absolutely incredible and a movie everyone should see.  This movie chronicles the story of coach Jim White’s, played by Kevin Costner, relocation of his family to the Mexican-American farming community of McFarland, CA where he became the town’s high school cross country coach.

If you are looking for a family-friendly, inspirational movie about perseverance, family and the power of community, look no farther than McFarland, USA.  You will not be disappointed.

The following are 25 Leadership Quotes And Lessons From the absolutely wonderful McFarland, USA:

1. The Only Difference Between Anger And Danger Is A “D” – Leaders often lose influence when they lose control of their emotions.  Coach White’s only option for employment was a school in one of the poorest cities in America after his anger resulted in a teenager getting injured.
2. Leaders Want Options – After Coach White’s family arrived in their new McFarland home, he said despondently, “We’ve got to make it work.  We don’t have another choice.”
3. The Power Of Persistence – One of the runners said to Coach White, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight.  It’s the size of the fight in the dog.”  To which Coach White responded, “Depends on the size of the dog.”
4. Leaders Build The Self-Esteem Of Those They Serve – After being removed from an assistant football coach job after just one game, one of the runners told Coach White, “They’re treating you like a picker.”
5. There Is A Fine Line Between Success And Failure – There was a striking parallel in that a federal prison (failure) was right next to the high school (opportunity).
6. Churches Should Prioritize Ministry To The Next Generation – One of the schools teachers told Coach White, “These kids, this is the best years of their life.  If we’re going to reach them, now is the time.”
7. Out Of Great Calamity Comes Great Opportunity – Coach White made an interesting observation.  What better place could you find a cross country team than with kids who eat the right foods, pick in extreme heat and running is their primary mode of transportation?
8. Great Leaders Recruit Influencers First – After identifying which students would make the best members of the cross country team, Coach White recruited one of the Diaz brothers because he would bring his two other brothers with him.
9. Great Leaders Give People A Picture Of A Brighter Tomorrow – Coach White gave the team a picture of how running could benefit them and their families.
10. The Chain Is Only As Strong As Its Weakest Link – The Diaz brother enlisted to recruit his brothers was the slowest runner on their team.  However, by the movie’s end, his contributions were critical to the team’s success.
11. Losing Is Never Easy For Great Leaders – Coach White told the team after losing their initial race, “What is hard is watching someone pass you on a hill…What is hard is losing.”
12. Great Leaders Trust Their Preparation – They lost their first race because of how they ran the hills.  But after training differently, Coach White confidently acknowledged, “When we see a hill we’re going to smile.”
13. Going To A Higher Level Requires A Different Set Of Skills – To help the team cope better with racing through the mountains, Coach White demanded they “change gears going up a hill.”
14. Leaders Get Better With Focus – Sometimes a lack of options is good for leaders.  It eliminates distractions.  Coach White told Thomas Valles, “Running is all you got.”
15. Great Leaders Connect With Those They Are Called To Serve – Coach White took a day to pick cabbage with three of the Diaz brothers and their families.  This brought him credibility with the Diaz family.
16. Great Leaders Provide Solutions – After working a day in the fields, the exhausted Coach White worked out a schedule which allowed the Diaz family to continue making income while also racing.
17. Even Great Leaders Make Mistakes – Coach White forgot his daughter’s birthday.
18. Great Leaders Do Not Focus On Negatives – To relieve some of the team’s pressure, Coach White said, “Quit staring at the mountain.  It’s not going anywhere.”
19. Great Leaders Give Their People An Identity – One of the runners wrote, “When we run we own the earth…We’re not immigrants anymore.”
20. Great Leaders Have High Pain Tolerance – When comparing his team to others, Coach White reminded them of what they face everyday and said, “It comes down to which runner can handle the pain.”
21. Great Leaders Give Their People New Experiences – After making the state finals, Coach White took his team to experience something they never had before – the beach.
22. Great Leaders Are Protected By Their Teams – When Coach White’s daughter was involved in a random act of violence, the entire cross country team provided protection by jumping in front of her.
23. Great Leaders Prioritize Relationships – When considering leaving McFarland after the incident, Coach White’s wife Cheryl weighed the value of the friendships they had made.  She said, “Jim, the owner of the store has a name and he’s our friend.”
24. Leaders Make Their Teams Feel They Can Accomplish Anything – Before the final race, Coach White said to the team, “You run like you’re superhuman.  There’s nothing you can’t do with that kind of strength.”
25. Leaders Validate Their Teams – He concluded by saying, “You’ve got the biggest hearts I’ve ever seen.”

