Trump Needs Leadership 101

I do not consider myself a very political person.  Nor did I ever envision posting an opinion concerning this presidential election on this platform.  I apologize from straying from my norm.  However, I have been simply sitting back praying that this man does not become the LEADER of our great country.  I decided that sitting on the sidelines will not contribute to what my wishes are.  Donald Trump is in no way a leader and should not be President…period.   Continue reading “Trump Needs Leadership 101”

What’s Your Leadership Methodology?

I was recently in a meeting and someone asked me, “What is your leadership methodology?”   Honestly, I thought to myself, “Huh?”  But instead I asked, “what do you mean by methodology?  You mean what do I think makes a good leader?  How do I coach a potential leader?”  I got, “you know what I mean.”  Well, actually I didn’t, but I did get a moment of clarity.  I don’t have a singular methodology when working with individuals or businesses on leadership nor will I ever.  Why?  Simple and well known.  Every individual and business is different. Furthermore, I have yet to come up with a new methodology that surpasses the fundamentals of human engagement.  In my blog post Crazy Busy? Create T.I.M.E, I outlined the core of my beliefs on leadership but thought I would elaborate on what I think makes a good leader.   Could you call it a methadology?  I suppose if you wanted to sound like an expert of sorts or claim that you or I came up with it. Both of which would rarely be true.  The reality is it’s mostly known, unfortunately not widely practiced.  Easy read….in bullet form.

Continue reading “What’s Your Leadership Methodology?”

New Year, New You? Could be…

We are 1 month into 2016.  And, as usual, this first month of the year flew by.  And, as usual, many people either made news year’s resolutions or at least thought about things they would like to change in the upcoming year.  And, as usual, many of us have already failed, lost sight of what we wanted to achieve, or are not doing what is necessary to really create the desired change.  One thing I know for sure is that when we were thinking of the positive changes we were going to make, we were optimistic.  But now, perhaps a little pessimism has seeped in.  So, I wanted to pause at the one month mark and touch on this…on the practical and emotional levels. Continue reading “New Year, New You? Could be…”

Who are YOU?…Take 2

In my last last post I challenged you to pay attention to who you truly are.  Not just pay attention but to think about who you want to be…how you want to be perceived.  I even went so far to ask you to picture yourself at your own funeral and ask yourself some questions around that.  Since posting that I have l done some more reflection around this.  Most of my reflection has been centered around the fact that I have been seeing a lot of campaigns on TV and social media  that are focused on “What is your why?” or “Find your WHY”.  This obviously is similiar to my last post.  However….

Continue reading “Who are YOU?…Take 2”

Who are YOU?

If I asked you to draw a penny, could you?  What is on the face of a penny?  Who?  And, can you put all that is on a penny in the right place?  Go ahead, try it.  Really, stop reading, and try it.

You failed, right?  If you didn’t fail, congrats, you are among a rare minority.

We have been handling pennies since we were small children…20, 30, 40 or even 60 plus years of handling pennies yet we could not even describe exactly what is on it.  Sad, isn’t it.

I have been doing this excercise for about a decade with individuals, small groups and larger audiences. I can remember maybe 3 times that someone got it right.  I have always found it interesting but only in the last few years have I flipped the script on what the exercise illustrates for me.  What began as an excercise about paying attention to detail turned into an excercise about self.  Let me explain. Continue reading “Who are YOU?”

A Players Will Leave

Characteristics of an A Player:

  • Competent at what they do and delivers desired results consistently
  • Understands that leadership is action not position
  • Highly emotionally intelligent and therefore someone that is sought after for practical and otherwise advice
  • Proactively seeks to add value in undirected ways
  • Positive attitude and an ambassador of the desired culture
  • Holds himself/herself accountable

There are other characteristics and always ones that are specific to a job, but these are the foundational ones to me.

Now, have you ever lost someone like this?  Ever worked with someone that left you behind to take on “bigger and better” things?

Losing A Players slows down productivity, beats down morale and takes a chunk out of the bottom line.  And often enough starts a trickle down resulting in losing more A Players. Go a layer deeper only to find clients wondering why you can’t hold on to good employees.  Result…You could lose clients too.  No bueno.

But, completely avoidable in many instances…if not all. Continue reading “A Players Will Leave”

Wave the White Flag

In 2010 I was accepted into the GBC LEADERship program…one of the best of it’s kind nationally.  I was flattered, excited and frankly, nervous as hell.  I was to spend a year with around 50 other leaders. The insecruties that I have alluded to in this blog were dripping from my pores as the first day of the program came closer.  Partly because I had read up on my classmates.  Included in my class were partners at the biggest law firms in Baltimore, owners of multi million dollar businesses, big wigs of M&T bank, the Chief of Staff for the Lt. Governor, PhD’s from Hopkins….and then there was me.  Ugh! Continue reading “Wave the White Flag”