Kevin Eikenberry
FEBRUARY 14, 2012
Yesterday I was thinking about observation and judgement, and how it relates to effective communication and coaching. It reminded me of a particular incident that took place a few years back – an incident I had previously written about on the blog for my book Remarkable Leadership. We were driving somewhere as a family and [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 7, 2012
All the interesting things you say make you uninteresting to others. A rare few enthrall listeners. Don’t think of yourself as one. You know too much and have too much to say. Passion sets your tongue on fire. You can’t wait to create enthusiasm, solve problems, and share transformative insights. In a busy world brevity [.].
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Tanveer Nasser
FEBRUARY 21, 2012
These days, everyone is talking about the importance of innovation to an organization's future, but what exactly does it take to be innovative and how do we start? That's the basis of my conversation with business strategist and author Andrea Kates in this latest episode of “Leadership Biz Cafe”. Andrea is the founder of the Business Genome project and has led more than 250 business innovation initiatives with a variety of organizations, including Royal Dutch Shell (Asia-Pacific), Audi, Allstate
Kevin Eikenberry
FEBRUARY 27, 2012
Leading effectively is a complex mix of skills and behaviors that don’t all come naturally and can’t be mastered quickly (if ever). To put it simply, to be a great leader, you must be a continual learner. That is easy to say. It is easy to believe. But how do you do it? I believe [.].
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!
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 10, 2012
** “Managing up” means you’re thinking like those over you and adapting. Those who adapt survive and thrive. You’re asking things like: What’s the leader’s style? Where should I fit in and how can I stand out? What’s the big picture, not simply tasks? What makes the leader feel supported? How much information do they [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 8, 2012
** Alternate title: “Critics: Thank’em or Spank’em” Receiving personal criticism stands apart from criticizing products, services, or organizations. My leadership was first criticized when I was in my early 20’s. It stunned me. I still remember the sting. People who say personal criticism doesn’t hurt, lie. If you enjoy it, you’re weird or sick.
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Kevin Eikenberry
FEBRUARY 6, 2012
I first read See You at the Top (Zig Ziglar’s classic first book) over Christmas one year during college. I had heard of Zig, and checked out the book from the library. I took pages of notes since I couldn’t write in the book. I still have the notes. Soon after, I started listening to Zig’s [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 23, 2012
Being smart enough to know you’re dumb makes learning easy. There’s a personal light bulb moment reflected in every quote that follows. Forward trajectory quotes: Any fool can start something new. It takes brilliant leaders to stop something old. My life gives testament to the power of purposeful abandonment. A little over 3 years ago, [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 15, 2012
** Life is a journey but you’re drifting unless you define your destination. The same is true for organizations. The first step toward success is defining it. Too eager to do: Activity seduces. Leaders easily fall into the “Let’s just go do something” trap. Activity without destination is futility. Eager to do: The choice between [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 9, 2012
** It’s easy to confuse and difficult to clarify. Confusion drives us toward clarity. Clarity allows us to act. I’m looking for your perspective and insights on this set of Leadership Freak quotes. Will you grab one or more and expand, correct, clarify, and/or modify it. The Sweet 16: Don’t let the stupid things others [.].
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.
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 6, 2012
** Your reputation is built on being noticed for the right things in the right way by the right people. Reputation is about credibility, trust, and influence. Good reputations create opportunities. Danger: Good reputations are earned slowly and lost quickly. One major blunder outweighs many contributions. Building your reputation: Focus on results even though the [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 21, 2012
The most dangerous lie leaders tell themselves is, “I know.” DeBono wisely said, “Those who think they know, don’t. All leaders fall prey to this lie, yes all. How many times have you thought you knew but discovered you didn’t? You think what you think because it’s right. Right? You came to know too much because: [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 14, 2012
** There was a time when I thought my anger was about the world out there. But, anger, frustration, and complaints are first about who I am and then about other people, circumstances, and environments. Not liking my performance: There’s always room for improvement. Translation, I fell short. For example, I always see ways my [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Image source Casting vision to hopeless people is like feeding cake to the dead. The greatest vision in the world is meaningless in the absence of hope. It’s more important to build hope than it is to cast vision. Hope builds confidence. Confident people dare to act. The Gift: Fear rules where hope sleeps. Giving [.].
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.
Kevin Eikenberry
FEBRUARY 22, 2012
Perhaps you’ve heard of Jeremy Lin and “Linsanity”, or perhaps you don’t follow sports at all. In case you haven’t or don’t, let me give you some background. Jeremy Lin is a 6’3″ basketball player. He went 32-1 as a high school senior and helped his team win a California State Championship, and even though [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 27, 2012
Your strengths have dark sides that limit potential, destroy achievement, and hamstring opportunities. Powerful strengths become anchors without softeners. The difference between mediocre and extraordinary success is tempering qualities. Task oriented leaders come off as people-users more interested in finishing projects than the people completing them.