READ MORE; http://ht.ly/JsXgA

Six Questions To Improve The Power Of Your Message

Recently my son decided that he wanted to change a class in his junior high schedule. My wife and son went to pay a visit to the school counselor.

During the meeting, the counselor asked him why he wanted to change to a different science teacher.

He said, “Well most of the time I have a difficult time focusing which makes the teacher really hard to understand.”

To this the counselor replied, “What you really mean is your teacher is boring and you can’t stay awake. Is that right?”

He responded, “Well I didn’t say exactly that.” Unfortunately for him, she did not allow him to change teachers.

When my wife told me this story, I thought that perhaps we were doing something right, and I was impressed that he had enough presence of mind to think about how to frame a message in a way that was more respectful and that might lead to a positive outcome.

Consider the power of words in your message. Dr. Albert Mehrabian taught that when talking about your feelings or attitudes that only 7% of your message comes from the words that you use. He also proposed that your tone accounted for 38% and body language or nonverbal behavior accounted for the remaining 55% of meaning in your message.

However, it would be a broad generalization to assume that all messages would be attributable to the same percentages. Once someone asked me, “How do you know when your message was absolutely and perfectly clear?”

To which I responded, “When I am angry.”

My confidence in my response is based on the perfect alignment of my words, feelings, and actions. Unfortunately, we know that speaking to people in a state of high or hot emotion does not a rational conversation create, nor can we trust the accuracy of what the other person is hearing or what they will say. What we don’t often take into account when we are delivering our message is the context within which that message is being delivered.

Words when combined are powerful tools for inspiring, uplifting, enlightening, informing, motivating, and describing any number of situations. One of the most powerful functions of words is the picture or context that they create for the listener.

For example, if someone told you that a person was self-centered before you even met him, when you finally did meet, you would see everything that he or she did as evidence that they were self-centered. And unless you were consciously assessing your own interpretations or judgments of their behavior, you may never change your opinion of that particular character trait.

In fact a famous psychologist once told me that once President Clinton told the public that he “did not have sex with that woman,” that no matter what evidence was offered later, many people still refused to believe anything that ran contrary to what they initially thought.

If you want the message that you deliver to have a positive impact, consider the following questions you might ask yourself that will help you consider the context of the message and the person to whom you are speaking:

What is the topic to be discussed? Obviously the delivery of your message will be different based on the topic. Is this a search for understanding? Do you need to provide constructive or negative feedback? Are you simply looking for more information on an issue? Is this a very sensitive subject with legal ramifications that need to be discussed? You need to be clear about the topic and determine the best way to approach the message you want to deliver.

What is the purpose of the conversation? Specifically identifying your purpose allows you to determine what you would like the person to do. If you don’t know what you want to accomplish, then you are almost assured of not achieving what you want. You have to know what you would like the end result to be if you expect to communicate clearly.

What is the current status of your relationship? You might even ask yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how much trust currently exists in your relationship with them. In situations where you have a strong or positive relationship, where the person really knows that you care about them both as a person and a professional, you can deliver a strong message, and they are less likely to take what you have to say personally. However, you must realize that many people take everything personally as a matter of their style. However, the strength of the relationship should be considered as you chose to deliver your message.

What judgments do you hold or assumptions are you making? Before holding any difficult conversation, it is important for you to surface and assess the judgments or assumptions that you hold about the person. For example, if you think that they are a “jerk,” the chances are great that you will treat them in such a way that your behavior will elicit their jerkiness. In essence we often influence people to show up in a certain way by the way that we treat them. You must identify any negative thinking and suspend it if your conversation is going to be successful.

