How many people follow you whole-heartedly, doing extraordinary work? It might sound demeaning to call some people followers and others leaders but the truth of the matter is that we all play multiple roles in our lives. Sometimes we are a leader, sometimes a follower. In all cases, guess what, the best leaders have awesome…
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Influence Versus Control
Influence is given to the leaders who choose not to lord their authority over others. Have you worked with, or worse, worked for a “my way or the highway” leader? Try to remember their direct reports. Were they engaged, motivated, innovative, or strong performers? Studies would suggest they did not display any of those positive…
Three Breakthrough Ideas for your Leadership Development
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Engage your employees and grow your your influence What is a “breakthrough”? For purposes of this post, let’s define a breakthrough as something that is significantly better than the current way of doing something. In the ‘old days’,…
How to tell someone their idea sucks
There comes a time for every leader when you’ll be presented with an idea you just can’t get behind. You probably won’t want to make the person feel like their idea is bad, but what’s a leader to do? Bite your tongue? Feign interest? Rip the idea to shreds? You might find yourself torn between inauthentic…
Why Theory X Management Doesn't Work
As the story goes, the super successful, type-A, incredibly driven, commanding CEO said to the VP in front of a room of his peers’: “tell me again why I pay you to be here?” Executive work is immensely challenging and complex. The amount of work is enormous, the pressure beyond description and the threat of losing…
What is LEAN Leadership Development?
One of the breakthroughs at Make Me A Better Leader has been the application of LEAN process analysis to Leadership Development. LEAN in its simplest and most powerful context is a thinking process that enables one to “Banish Wastes, Create Value”. The LEAN Enterprise Institute has this to say about LEAN: “The core idea is…