November, 2011

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Seven Simple Ways to Subtly Influence Others

Kevin Eikenberry

It had been a long day of work and travel, and it was going to get longer. Due to weather issues around the country, flights across the eastern half of the U.S. were delayed and canceled. It was snowing heavily in Denver, where I had just landed to find my connecting flight canceled. I quickly [.].

Travel 93
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Five Techniques That Make You Matter Most

Leadership Freak

The need to tell others you’re important suggests you don’t feel important. Insecure leaders need to build, protect, and validate themselves. They spend their days like male peacocks fluffing their tail feathers. “Look at me, I’m beautify; I’m important.” Fluffing activities suggest people don’t believe they matter. You must believe you matter: “Everything you will [.].

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Dave Balter | Why Humility Matters In Today's Leadership

Tanveer Nasser

What role does humility play in today's leadership and how does this trait benefit leaders in facing the challenges present in today's global market? That's one of the questions I discuss with CEO Dave Balter in the latest episode of “Leadership Biz Cafe”. Dave is the CEO and founder of the word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing company, BzzAgent, which has been featured on CBS News, the BBC, and the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

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Beyond Listening – A Power-Key to Influence

Kevin Eikenberry

It was a typical business trip. I’d spent the day training a group of people from inside an organization. After the training, I was invited to join the group for dinner. After a lovely dinner, a couple of the participants had some additional questions about the training and how to apply what they were learning. [.].

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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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The Best Leaders Carry Flashlights

Kevin Eikenberry

I first remember carrying a flashlight at summer camp. Coming back to the cabin after the campfire would have been pretty treacherous without one. Something got me thinking about flashlights recently. As I thought about them, I realized that as leaders we need to have a flashlight available for a variety of reasons. [.].

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The Top Ten Lies Leaders Believe

Leadership Freak

The truth is we tell ourselves lies. Lies seem to make life better, they make us feel more useful and in control. I can always tell when I touch the lies people believe about themselves. They deny the obvious and defend the ridiculous. It reminds me of the time one of our children denied stomping up [.].

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The Top 25 Temptations of Leadership

Leadership Freak

Using position to intimidate or manipulate. Believing talent, experience, or skills compensate for preparation. Choosing the easy way for you rather than the best way for them. Overlooking the destructive behaviors of high performers. Withholding benefits or resources as punishment. Avoiding tough issues. Staying the same. Pretending you know when you don’t.

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The Secret to Powerful Leadership

Leadership Freak

It’s the morning after and it wasn’t what I heard but what I saw that matters most. I’m home from the two-day Elite Leadership Program in New York City. The drive home gave me time to think about what I heard. Believe me, A.G. Lafley, Calvin Klein, and Jack Welch hit home runs. Lafley led [.].

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Four Leadership Lessons from Coach Mike Krzyzewski

Kevin Eikenberry

Last night Duke University’s men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski won his 903rd game. It’s the most of any men’s college basketball coach ever (Tennessee’s Pat Summitt has won over 1000 coaching women’s college basketball). He’s been coaching for 37 years. He’s won 13 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, was named National Coach of the Year 12 [.].

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The One and Only Reason to Help

Leadership Freak

Competent people are insulted when you try to help them do their job. They think, “You don’t trust me.” Managers must know when to step in or stay out. Help too quickly and you’re a smothering meddler; delay too long and you don’t care. When it comes to helping others, their confidence levels matter. Overconfident [.].

Manager 82
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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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15 Potent Strategies for Fighting Confusion

Leadership Freak

Confusion is common. Clarity is rare. Confusion and chaos inevitably rule unless someone intervenes. Any fool can create confusing complexity. Successful leaders always fight confusion and find clarity. Clarity is leadership’s secret and most powerful weapon. Clarity allows followers to know where they’re going and how to get there. Without it everyone flounders.

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As the Holidays Approach: How to Avoid Holiday-itis

Kevin Eikenberry

You may not even be aware of the newest quasi-medical malady facing people around the globe. It hits about the first of December each year and impacts people’s attitudes, energy, and productivity for approximately four weeks. Like any other malady, the first step in treatment is diagnosis. I’m sharing the diagnosis and subsequent treatment plan [.].

Energy 82
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One Question Away From Optimism

Leadership Freak

Image source You can’t lead if you aren’t dissatisfied. Every new beginning begins with dissatisfaction. If the present is satisfactory, you have nowhere to go. A preferred future stands on an un-preferred present. Dissatisfaction is easy, optimism is necessary. Seeing the light dimly: Things come together at the strangest times. During dinner with the CFO [.].

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The Reason I Haven’t Posted in a Week

Leadership Freak

One week ago today, I was lying flat on my back looking at the low-hanging ceiling of a life-flight helicopter. My right leg was cocked at an unusual and uncomfortable angle, painfully yelling for attention. At the same time, a highly trained medical professional relieved the deadly pressure around my collapsed lung. His skill is [.].

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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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One Useful Strategy for Becoming More Useful

Leadership Freak

Peter Drucker encouraged leaders to ask, “How do we make ourselves useful?” Daniel Pink’s research indicates three drives motivate us. Autonomy: the desire to be self-directed. Mastery: the urge to get better at stuff. Purpose: making a contribution. Combining Drucker and Pink: Leaders are useful when they honor the contribution of others. Honoring contributions: Explain [.].