What are the data in the current situation? Your thinking is based on the data, observation, or evidence that you have experienced. Once you have surfaced your thinking, you need to look for the evidence that substantiates your thinking. For example, if you repeatedly hear yourself accuse a person of being lazy, but you cannot identify any data that would logically lead you to that conclusion, then you need to seriously reflect on the conversation that you need to hold. After all, the data becomes the justification for what the person needs to change. If you can’t point to a specific behavior that you want them to improve, then they will not know what to change.

What is your plan for improving the situation? It is always best if the person comes up with their own plan for improving or changing the current situation. You would do this by asking them what they did, what they might do differently going forward, or where they are stuck in the process of trying to identify a viable solution. If they struggle to identify a plan, you want to be prepared by taking a moment prior to the conversation to identify a possible plan of attack. That way you can offer suggestions to help them create a plan that will work for them and you.

The questions above should help you to consider the words that you will use as you craft your message or prepare for the difficult conversation that you need to hold.

Obviously, not all conversations are difficult, but if the potential is there for the conversation to go awry, you need to slow down, reflect on the questions above, and identify the best way to deliver the message you really want to give.

Taking a moment to do so will improve the message that you deliver and the results you want to achieve.

Read more; http://leadchangegroup.com/six-questions-to-improve-the-power-of-your-message/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The Innovative Organisation: Learning From Design Firms

The world’s top design firms have innovation down to almost a science. For traditional incumbents looking to build innovative capabilities, design can be the ideal catalyst.

In 1993, Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun Hee made a humbling discovery in a Los Angeles electronics shop. He found his company’s televisions relegated to a low, forgotten shelf in the back, while Sony and Panasonic models occupied the front window. To Lee, this spoke very badly for Samsung’s global standing. Soon afterwards, he began a radical overhaul of the company’s highly Confucian culture, with the goal of making Samsung one of the world’s leading brands.

Lee ordered top management to refocus their efforts from cost-saving to creating unique, must-have products. In 1994, Samsung initiated collaboration with a few design firms including IDEO. The following year, Samsung established an in-house design school (in partnership with the Art Center College of Design, the leading design school based in Pasadena, California) whose curriculum included art and culture tours of New York, Paris, Delhi, and many other creative hotspots. Perhaps most notably, Samsung was one of the few major companies in consumer electronics to create a position for a chief design officer. As times and technologies have changed, Samsung has gone from strength to strength: In the first quarter of 2014, the company shipped 85 million smartphones worldwide, more than its four leading rivals combined.

Design: Catalyst of Change

Design was pivotal to Samsung’s turnaround, in more ways than were readily apparent to consumers. As its products acquired sleekness and elegance, Samsung was retooling its organisational culture behind the scenes in line with Chairman Lee’s edict: "An enterprise's most vital assets lie in its design and other creative capabilities.” In short, the company was teaching itself to be innovative, before that buzzword achieved techie ubiquity.

The story at Apple, Samsung’s greatest competitor nowadays, shares certain similarities with Samsung’s. In the late 80s, prior to establishing its industrial group led by Bob Brunner (the design mastermind behind Beats headphones), Apple used to have only a few designers who would do most of their design work through design firms such as IDEO. Brunner eventually hired Jony Ive, with whom Steve Jobs led the design revolution initiated with the first iMac.

Samsung and Apple traced out a path to 21st-century success admired and followed by other brands. But too many companies still stash their design in a silo, where it can have little to no overall organisational influence.

A silo approach fails to capitalise on everything designers bring to the table in addition to creativity. Top design firms such as IDEO, Continuum, and Eight, Inc. have not only a well-tooled process for converting innovation opportunities into real innovations, but also a set of organisational elements perfectly aligned with that process. If companies require an innovation role model, they need look no further than design firms.

The Three “I”s in Design Firms

Designers’ most valuable capabilities have nothing to do with Photoshop, or any tool or technique for “designing”. They are much more about setting a direction than executing directives, more about shaping creativity to practical needs than indulging flights of fancy. By observing how many design firms work, I have identified three core organisational capabilities at which they particularly excel, which also comprise the rudiments of any innovation journey: user-centric insighting, deep and diverse ideating, and rapid and cheap iterating.

