April, 2012

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People who Change the World

Leadership Freak

** People who change the world are like everyone else except they do something. They are moms, dads, men, women, young, old, rich, or poor. Some are educated – some not. Race isn’t the issue, either. People who change the world all begin at the same point – the point where you may be today. [.].

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What You Must Surrender to Lead Best

Kevin Eikenberry

Surrender? When you think about surrender, you don’t likely think of great leadership. People who surrender, lose, right? The dictionary tells us that surrender, as a verb, means things like: “to yield possession or power,” “to give (oneself) up,” “to give up, abandon or relinquish.” These are hardly the ideas we connect with leaders we [.].

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A/B Testing

GMC

A/B Testing. Brian Christian reports in the May 2012 edition of Wired that (now-classic) A/B testing of web site variations has virtually replaced HiPPO decision-making in tech circles, at least for web design decisions. (HiPPO is “highest-paid person’s opinion.”). “Over the past decade, the power of A/B testing has become an open secret of high-stakes web development.

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16 Secrets for Dealing with an Empty Tank

Leadership Freak

** You can’t lead with an empty tank. 16 energy drainers: Incomplete tasks. Responsibility without authority. Proving you’re right rather than seeking best solutions. Following urgencies rather than priorities. Pretending you’re something you aren’t. Feeling alone and disconnected. Procrastination. Go do that dirty deed before it does you in. Negative people and complainers.

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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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10 Ways to Become a Risk-Taker

Leadership Freak

“Real change agents comprise less than 10% of all business people,” Jack Welch. Most leaders play not-to-lose rather than playing to win, especially in large organizations. The more we have to lose the more we play not-to-lose. What we protect owns, limits, and controls us. What we risk propels us forward. When to risk: An [.].

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Read This Before You Attend Your Next Training Session

Kevin Eikenberry

Dear Learner, I don’t know why the training is on your calendar. Maybe you are being told to go. Maybe you don’t even really know what it is about. Maybe you’d rather go to training than be at your desk. Maybe training means a chance to get away from home for a day or two. [.].

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Excuses. They Are Worse Than You Think

Kevin Eikenberry

Excuses. wear me out. Here are some examples from the workplace (though I could easily give you a longer list outside of work too): I can’t learn it that way (it’s not my learning style). I need to know this first, so until I know that I can’t. I can’t make it work because. No one will agree with me. I [.].

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Five Ways to Be More Productive Everyday (Starting Now)

Kevin Eikenberry

Everyone would like to be more productive (well, at least anyone who might be reading these words). Today, some simple and important ideas for raising your productivity, starting immediately. 1. Stop. Multi. Tasking. Seriously. It is an illusion if you think you can do it without hampering the effectiveness of either task. Want proof? When [.].

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8 Ways to Find Freedom

Leadership Freak

Freedom ignites passion, imagination, and initiative; control destroys it. Freedom feeds vitality; control oppresses and limits. Freedom, however, is dangerous. Freedom is essential because their expertise exceeds yours, in their area. If you know more than everyone on your team, you have a weak team. Effective leaders set people free. Finding freedom: #1.

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The Surest Way to a Positive Attitude

Kevin Eikenberry

I had the chance to meet and hear the fabulous and wise Daniel Lapin speak yesterday. Daniel is a best-selling author, radio personality and is known as ”America’s Rabbi.” He spoke about faith and finances, leaving 1200 people with plenty to think about. Today’s quotation is one of the final things he said to the [.].

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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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Six Secrets of Inspirational Leadership

Leadership Freak

The real test of leadership isn’t what you do it’s what you inspire others to do. Great leaders inspire others to contribute greatly. The shift from individual contributor to inspiring others may be your greatest leadership challenge. They – not you - become central. Six Secrets of Inspirational Leadership #1. Pushing people isn’t inspiration.

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Being Dissatisfied Without Becoming Critical

Leadership Freak

The line between healthy dissatisfaction and destructive criticism is narrow. Dissatisfaction drives change and inspires innovation – all leaders feel it. Criticism, on the other hand, inspires fear, resistance, defensiveness, excuses, anger, or bitterness. Dissatisfaction points to potential, growth, and improvement. Criticism digs at what was wrong.

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Where Women Leaders Are Better than Men

Leadership Freak

I asked the “Freaks” that follow my Facebook page, “What are women leaders better at than men?” Knowing when there is no value in fighting. Understanding when someone just has a crummy day. Understanding the pressures that other women leaders face. Organization and multitasking. Compassion. *Empathy. Tenderness. Building consensus, supporting staff, sharing credit, and leading [.].

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Your Hopes and Dreams are Real

Kevin Eikenberry

In this blog, I have shared quotations from William James, often called the father of American psychology, before (here is an example). Today, I share another one – this one, full of positive possibility. “Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds and above the storms, if you only let [.].

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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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Saying Less May Mean More

Kevin Eikenberry

Have you ever had a problem and needed to vent or just share what you were dealing with? When you are in this situation, are you always necessarily looking for advice, input, or counsel? If you are like most people, probably not. So why is it that when people come to us with their problems or [.].

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The Truth About Influence

Kevin Eikenberry

Eight year old Sam Baker was wondering about something, so he asked his parents, “How come our town doesn’t have a Christmas tree lit up for everyone in town to enjoy?” He reasoned that other nearby towns had trees, that they had a tree at the White House, and that he saw them light a [.].

