September, 2012

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The 8 Strengths of Humility

Leadership Freak

I ask G.J. Hart, when he was CEO of Texas Roadhouse, if he could spot emerging leaders. He didn’t rule out talent, education, or leadership presence, but he replied, “I can usually tell if they have the humility to make it.” Hart’s statement so deeply impacted me that I wrote about humility in, “The Character Based Leader.” [.].

Education 111
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Sharing Responsibility – Why We Don’t Want To, and How to Do it Anyway

Kevin Eikenberry

As a child one of the first things we are taught to do is to share. We don’t do it naturally; and we may learn this habit grudgingly (you probably don’t remember this for yourself, but if you have kids, you’ve seen the pattern repeated, haven’t you?). Some things don’t change much as we grow [.].

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16 Things Successful Leaders Never Do

Leadership Freak

Not doing is one side of finding success. Never let the bottom line be the bottom line. Never pretend things are ok when they aren’t. Never let what you’ve never done be the reason not to try. Never get ahead by resenting those who get ahead. Never let those who aren’t doing something prevent you [.].

Manager 105
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Top 15 Strategies for Leadership Success

Leadership Freak

The first thing you need to know is: Success is a result not an end in itself. Five organizational strategies: Always create more harmony than discord. Build up more than you tear down, much more. Long-term views build stability. Short-term views produce quick results. Make life easier for those over you. Three relationship strategies: Friends [.].

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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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Portrait of a Micro-manager

Leadership Freak

Most people I’ve asked say they’ve worked for a micro-manager. Their frustration shows when they talk about the person who drained joy from their career and under-utilized their skills. You’re a micro-manager if you: Over-estimate your skills and under-estimate the skills of the team. Feel misunderstood and unappreciated. Hear too many questions. See yourself as doers [.].

Manager 92
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Those who Discourage Destroy

Leadership Freak

It’s shockingly easy to discourage others. It takes no skill to knock people down. It’s the joy of fools to drag down. Leaders encourage – losers discourage. Discouragement comes quickly, easily, and without thought. Encouragement – positive momentum – is a fragile flame that requires fuel, protection, and repetition. Encouragement fuels success; discouragement destroys it. [.].

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Secrets to Leadership Development

Leadership Freak

The more time you dedicate to developing leaders the more successful you’ll become. Successful leaders develop leaders. You may think your job is explained in a list of responsibilities that include oversee financials, cast vision, hire and fire, etc. That’s only half the picture. If you plan to do great things you must develop great [.].

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10 Essentials for Dynamic Candor

Leadership Freak

Inept leaders block uncomfortable topics from the discussion. It’s pathetic. Weak, fearful leaders need agreement to confirmation their leadership. On the other hand, I recently spent time with five members of an executive team who displayed the power of candor. They brought themselves and their perspective to the discussion. In some organizations it would have been [.].

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The Secrets of Imperfection

Leadership Freak

You might think it’s awkward but I asked anyway. “What makes me think you can be a leader?” The person I asked is in their early 20’s with many leadership accomplishments. Maybe it was part humility, part fear of saying the “wrong” thing, or part sincerely not knowing, eventually they said, “I don’t know.” I [.].

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13 New-Leader Screw Ups

Leadership Freak

Mistakes matter more when you’re the new kid on the block. Long-term relationships contextualize and soften occasional screw ups. 13 mistakes new leaders make: Forgetting your arrival stresses others, including those who hired you. The stress you feel, others feel too. Proving technical skill. You don’t need to prove what you know. You did that [.].

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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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How Managers Get in the Way

Leadership Freak

“Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.” Peter Drucker Four ways managers get in the way: Meddling – Managers that roadblock work stay too close and talk too much. Your people want you to let them work. Stop by to encourage and ask questions, briefly. Express [.].

Manager 84
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The Word I Don’t Hear Much

Leadership Freak

“We have a crisis in leadership. Confidence in leaders continues to decline. At the same time, our current financial situation says we are in disparate need of leaders.” “Would you trust your leaders to babysit your children?” John Baldoni. Leadership begins with trust. Acting in the best interest of others builds trust. Self-interest, at the [.].

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Who Pulled the Trigger on bin Laden

Leadership Freak

Mark Owen (Not his real name) explained his firsthand view of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan compound on 60 minutes Sunday night. Scott Pelley interviewed the former Navy SEAL who gave a blow by blow of the operation, even his visit to Taco Bell after he arrived home. Owen is under fire from [.].

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Making the First Move

Leadership Freak

If you don’t move first you aren’t leading. But, don’t move first every time. Passion, vision, and compassion propel leadership-action. Leaders step in where others step back. All leaders move toward: Opportunity. Challenge. Change. Achievement. Wise leaders move toward: People over opportunities. People are leadership’s greatest opportunity, period.

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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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Defeating the Demon of Leadership Loneliness

Leadership Freak

Leading sets you apart from others. Being out in front means you may walk alone. Additionally, you work to understand others but do others understand you? If you feel alone, you aren’t alone. Leadership’s “A” game: Leaders bring their “A” game every day. You direct, guide, manage, decide, counsel, encourage, challenge, … You think of [.].