User-centric insighting: In order to create value in novel ways (the goal of innovating), you must first locate opportunities to do so. Where to start looking is easy to see—with the end-user—but it’s far more difficult to detect and synthesise actionable information within the complexity of the user experience. Customer surveys and focus groups simplify the process, but are often removed from how people authentically respond in the marketplace. Designers, by contrast, prefer observation to interrogation, developing empathy to discern unarticulated, even unconscious, user needs. As Tim Kobe, CEO of design firm Eight, Inc. put it, “We represent the end-user in all the design decisions that take place in these innovation projects.” And that’s why building empathy with the target user is crucial, as Continuum did when working with Procter & Gamble to reinvigorate the Pampers brand. Observing mums and their babies, designers realised that the mothers’ ultimate concern was their infant’s development, not the diaper itself. With that in mind, they devised a line of premium diapers for different developmental stages (Swaddlers, Cruisers, etc.) rather than segmenting by age.

Deep and diverse ideating: Designers generate heaps of new ideas based on user insights. This phase is where they unleash their creativity, coming up with as many and as distinct potential solutions as possible before putting much thought into implementation. These preliminary solutions are the product of an organisational process that deliberately cultivates a broad range of perspectives. Far from avoiding eccentric and exceptional voices, design firms seek them out and encourage their contributions within an atmosphere of freedom of thought and playfulness. Playfulness is so important at IDEO that they have created a Toy Lab where designers conceive and test out some of their creations by playing with kids as young as 18 months.

Rapid and cheap iterating: Designers understand that the creative flurry of the ideation phase can take them only so far. They are quick to make ideas concrete and not shy to declare them failures when they don’t live up to expectations. For designers, failures are not negative events but learning experiences. Producing fast and cheap dummy versions to test out concepts means that even when the experiments flop, it’s still a win-win. Singapore-based multidisciplinary design consultancy Awaken Group makes “low-resolution prototypes” of spaces using stacked cardboard boxes to represent walls. That way, alterations can be made to the design in a matter of moments as the client walks through the demo space.

Many firms developing new products or services carry out insighting, ideating, and iterating, so what sets design firms apart? It’s the way they approach these three distinct phases: Aligning their process and organisational elements to encourage user-centricity when insighting, fostering the generation of many and distinct ideas during ideating, and celebrating the creation of rapid and cheap prototypes during iterating. The challenge for established organisations then is to coordinate every aspect of their business so that they can produce their own versions of insighting, ideating, and iterating in a way that does not disrupt their capability to operate efficiently.

If a second-tier Korean TV manufacturer could reinvent itself to become the world’s biggest consumer electronics company, the transformative potential of design is limitless.

Read more at http://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/the-innovative-organisation-learning-from-design-firms-3833#gsvRAe8fPSPTYwAT.99

15 Reagan Leadership Lessons

As with other consequential presidents before him, Ronald Reagan is emerging as a historical figure transcending the partisan politics of his time.

Reagan on Leadership explores his leadership approach.

Here are 15 top Reagan leadership lessons:

15 Reagan Leadership Lessons

1. Craft a Compelling Vision. This is something we all know–yet few master. Reagan’s vision of individual freedom is the foundation of every aspect of his leadership, throughout his career.

The most important thing is to have the vision. The next is to grasp and hold it. You must see and feel what you are thinking. You must see it and grasp it. –Reagan

2. Cultivate Durable Optimism. Durable optimism was a hallmark of Reagan’s leadership. He believed, even in the darkest days, that brighter days lay ahead. This connected him to the young–with whom he had a unique bond as president–and to future generations. His enthusiasm helped restore America’s confidence in herself. Reagan’s understanding of the power of optimism in leadership arose, in part, from his youth during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

[L]ike most Americans, I live for the future. –Reagan

3. Study Your Part. Actors study the characters they are asked to inhabit and translate. Ronald Reagan developed his notion of the “role” of leader with Franklin Roosevelt in mind. Young Reagan voted for FDR in each of his four presidential runs. Over time, Reagan’s politics evolved in another direction. He was nonetheless able to look beyond politics and partisanship as he evaluated leadership.

