May, 2015

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Never tell Eagles to Stop Soaring

Leadership Freak

Exceptional people are advised to tone it down. You’re too organized, too compassionate, too visionary. “All you think about is getting things done. You need to tone it down.

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Avoiding Your Leadership Deflategate

Kevin Eikenberry

I’m guessing you’ve heard something in the news lately about deflated footballs, fines and penalties related to it. While I’m not a New England Patriots fan (I live in Indianapolis after all), this isn’t really about Ideal Gas Laws, balls hidden in bathrooms or the content of text messages. This is about much more than […]. The post Avoiding Your Leadership Deflategate appeared first on Kevin Eikenberry on Leadership & Learning.

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The Answer is Who

Leadership Freak

Short-sighted leaders are consumed with results. Real leaders are consumed with people. The answer is who. Traditional leaders: Solve problems. Prevent failure. Create systems. Measure results. Traditional leadership is essential.

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15 Ways to Dig Out of Discouragement

Leadership Freak

The only reason encouragement matters is discouragement is real. Positive thinking addresses the reality of negative. Dark feelings give relevance and power to positive.

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SME Relationships: Proven Solutions for Seamless Collaboration and Success

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

💢 Do you find yourself stuck in never-ending review cycles? Are you wondering if your Subject Matter Expert actually got that last review request? Are you having trouble trying to decipher impractical or conflicting feedback? 💢 If any of these scenarios sounds familiar, you may benefit from a crash course on managing SME relationships!

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7 Ways to Become a Respected Leader

Leadership Freak

You don’t need position when people respect you. Respect amplifies leadership. Leaders who aren’t respected, depend on position, power, authority, and control.

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13 Beliefs That Hold You Back

Leadership Freak

Failure begins with self-limiting beliefs. 13 Beliefs that Hold You Back: Wisdom always feels right. If feelings were always right, failure would be extinct. Ineffective behaviors eventually become effective.

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12 Ways to Make the Most of Opportunities

Leadership Freak

Everyone who says, “I wish I had more opportunities,” doesn’t understand opportunities. An opportunity is your chance to give before you get. An unmet need, for example, is an opportunity.

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How to Get People to Take Responsibility

Leadership Freak

Irresponsibility doesn’t see the damage it does, until it’s too late. “I didn’t mean to,” is not acceptable. “I did my best,” is anecdotal. When people don’t take responsibility: Reputations decline.

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7 Ways to Put In More Than You Take Out

Leadership Freak

You’re a black hole, if all you think about is what you need from others. Great leaders give more than they take. 4 things that drain people: Expectation without appreciation.

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5 Ways to Face Uncertainty with Confidence

Leadership Freak

Responding to uncertainty establishes trajectory, impacts potential, and determines quality of life. Uncertainty is the spotlight of leadership. The dark side of uncertainty: Intolerance and quick tempers. Lost perspective and poor judgments.

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Change Management 101: A Practical 3 Part Guide

Implementing new tools or business processes in your organization? Lemon Learning put together a practical 3 part guide to prevent the pitfalls of change management. Drive a successful change management project from diagnosis through to measurement.

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7 Powerful Ways to Reignite Your Energy

Leadership Freak

The less energy you have the more negative you become. Energized leaders are better. Low energy leaders: Feel unappreciated. Want to quit. Blow up. Can’t create or try new things.

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Solution Saturday: 12 Ways to Get People to Listen to You

Leadership Freak

Forget leading if no one’s listening. The right to be heard is earned. After a recent presentation, I was asked, “How do I deal with someone who isn’t listening to me?

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10 Ways to Reconnect with the Big Picture

Leadership Freak

Leaders who forget the big picture end up lost in the weeds. Without perspective, urgencies prevail. Getting things done gets in the way, when it’s time to see the big picture.

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We’re on a Mission From God

Leadership Freak

“We’re on a mission from God!” The Blues Brothers – 1980 Successful leaders know and do what’s important. Purpose defines importance. Actions disconnected from purpose are meaningless.

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Is Training the Right Solution?

Speaker: Tim Buteyn

Let's set the scene: you’ve identified a critical performance gap in your organization and need to close that gap. A colleague suggests training, but you suspect there’s something going on that training can’t address. How can you determine if training is the right solution before you commit your budget and resources to a new training program? In this webinar, you will learn how to determine if training is the right solution using the Behavior Engineering Model.

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Three Steps to Great Leadership

Leadership Freak

Small managers need to feel big. Egotistical managers walk around like they run the place. But, no one enjoys an insecure, heavy handed, meddlesome, leader. Small managers: Throw their weight around. Get huffy when challenged.

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10 Ways to Discern Rather than Condemn

Leadership Freak

Foolish leaders believe pointing out what went wrong inspires people to do better. You can’t condemn and inspire at the same time. Discerning leaders hunt for things that are going right.

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Half the Team Doesn’t Trust the Boss

Leadership Freak

Over 50% of employees don’t trust their boss.* 5 reasons leaders seem dishonest: Pretending things are better than they are. Holding your nose in the air. Arrogant leaders sacrifice others to protect their image. Remaining isolated.