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Defending New Ideas Without being Defensive

Leadership Freak

All leaders explore, introduce, and defend new ideas. Defending an idea often creates adversarial conversations. You offer points that support your idea and others evaluate, adopt or reject. You’ve surrendered your power from the beginning. There’s value in the traditional process but there’s a better way. Defend less explore more: Explore how new ideas compare [.].

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Everyone Wins with Gratitude

Kevin Eikenberry

Since in the United States today we celebrate Thanksgiving, it is appropriate, perhaps even expected, to suggest we be grateful today. Of course, the reality is that gratitude is important to our relationships and to us as well, (as today’s quotation suggests) and deserves a place in our daily thoughts. I’ll move right to it [.].

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Five Ways to Transfuse Energy into your Team

Kevin Eikenberry

A blood transfusion is a process of receiving blood products into your blood stream intravenously. In the past, whole blood was introduced into the patient’s blood stream. Today, typically, particular blood parts like red blood cells or plasma are injected as needed. In non-technical terms, blood (or blood parts) is injected into someone’s blood stream [.].

Energy 79
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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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Are You In Control?

Kevin Eikenberry

David Allen is best known for his book Getting Things Done. His book has been, over the last decade, the most popular time and productivity management book and process on earth. The quotation below applies to managing our time, but goes much deeper, if you allow it to. I hope today’s questions and action steps [.].

Manager 78
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How to Avoid Irrelevance, Guaranteed!

Leadership Freak

“Customers are the boss.” A.G. Lafley. Customers determine what you must do well. You may be the world’s best pickle packer. But, if the world doesn’t value perfectly packed pickles, you are tragically irrelevant. Unexpected: I love coming across an unexpected idea. The first core strength of Proctor & Gamble – A deep understanding of [.].

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How to Make Risk Taking Less Risky

Leadership Freak

I woke up this morning to a few email questions from individuals seeking my perspective, advice, or suggestions. I usually answer questions with questions and when applicable reflect back what I see. Giving advice falls third on my response to email questions. One questioner explained their aversion to risk along with a lack luster performance [.].

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A CEO of Southwest Airlines on Goals

Leadership Freak

We forget the expected and remember the unusual. I’ve been remembering something unusual that was said to me about ten months ago. Jim Parker, former CEO of Southwest Airlines told me, “Don’t set artificial goals for yourself. Don’t set goals about the job you want or the amount of money you want to make.” You [.].

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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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Jim Collins on Paranoid Leaders

Leadership Freak

Bad things will happen. It’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when. Even optimists knows it’s true. Hi performing leaders, according to Jim Collins are “paranoid performers.” They’re always asking, “What if,” and then preparing for it. They think about and anticipate the day of “bad things.” What ifs: I hate what [.].

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When Are You At Your Best?

Kevin Eikenberry

One of the first and most influential inspirational speakers I learned of and learned from was Earl Nightingale. Today I reread one of his profound quotations. “We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we’ve [.].

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Jack Welch Led Gossip Sessions

Leadership Freak

With typical candor and color, Jack Welch said, “We always had one hell-of-ah gossip session after every meeting.” (ELP, 2011, NYC) At least two things happened at meetings Jack Welch attended. First, the agenda happened. Second, and more importantly, an H.R. meeting happened during and after. During meetings Jack and his team looked through the [.].

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Success Requires It.

Kevin Eikenberry

and it is in short supply. It’s concentration, and, no, I’m not talking about the popular game show that aired from 1958-91. Concentration isn’t really in short supply; the supply is large, if you choose to capture it (and successful people do). Most however, - text while driving - answer emails while [.].

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Time to Think

Kevin Eikenberry

I grew up on a farm, so I know what it is like to work hard physically. Many times I’ve started working before dawn and finished long after dark. I know what it feels like to be physically dog tired. And. in my work now, there are days I am every bit [.].

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What Leaders Have in Common With Raffles

Kevin Eikenberry

You’ve experienced it many times. You are at the county fair, the community charity event, a local seminar or networking event. You bought a ticket, filled out a form, or handed someone your business card. And you know the rules. You must be present to win. If you wanted the items being drawn, you wanted [.].

Energy 76
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One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership

Kevin Eikenberry

This week’s Resource Recommendation is One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership by Mike Figliuolo. This new book, focused on the leader as an individual, promotes an important idea with a creative approach. Mike Figliuolo, an accomplished leadership trainer, coach, and speaker, suggests that to be the best leader we can [.].

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Did You Learn Your Lesson?

Kevin Eikenberry

Flashback to my kidhood . I’ve just made some error or mistake, and I am being made aware of that error by one of my parents. At the end of the conversation, they ask me. Did you learn your lesson? I’m guessing that my flashback is your flashback too – [.].

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Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

Kevin Eikenberry

Today’s Resource Recommendation is Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina. To be at our best we must know all we can about all of our resources. Perhaps the most powerful resource we have at our disposal 24/7 is our brain. In this insightful and interesting [.].

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Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Fast-Growth Firm

Kevin Eikenberry

Today’s Resource Recommendation is Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Fast-Growth Firm by Verne Harnish. If you are a business owner, mastering the habits of a legendary business success like John D. Rockefeller is a compelling thought. The clever title is just the first of many things [.].

Manager 72