Franklin Roosevelt was the first President I ever saw. I remember the moment vividly. It was in 1936, a campaign parade in Des Moines, Iowa. What a wave of affection and pride swept through that crowd as he passed by in an open car—which we haven’t seen a President able to do for a long time—a familiar smile on his lips, jaunty and confident, drawing from us reservoirs of confidence and enthusiasm some of us had forgotten we had during those hard years. Maybe that was FDR’s greatest gift to us. He really did convince us that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself.  –Reagan

4. Communicate a Compelling Vision. Reagan demurred on being called the “Great Communicator.” He preferred to say that he communicated “great things.” So he did. Polls showed that Americans well understood his top priorities.

5. Translate Your Vision Into Management. Reagan’s clear communication of his vision fostered a supportive culture in the organizations he led. Everyone—from the general public to the many members of his presidential administration—understood the keystones of Reagan’s vision. This empowered people at every level to advance Reagan’s agenda.

Every day when I got up and went to work, I knew what I had to do. –Frank Blake, former Reagan administration official.

6. Personnel Is Central to Management. Reagan’s presidential administration centralized personnel selection and management to an unprecedented extent. His team’s mantra was: “Personnel is policy.” Paradoxically at first glance, the central supervision of personnel management worked hand-in-glove within an overall approach of decentralizing and delegating authority. 

7. Compromise to Advance Your Goals. Long before he entered electoral politics, Reagan served as a highly effective labor negotiator. He learned to fight hard for the interests of those he represented–and when to accept a compromise that would be in everyone’s interest. When he was unable to achieve all of his announced goals, he would frame the ultimate agreement in a way that would enable him to return for additional concessions in the future.

I’d learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: ‘I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to the bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average. –Reagan

8. Seek Allies. Some people seek out reasons to disagree with others. Reagan strove to find areas of common ground. He was skilled at building alliances. This included locating shared interests or concerns with people and organizations who might otherwise be viewed as in opposition. He did not hesitate to reach out to those who became “Reagan Democrats.” So, too, he made a point of working with members of his own Republican Party who were not 100% “Reagan Republicans.” The Reagan administration cobbled together an unlikely set of allies in its efforts to turn the tide of the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Then, remarkably, Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev moved from the Cold War to cooperation.

Somebody who agrees with me 80 percent of the time is a friend and ally, not a 20 percent traitor. –Reagan

9. Deploy Humor. Reagan’s use of humor was legendary. He often disarmed foes and critics with a gentle but lethal touch. So, too, he would not hesitate to poke fun at himself. This enabled him to address legitimate, sensitive issues of public concern, such as his advancing age while serving as president.

I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue in this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience. –Reagan, debating Walter Mondale, 1984.

10. Maintain Perspective. Reagan evaded the prideful temptation to conspicuously burn the midnight oil as president. He understood that the tasks only he could undertake–such as top decisions relating to life and death, representing the nation in various capacities–called upon his judgment and perspective. He spent the equivalent of a year of his presidency away from the White House, at his ranch in California. Of course, no president can ever entirely be “off.” Reagan was by no means detached from necessary decision-making, much less idle. He was separated from the day-to-day minutiae, better equipped to keep his eye on the big picture.

11. Protect Your Health.  The first duty of anyone entrusted with the well-being of others is to safeguard their own health. Reagan was memorably disciplined in terms of diet, exercise, and sleep.

[Reagan was] the most disciplined person I ever saw. –Howard Baker, Jr.

12. Don’t Be Limited by Others’ Expectations. They said a professional actor could never be elected president. They said a divorced person could not be elected president. They said he was too old to be elected president. They said he could never reach agreement the Soviet Union to curtail the ruinous arms race. “They” could not faze Ronald Reagan.