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Stink Bugs and Flowers

Leadership Freak

There are two types of leaders, stink bugs and flowers. Stink-bug-leaders: When stink bugs show up, everything stinks. Fear goes up. Teams feel dumb. Nothing’s good enough. The past is more important than the future.

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Revitalizing Dry Content: A Lesson in Engagement

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

We’ve all been there. You’ve been given a pile of dry content and asked to create a compelling eLearning course. You’re determined to create something more engaging than the same old course that learners quickly click through, but how do you take this “boring” content and create something relevant and engaging? Many instructional designers will say, “Boring in means boring out.

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The Illusion of Desire

Leadership Freak

Recurring gossip, blame, and complaining indicate you want things to change, but you haven’t done anything about it. Wanting change increases frustration when old behaviors continue.

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Coaching to Capitalize on Frustration

Leadership Freak

Don’t say calm down. Capitalize on frustration. Frustration is energy. Energized toddlers fall down kicking and screaming, when they can’t have candy before breakfast. The message of frustration? Give me what I want.

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How to Seize Growth Points

Leadership Freak

The first sign of life is growth. Leaders who aren’t growing are dying. Great dreams require great growth. Exponential growth occurs when: Success feels uncertain. New skills are needed. Situations feel awkward.

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Getting Your Whole Team Pulling Together

Kevin Eikenberry

The image tells it all. What we want is everyone working together, pulling in the same direction, striving for the same goals. It seems like it ought to be easy. After all, everyone is on the same team. But the more people who are involved on your team and in your organization, the harder this […]. The post Getting Your Whole Team Pulling Together appeared first on Kevin Eikenberry on Leadership & Learning.

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Brain Fog HQ: Memory Enhancement Techniques for Professional Development

Speaker: Chester Santos – Author, International Keynote Speaker, Executive Coach, Corporate Trainer, Memory Expert, U.S. Memory Champion

In October, scientists discovered that 75% of patients who experienced brain fog had a lower quality of life at work than those who did not. At best, brain fog makes you slower and less efficient. At worst, your performance and cognitive functions are impaired, resulting in memory, management, and task completion problems. In this entertaining and interactive presentation, Chester Santos, "The International Man of Memory," will assist you in developing life-changing skills that will greatly enha

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7 Ways to Give Negative Feedback to the Boss

Leadership Freak

Some bosses think their weaknesses matter less than the weaknesses of others. But, the opposite is true. You help the team and enrich your organization, when you help the boss. 7 ways to give negative feedback to the boss: #1. Positive relationship before negative feedback. Show respect. Another person’s weakness is not permission for disrespect.

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The Top 10 Ways to be an Extraordinary Leader Today

Leadership Freak

Work on internal environments. You can’t control the external world, but you can control the way you do things internally.

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7 Ways to Embolden the Timid

Leadership Freak

The timid are an untapped reservoir of potential in a world dominated by risk-takers. Everyone falls below their potential for lack of courage. Boldness: Presses into uncertainty. Attempts the unattempted.

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Helping People See the Big Picture (and Why it is So Important)

Kevin Eikenberry

When I am flying home to Indianapolis, I always hope for the landing pattern that takes us over the famed oval of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The image here gives you an idea – but unless you have seen it for yourself, you have no grasp for it. The track is 2.5 miles around. Think […]. The post Helping People See the Big Picture (and Why it is So Important) appeared first on Kevin Eikenberry on Leadership & Learning.

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Maybe He Wasn’t Coachable

Leadership Freak

His eyes lit up when he heard me offhandedly say, “Not everyone is coachable.” He could stop blaming himself for his coachees lack of progress. He’d been frustrated and discouraged. New techniques might help, but, the truth is, not everyone is coachable. Evaluate yourself first, when your coachee doesn’t grow. Don’t just write people off.

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How “U-Pick” Your Relationships and Results

Kevin Eikenberry

Note: The essay that follows was written several years ago and comes from my book Vantagepoints on Learning and Life. The lessons are as true as ever. I share this as a day-after-Mother’s Day tribute to my mom. Thanks Mom – I love you. …… My mother emailed me about an experience she had last […]. The post How “U-Pick” Your Relationships and Results appeared first on Kevin Eikenberry on Leadership & Learning.

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Cows and New Gates

Leadership Freak

Cows, like people, are creatures of habit. Dairy cows wear paths in fields from walking the same route to the barn, day after day.

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Solution Saturday: Help! My Boss is Incompetent

Leadership Freak

Dear Leadership Freak, My boss drives me crazy. He’s incompetent. He has no people skills. The trouble is the people upstairs think he’s doing a good job. Sincerely, Frustrated with incompetence!

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Leadership Potential: Make the “Possible” Your “Reality”

Kevin Eikenberry

One of the words we use a lot at The Kevin Eikenberry Group is potential. It is in book and newsletter titles, and it is on my mind every day. Implied in those titles is our belief that we all have significant potential. Here is what is at the bottom of this blog: “Extraordinary potential […]. The post Leadership Potential: Make the “Possible” Your “Reality” appeared first on Kevin Eikenberry on Leadership & Learning.

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Solution Saturday: Coaching a Family Member

Leadership Freak

“Does the dynamic change when coaching family members?” (A question from a participant of an American Management Association webinar I gave on coaching for productivity.

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