Monthly Archives: April 2014

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How To Prepare For Leadership

Regardless of how old you are, you can always step into the role of a leader. Doing so requires you to prepare for leadership.

Many people will overlook these steps and hop right into the role. Often ending in disaster, for the leader and, sometimes, for the organization they’re leading.

This is why it’s important young leaders prepare for the role of leadership. When you do, your leadership becomes magical.

Abraham Lincoln once famously said

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

Lincoln, a great president knew there was a correlation between preparation and success. And he was willing to go to great lengths to prepare.

So, as a leader or emerging leader, why wouldn’t you want to prepare for your role as a leader.  Read more...

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3 Ways To Open The Eyes Of Your Employees

When we hire a new employee, we want him to give his best to the work he’ll be doing. We want to see him excel and do a fantastic job.

Yet we often set these new hires up for failure.

Now, don’t think I’m crazy. At least not yet. Once you’re done reading this post, I think you’ll realize there’s less crazy going on than you thought.

Setting up the new employees for failure often happens unconsciously. We don’t even think about it. And that’s the problem!

We’re blinded to the faults we have and the poor leadership tactics we may be showing towards them.

I believe we need to open the eyes of our employees. Especially the new ones.

When we do, we begin to set them up for success rather than failure.  Read more...

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Hate Your Responsibility?

I was working with my mind numb to the world, hating a process that I normally love. Have you been there? My shoulders were slumped and I was moving like a slug. I was in such a bad mood that the day was moving so slow and an hour felt like a whole day. It was an infectious attitude and my crew members knew to look out. What was wrong?

Don't hate your responsibility!

What changes when we go from loving our job, kids, spouse etc., to hating the responsibility?

I believe it is simple. It all comes down to one thing. What are we thinking about? Next time your attitude gets bad and your effort goes in the toilet, think about what you are thinking about. How are you viewing your current task?

The attitude we need to have is that of I get to do ____. However, what we often think is I have to do ____.  Read more...

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Gamifying Your Personal Growth

You may be one of those that sees personal growth as a struggle. Something to be done, but it’s loathed as you’re growing.

You may say “It’s boring” or maybe “I’ve heard it a thousand times before.”

What can we do if we find ourselves stuck in a personal growth rut and unable to see our way out? One way is to begin gamifying our personal growth.

Gamifying? You’re probably asking yourself what the heck is gamification? You might even think gamifying and gamifcation aren’t even words. (They are, by the way)

What Is Gamification?

Let’s start with what is gamification? Wikipedia defines gamification as the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems. Gamification is applied to improve user engagement, return on investment, data quality, timeliness, and learning.

So, what does that mean?  Read more...