13. Write. In common with many other effective leaders, Reagan was a serious writer. He had been a professional speaker, as well as an actor, for decades prior to becoming president. Writing required that he think through many, many events and ideas. It enabled him to experiment with various ways to express his observations in the most persuasive way. Writing reinforced his capacity to be engaged in events. At the same time, the focused listening and observation that fuel writing ensured that he was always an outsider, always scanning the larger scene.

14. Embody Your Vision. It’s often observed that Reagan, the actor, was memorably authentic. His life and work were unified. Reagan strove to convey integrity. He came to embody his vision.

15. Make It Look Easy. Reagan believed that part of a professional’s code is to “make it look easy.” One might usefully recall another adage in this putting this in perspective: It didn’t just happen. 

Read more; http://servetolead.org/15-reagan-leadership-lessons/

Some of the Things I’ve Learned...

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I hope the new year is off to a good start for you, and that you are confident that 2015 will be full of opportunities and challenges that will bring you pleasure and fulfillment.

It’s traditional to start the New Year with resolutions designed to help us live healthier, happier, and more rewarding lives. But the ritual of starting a new calendar also allows us to reflect on some of the important things we’ve learned over the years, the insights we want to pass on, and the things we’ve learned that make us not only smarter, but wiser.

For instance, I’ve learned that I am still a work in process; that as long as I can think I can learn.

I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn but if I keep learning I will get better; and the better I get, the happier I will be.

I’ve learned that trying to be a good person doesn’t get any easier and that being a good person often requires me to do the right thing even when it costs more than I want to pay.

I’ve learned that kindness is more important than cleverness and that carrying grudges is foolish and self-defeating.

I’ve learned that my dad was right when he told me, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” and that tenacity is more important to success than talent.

I’ve learned that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional and that I have a lot to say about my own happiness.

I’ve learned that a life focused on fun and pleasure rarely leads to happiness or fulfillment.

I’ve learned that in my personal relationships and in the workplace I’ve got to set limits because whatever I allow, I encourage.

I’ve learned that the things I like to do least are often the things that need to be done most.

I’ve learned that it’s easy to fall into self-righteousness and that neither the intensity of my feelings nor the certainty of my convictions is any assurance that I’m right.

I’ve learned that unless I translate my thoughts into actions, my great ideas and good intentions are like unlit candles.

I’ve learned that I cannot lie myself out of a problem and that the problems I ignore don’t go away, they just grow bigger.

Read more; http://ht.ly/IgzNe

How’s Your Leadership…Positive or Polluted?

“It is a shame that so many leaders spend their time pondering their rights as leaders instead of their awesome responsibilities as leaders.”

 James C. Hunter

General George Washington and General Benedict Arnold were both effective leaders; however, their lasting effects on their organizations were profoundly different. Although both men were heroes of the continental Army, one went on to become the father of our country and is universally viewed today as an exemplar of selfless and inspiring leadership. The other became our nation’s most notorious traitor. His name evoking thoughts of someone who’s pride and self-oriented actions led him to sell out his young nation in hopes of personal fame, glory, and reward.

Two leaders. Both gifted. One added value and left his surroundings better than he first found them. The other’s unchecked ambition and inability to keep his toxic tendencies in check resulted in a legacy of disillusionment, betrayal, and mistrust.

We have all likely endured the overly ambitions boss or overbearing leader.  However, leaders with toxic-tendencies are something more. Rather than creating conditions for people to flourish and thrive and come fully alive, their destructive tendencies sap our strength and steal our joy. Their toxicity is a contagion which, in time, pollutes the culture of the entire organization.

The term “toxic leadership” is often used to describe those who have a profoundly negativeeffect on others. Be it a promise-breaking politician; arrogant or ignorant media personality; greedy corporate executive; demanding and demeaning military leader; or anyone else who routinely undermines, demeans, or micro-manages subordinates, toxic leadership has become all too commonplace. Much like General benedict Arnold, those men and women in positions of power and influence who possess an almost narcisstic preoccupation with themselves and their agendas do much more harm than good.

