Tag Archives: Team building

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It’s Not About Making A Point

People often argue over the point. Trying to drive home their argument. Leaving the other party dead in the water.

Getting our point across is not the goal of leadership.

What’s Wrong With Making A Point

In theory, there’s nothing wrong with making a point. A point is what we want to get across to someone.

What’s wrong with making a point is how we often do it.

We belittle the other person’s opinion. Destroying their self-esteem. Tearing them down rather than building them up.

We value the point over the person.

If our goal is to get the point across over the value of a person, we’re not leading. We’re being forceful and coercing.

That’s not where we need to head as leaders.

Make A Difference, Not A Point

Our goal should be to make a difference. Not a point.  Read more...

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Should You Be An Empathic Leader?

There was a time I thought of leadership requiring you to stand tall and stand fast. To be able to quickly detach from your feelings and the feelings of others. To be more detached than attached as a leader. Have you ever been there?

Baby yawning

Image By Tamaki Sono

Recently, my friend Brandon lent me a book called A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule The World by Daniel Pink. In the book he discusses the differences between right brained and left brained people. One of the chapters dealt with empathy and leadership.

What Is Empathy?

Empathy is the capacity to recognize feelings that are being experienced by another sentient or semi-sentient (in fiction writing) being (via Wikipedia).

What does this mean to you? When you feel empathy, you’re able to relate to others. Seeing and feeling what they’re feeling.  Read more...

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The 6th Way To Really Motivate Your Team

Jon Gordon recently wrote a terrific blog post about 5 ways to really motivate. I found myself nodding my head and agreeing to each point he made. They all rang true.

And then I got to thinking. There’s a sixth way to really motivate your team.

My thought focuses on and expands Jon’s point number 3 – Share The Vision.

When your company has a vision it is important that you share the vision and share it often. You need to make sure your team knows the direction of the company and where it will end up. Otherwise they’ll lose hope and start to wander.

But, as a leader, sharing the vision is only the first step in the right direction. You need to LIVE the vision.

If you’re not living out the vision, your team will notice. They’ll become disillusioned and discouraged.  Read more...

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Going wide or going deep?

There was a hymn we used to sing during Sunday school. The hymn was titled Deep and Wide.

Grand Canyon / Image Via Creative Commons

The lyrics were

Deep and wide, deep and wide,

There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide.

Deep and wide, deep and wide,

There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide.

While the song is about God’s love for us. His love is deep, never ending. And His love is wide. It reaches farther than you could ever see or imagine.

I believe there is also a deep and wide principle in leadership.

We can look at Starbucks and see how they did this.

One of their goals was to have a Starbucks on every street corner. To sell the same amount of product in more and more stores.

They came close to it but then the recession hit.  Read more...

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Are leadership standards important?

Recently I came across an article titled Proper Spelling? Its Tyme to Let Luce. In the article, Anne Trubek discusses the English language and words with multiple spellings.

She wonders if readers would care if journalists and authors misspell words. And who should have the deciding factor in proper spelling.

Anne closes the article by stating YOU should decide how to spell a word. Do not worry about standards. Worry about yourself.

High Standards (XM)

Image via Wikipedia

The article made me think about leadership.

Should there be guidelines for leadership? Should there be a way to gauge proper leadership? Should there be leadership standards?

The answer to the question is a resounding YES, there should be leadership standards.

Standards like:

  • Concern For Others:
    If you do not care for others, they will notice. You will not come across as authentic.  Read more...

    To be effective, you need to have a desire to help others. Concerns need to be addressed and conflicts resolved. You must show them you care.