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I’ve Been Knocked Down, Now What

Leadership Freak

Jack Dempsey on one knee. (From Washington Post) ** The ability to get up after being knocked down is the most important ability in life. ** Alison asked, “After being knocked down it feels a lot slower to rise up? Is it ok to take it slow?” Don’t pop up quickly after being knocked down. [.].

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Why Powerful Women Should Talk Less

Leadership Freak

It perilous to ignore the way people expect you to behave. Like it or not, we have stereo typical expectations when it comes to talking and power. We expect powerful men to talk more than their less powerful counterparts. This is not true for powerful women. Women – men – who talks more: You’d be [.].

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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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When Working Hard isn’t Working

Leadership Freak

It doesn’t matter how hard you work if you’re working on the wrong things. Managers, leaders, and business owners are the hardest working people I know. Working in your business is necessary but dangerous. You work “in” when you do business. Farmers milking cows, accountants accounting, preachers preaching, teachers teaching, and doctors doctoring are all [.].

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10 Questions That Give Vitality to Beginnings

Leadership Freak

Painful endings and uncertain beginnings are the two moments you make the most difference in a leader’s life. 10 Dangers in every new beginning: Confusing and obscure pictures of success. Listening to counsel from people who don’t first ask, “What’s your vision?” Everyone who offers advice without clarifying vision has their own agenda, not yours, in [.].

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7 Strategies All High Impact Leaders Employ

Leadership Freak

If high impact – positive leadership – was easy there’d be more of it. Your work-place would be invigorating and supportive rather than defeating and cut-throat. The world would be a better place. High impact is hard because: Leaders with power attract people who want power. Relationships become smokescreens. Leaders with resources have “friends.

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Build the Plane While it’s in the Air

Leadership Freak

If you don’t have something worth talking about, talking and listening are a waste of time. Communication skills are irrelevant apart from meaningful outcomes. Define the future first, then determine and develop the skills that take you there. Leadership skills are best learned when needed. Outcomes, deliverables, and noble goals infuse leadership skills and techniques with meaning. [.].

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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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How Leaders Can Use Pinterest

Kevin Eikenberry

Leaders? Use Pinterest? Isn’t Pinterest the hot new social media tool that is growing by leaps and bounds? Yes. Isn’t this the site that seems to be largely about recipes, crafts and wedding planning? Not entirely. Are you talking about how leaders of business could use Pinterest in their marketing efforts? No, though that is [.].

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Forget Thriving Just Survive

Leadership Freak

It’s unrealistic and foolish to think you’ll always thrive. Sometimes just making it is enough. Dennis N. T. Perkins, author of, “Leading at the Edge,” did a lot of things well until Plebe Year at the Naval Academy, then he couldn’t do anything well. It’s designed that way. His goal – survive. I asked Dennis [.].

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How to Build Your Leadership Brand

Leadership Freak

People who aren’t known for something haven’t done anything. “How to Build a Brand,” was the title we settled on for a recent presentation. It included social media content and making money using your online presence. Leadership brand building: On the negative side of brand building, I know leaders who are “save the day” leaders. They love [.].

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How Talking Makes Leaders Dumb

Leadership Freak

Dumb people talk – smart people do. Talking makes you seem smart. Talking without doing, in reality, makes you dumb. Doing is the only thing that makes you smart. Stuff in our heads doesn’t make us smart until it’s put into action. If you can’t describe it, you can’t do it. If you can’t explain it, [.].

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Moving Toward the Truth

Leadership Freak

Dishonest leaders lie to cover up, manipulate, and protect their image. Deceptive strategies range from false humility – the subtlest form of arrogance – to telling people what they want to hear. All deceptions begin with cowardly self-interest. Lying is fearful posturing for personal advantage. For example, we don’t want to look dumb so we pretend [.].

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Finding Courage

Leadership Freak

The past is the future, apart from courageous leadership. Doing hard things takes courage; letting go takes most of all. Someone moves first, that’s you. Leaders move toward “not yet” while letting go of what is. The challenge of leadership is we never move up till we let go of what’s below. Testing points: [.].

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When the Problem Isn’t the Problem

Leadership Freak

Big problems are the result of neglecting small ones. “How often have we learned the harsh lesson that, like unharvested fruit, untended problems turn rotten?” Jim Moorhead, The Instant Survivor. Delay: Delay, not problems, destroys us. A crisis was a small problem, once. General Douglas Macarthur said, “The history of the failure of war can almost [.].

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Lead By Letting Go

Kevin Eikenberry

As leaders, we must be willing to let go of lots of things. Just Monday, I wrote about this idea of surrender. Consider this a companion to that post – perhaps a more practical addendum. Micromanagement In workshops I led yesterday, I said “no one includes micromanagement in the list of attributes of a great [.].

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Books that Most Changed my Leadership

Leadership Freak

Leadership Freaks who contribute to the Leadership Freak Coffee Shop on Facebook answered, “The leadership book that most changed my leadership is. Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson *Failing Forward by Maxwell *Bible Servant Leadership Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders First, Break all the Rules Situational Leadership II by Ken Blanchard Strength Based [.].

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Seeing the Way You’re Seen

Leadership Freak

If perception is reality, pay attention to perceptions. It’s frustrating that hands-off leaders may be perceived as distant rather than making space for others to shine. The way you see you and the way others see you frequently aren’t aligned. Identify: If more eye contact made others feel you cared, would you give it? First, determine if [.].