Richard Wagner, in his book Smart People Doing Dumb Things: The Case of Managerial Incompetence, shares how individuals with toxic tendencies are often the first to take more credit than they deserve when things go well and are often the first to point fingers of blame when they do not.  Rather than leading in a manner that creates strong bonds of mutual trust and respect in order to facilitate mission accomplishment, toxic leaders generate serious and enduring poisonous effects—fostering a climate of fear, distrust, divisiveness, selfishness, and a host of other unhealthy and unproductive conditions.

In their insightful article entitled Narcissism and Toxic Leaders, Lieutenant Colonel Joe Doty and Master Sergeant Jeff Fenlason note that leaders with toxic tendencies are also notoriously:

• Poor listeners;
• Overly sensitive to criticism;
• Willing to take advantage of others to achieve their own goals;
• Intent on seeking every opportunity to be in the spotlight;
• Uninterested in others opinions, ideas or feelings; and
• Prone to conduct themselves with an air of self-importance that’s impossible to miss.

That’s quite a sad list, if you ask me. And the fact of the matter is, toxic leadership is neither new nor limited to a particular industry.

So what can each of us do to help prevent ourselves from exercising or expressing toxic tendencies? Try these simple practices:

Don’t Foster Blindspots. Going through life without asking for feedback is like driving in a foreign country without ever stopping to ask directions. One of the best ways to guard against developing toxic tendencies is to periodically ask those you know for their candid and constructive feedback. Determine if the way you see yourself is accurate with how others perceive you. Assess if your words and your ways, your tone and your temperament, carry tinges of arrogance or hints of haughtiness. Be open and genuinely interested in others feedback about your performance.

Don’t Be a Decision-Deflector. One of the single biggest ways a leader can undermine confidence and breed complacency is to be indecisive. Rather than step into their role as a decision-maker, leaders with toxic tendencies tend to deflect decisions, especially challenging or unpopular ones, for fear of looking incapable or incompetent. If this describes you, stop. Assert yourself when necessary, and take advice when needed.

Don’t Be Emotionally Hijacked:  Don’t allow your emotions to get in the way of your success. Knowing when to practice self-control and self-discipline communicates a sense of consistency and maturity to those around you.

Don’t Dodge Disappointment: Although setbacks, failures and disappointments can be a very real byproduct of leading, those with toxic tendencies often strive to play it safe. Given their insistent need to guard their egos and protect their public personas, toxic leaders prefer to dodge disappointment rather than recognize that risking  the sting of defeat is what could very well unlock opportunities for growth.

Don’t Be Afraid to Raise Your Hand:  Leaders with toxic tendencies are quick to reject responsibility. They refuse to accept the consequences of outcomes anytime doing so threatens their self-perpetuated myth they are too good to err. Don’t let that be you. Remember, sometimes your role as leader means having to shoulder the responsibilities of others’ actions. Are you ready to improve your leadership skills? Adopting some or all of these traits could be a step in the right direction.

Don’t Wield Power Over Others. Leaders with toxic tendencies routinely forget their primary job is to effectively guide others to achieve mutually beneficial goals and objectives. It’s not to indiscriminately wield power over them. If you are operating effectively as a leader, you likely have figured out the value you add is often invisible. It is what those around you achieve that truly validates your role, not what you do to promote yourself. Keep any toxic tendencies at bay by focusing on enabling others to succeed. Strive to liberate their talent and potential then, get out of their way.

Toxic leadership demotivates individuals and damages organizations by decreasing the commitment and motivation of their members. The negative outcomes caused by leaders with unchecked toxic tendencies create lasting and enduring harm to an organization’s culture and climate. As Ron Kaufman reminds us, “The culture of an organization is like a river. It can be fluid, strong and consistent, serving as lubricant while guiding its members in the right direction. In contrast a river can become stale and toxic, silently killing those who drink at its shore.”

What kind of culture are you promoting? Is it positive, energizing and inspiring others to be and do their best? Or is it polluted, stagnant and stifling, draining those around you of their energy, creativity, and potential?