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 11, 2012
Image source The fringes of leadership are populated with problem-centric leaders. Leaders are born when they shift from self to others. Leaders begin leading when they shift toward solutions. The first is a beginning - the second represents success. The problem with problems: Seeing problems places you on the fringes of leadership. Somehow it feels important to point out [.].
Kevin Eikenberry
FEBRUARY 3, 2012
I didn’t remember who Harry Browne was, or that he ran for U.S. President as the Libertarian candidate in both 1996 and 2000. When I read his quotation though, I knew I wanted to share it with you. I hope you choose to read on. “You don’t have to buy [.].
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.
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 13, 2012
Image source One high performance department is miserable and oppressive another is joyful and liberating. One leader has fun while another leader … All leaders get things done but the way they do things matters. John Bell, former CEO of Jacobs Suchard (Nabob, Kraft), suggested he would not do different things as much as he [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 18, 2012
** It’s easier for leaders to step up and in than to step down and back. Beginnings demand stepping in; enduring, exponential success calls for stepping back. Before stepping back: Before you step back, build people who embrace organizational values. People who don’t share values always suggest wrong directions, dilute focus, and slow progress.
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 25, 2012
Image source Leave the good ole days in the past. Enjoy memories but never try recreating experiences. Some years back, my wife and I went to an amusement park with another couple. It was the perfect storm of fun. The day was perfect. The crowds were small. We smiled, laughed, and played till it hurt. [.].
Kevin Eikenberry
FEBRUARY 29, 2012
It’s Leap Day, that once-every-four-years event that leads people to say things like “You have a whole extra day, how do you plan to use it?” Sounds nice, but wouldn’t you rather get a little time every day, for the rest of your life, than a random added day every four years (a day that, [.].
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
Kevin Eikenberry
FEBRUARY 13, 2012
Caught up in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, that day we celebrate romantic love, I began thinking again about the connection between the words love and leadership. Before you even read about these five love affairs, you might be put off by using the word love in the context of your work. Don’t be. Am [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 2, 2012
** If you aren’t concerned about ticking off the CEO, you should be. It’s easy to irritate high level leaders who operate in high pressure environments, especially if you aren’t part of the inner circle. Senior leaders expect mid-levels to prove their value and earn their place; they did. They can smell a sense of [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 24, 2012
Weak leaders smugly think, “I knew that would happen.” Cowardly leaders saying “I told you so.” Not if but how: Strong leaders tip toward courageous intervention. They don’t sit on the sidelines like cowards gloating over failures they saw coming. They turn potential failures to successes. On the other hand, interventionist leaders aren’t meddling parents [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 19, 2012
Pride is good. For example, “Have some pride” and “Take pride in your work.” Arrogant pride, however, represents the dark, blinding, deceptive underbelly of leadership. Arrogant pride drives leaders to gather in protective huddles of pseudo-invincibility where stepping on others is smugly applauded and lifting others is foolish weakness. Filthy dark festering pride drives outrageous [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 1, 2012
** Don’t worry about getting noticed by senior leadership; care but don’t worry. Mike Myatt said, “Great leaders don’t need to worry about influencing the C-Suite, the C-Suite will always come to them.” Stop trying: Organizations don’t need needy people. Doug Conant remarked, “Don’t try too hard to connect with senior leadership.” Doug illustrated his [.].
Kevin Eikenberry
FEBRUARY 20, 2012
It happens all over the world, every day. Josie is a great performer. She is very good at her technical expertise, and for that she is rewarded with a promotion. Her supervisor calls her into her office and gives her the good news. Congratulations Josie, you are now the supervisor! Excited, perhaps surprised, and maybe [.].
Kevin Eikenberry
FEBRUARY 27, 2012
This week’s Resource Recommendation is Your Best Just Got Better: Work Smarter, Think Bigger, Make More by Jason W. Womack. Who wouldn’t want their best to get better? I suppose if they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t pick up this book (or likely be reading these words). If you are a person who wants to achieve more, have [.].
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 29, 2012
** You must give power in order to empower? Empowerment is giving qualified people power and permission to act. Empowerment fails when leaders talk empowerment but hang on to permission or make it difficult to act. Empowered people become colleagues not employees. Transform your organization by making subordinates colleagues. Eliminate exclusive trappings of power.
Leadership Freak
FEBRUARY 20, 2012
Encourage and exalt leaders don’t pull them down. But you may say, “Won’t arrogance destroy them.” Destruction: Leaders hungry for power are dangerous. Arrogant leaders stop listening, grow autocratic, and become self-protective narcissists. Like boxers in the ring, protect yourself at all times. Never trust them. They’ll slice you down and sacrifice stakeholder value for personal [.].
Kevin Eikenberry
FEBRUARY 24, 2012
I starting writing 5-day-a-week emails called Powerquotes (here’s the archive) nearly 15 years ago, featuring a quotation and questions to ponder. Later I added Action Steps, calling the service Powerquotes Plus. Most recently, I moved the format to this blog, doing it once a week and adding my thoughts. All of this is preamble to [.].
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