Read more: http://ht.ly/Hg9wN

25 Lessons Learned (or Reconfirmed) in Year Five Away from Corporate Life

1. Some things aren’t going to change. Lots of things will get worse; change the hell out of all those things.
2. When it comes to business development, there’s a huge difference between enough business and enough possibilities to yield enough business exactly when you need it.
3. You have to replenish the wind in your sails . . . you can’t afford to simply coast forever.
4. It’s nice to have someone who will call B.S. on you in a constructive way.
5. Someone new and unfamiliar with what you do may be exactly the right person to throw you the huge challenge you’ve been avoiding even considering.
6. It’s fine to have a positive attitude and firmly believe you won’t deal with the same issues that other entrepreneurs do in their companies. When reality shows your positive attitude to be ill founded, get over it and learn quickly how others dealt with the issues now befalling you.
7. Sometimes your family obligations are going to have to take a back seat to doing what you need to do for your business. Other times, family obligations will be so important that you’ll turn your back on business without even a thought. There’s no hard and fast rule (at least that I’ve found) for predicting in advance which will be which.
8. When a future opportunity goes away for no apparent reason, be vigilant for the often subtle demonstration in the future that reveals exactly why the opportunity had to go away.
9. Make very few statements about how you will ALWAYS do something or NEVER do something. Things will change. Then you’re left figuring out how to make a graceful change to what you’ve been proclaiming with such certainty.
10. It’s vital to improve your skills at saying no to the right things.
11. Maybe I can only write in less than 1,000 word chunks. And putting together one hundred 500 word chunks doesn’t seem yet like it’s a practical way to create a book. But, I did say, “Yet.”
12. There have been many more opportunities this year to teach people how to do their own Brainzooming. Those experiences have been invaluable in shaping how we present the material and helping to realize “teaching” may be the important piece of the business that didn’t seem nearly as important when we started.
13. If you would have ever asked me before we started, I don’t think I’d ever have included nonprofit organizations as an important client group for us. Yet, our relationships with the nonprofits we’ve worked with closely have been tremendously rewarding. It’s one thing to work with someone who is looking up two or three layers in an organization to get things done vs. an executive director who may have fewer resources, but can make things happen once the direction is created.
14. I never thought it would get challenging to write either list posts or recaps from conferences I attend (considering I’m typically generating 100 or 200 tweets as a starting point). But for some reason, both of these forms became real blocks in the past year. It’s important to recognize, however, I’ve stuck with blogging as a form of creative form expression longer than I have probably any other form in my life. It seems as if it’s time to reinvent the boundaries and what’s within them.
15. This is the year where I feel I’ve done less practicing what I preach than at any time since the business started. Thus, the renewed importance of surrounding myself with people who will keep me honest in doing for ourselves what we’d readily recommend to others.
16. The coming year has to become the year of recasting content. There is value to deliver from the body of work in blogs, presentations, and workshop material. The job now is to create it.
17. Feeling alone and not liking it isn’t a new lesson. In fact, it was one of my biggest concerns in starting the business five years ago. In several ways, however, this past year was the year of feeling alone.
18. Easy answers and good answers aren’t going to be the same. When I wade into social media channels, it seems people are much more intrigued by easy answers than good answers. That leaves me focused on the smaller portion represented by where the two intersect. I just can’t pump out easy answers that aren’t good ones.
19. I’d never considered the possibility that the golden egg may be golden inside and look plain outside. If that’s common, how many golden eggs have I walked by in my career?
20. If you want to learn things you would never suspect about your business, categorize and re-categorize information about what you do. Simply putting different labels and different sorts on even skeletal data can tell you volumes.
21. As much as some people get excited about paying attention to things that are changing, I get excited about paying attention to things that aren’t changing.
22. I wrote perhaps the most revealing post about myself ever this year. It was the one about the twenty-five steps I go through on every presentation. Now that all the steps are spelled out, I can actually tell where each presentation is and how far away it is from reaching a happy place.
23. I never realized how often I’d be thankful for my ability to act oblivious when I’m really not oblivious to what’s going on around me.
24. When you’re getting four hours of sleep on a consistent basis, it’s harder to shift mental gears whenever you need to do so.
25. It only takes one reader writing a very sweet and completely humbling email to get me to do just about anything differently. Read more; http://ht.ly/DYpGI