Manager 82
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Today’s Essential Management Skill

Leadership Freak

Managing is more than processes and procedures; it’s people. Successful managers bring out the best in others. “Management and leadership are about coaching around performance.” John Baldoni My conversation with author, speaker, and executive coach, John Baldoni, covered everything from what’s wrong with leadership to the good side of office politics.

Manager 82
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Setting Organizational Attitude and Tone

Leadership Freak

Circumstances don’t determine the atmosphere and tone of organizations, leaders do. Look around your office or leadership team. Is the tone positive or negative? Now, look at yourself. How are you perceived? Organizations reflect leadership. Thursday, I reconnected with Shirzad Chamine, author of, Positive Intelligence. He reminded me that our “Sage” is a joyful, curious, [.].

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The Rest of the David-Goliath Story

Leadership Freak

David versus Goliath is the quintessential story of winning in the face of insurmountable challenges. Most know the story of the shepherd boy, with a sling and stone, who defeated the mighty warrior. You may not know the rest of the story. When David – the shepherd boy – arrived in military camp he was [.].

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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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Angry Leaders

Leadership Freak

Embrace the dark side. Don’t pretend it’s not there. Leaders are angry individuals. Think frustrated if it’s more comfortable. Not: I’m not talking about temper tantrums. Wisdom delays action when it comes to blow-ups. Rule anger never let it rule you. Ruling isn’t pretending it’s not there. Anger from leaders who feel powerless or trapped [.].

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Helping Others Begin Their Leadership Journey

Leadership Freak

When leadership is about making things better it’s inclusive not exclusive; functional not positional. Everyone who asks, “How can I help us make things better?” is on a leadership journey regardless of position. Three essentials: Everyone leads when they believe in their own voice, embrace a vision, and exercise change-making-skills and strategies.

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Failures Let People Fail

Leadership Freak

If you hear the train’s whistle and see the light in the tunnel you know the trains coming. If you let a train wreck happen without saying something, at best you’re foolish at worst you’re cruel. Letting people fail isn’t: Saying nothing when a wreck is around the corner. Standing on the sidelines gloating. Forgetting [.].

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What Most Leaders Need Most

Leadership Freak

Don’t get so busy getting things done that you end up done yourself. Experience shows many leaders between 45 and 55 years old are so connected with business that they become disconnected with themselves. Don’t get so lost in business that you lose yourself. Gary Anzolone, CEO of CEO Clubs NYC, sat beside me for [.].

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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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Walking the Leadership Tightrope

Leadership Freak

I’m so committed to pressing into the future that it’s hard to enjoy the present. You can’t lead if you aren’t dissatisfied. How are you navigating the leadership tightrope between what is and what could be? Leadership tightropes include: Passion to improve and discouragement at progress. Pressing into the future and rejection of the present. [.].

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Help them Grow or Watch them Go

Leadership Freak

What’s the point of staff development if career ladders look like traffic jams? Tough times end promotions and pay raises. Maybe it’s better to slow or stop staff development. What can you offer? Don’t raise hopes. However… The people you want on your team want to learn and grow. If they don’t want to grow, [.].

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Six Ways to Prepare for a Stellar Presentation

Kevin Eikenberry

Have you ever given a presentation and when it was over you said to yourself. “I should have been better prepared.”? Have you vowed in that moment of stress, frustration and with the sense of lost opportunity that “I’ll be better prepared next time.”? Then, as the next presentation came up like [.].

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Overcoming the Danger of Taking Ownership

Leadership Freak

Ownership is dangerous when others are ruled out. “It’s mine! Don’t touch my things!” Individual owners do things themselves. That’s good unless it become exclusive, protective, and short-sighted. Individual contributors: The trouble with individual contributors is they create patterns and processes others don’t embrace or duplicate.

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Something’s Always Broken

Leadership Freak

Success always has failure in it. Weak leaders pretend and fearful leaders need everything to be okay. But, nothing works perfectly. You’re never successful without failure. Every initiative, program, event, or project has glitches, inefficiencies, and dropped balls. Improving and Fixing: The downside of improving is oppression. “Isn’t it ever good enough?

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Enabling Independent Action

Leadership Freak

“Life’s tipping points occur when we figure out who we are and who we want to be.” Peter Aceto, President and CEO of ING DIRECT Canada. Peter grew up in a strict household that powerfully affected his choices. Peter said, “I have a great dad but he was controlling and not always in a good [.].

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Leadership Lessons From The NFL Replacement Officials

Kevin Eikenberry

Unless you live under a rock, or are truly adverse to the media or professional sports in the United States, you likely know that the NFL has operated the first three weeks of their season with replacement officials. The back story is that the League locked out the regular officials as a part of the [.].

Media 79
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Fixing Why Leaders Don’t Let Go of Decisions

Leadership Freak

Decisions should be made by those closest to the action. The trouble is those closest to the action may not see the big picture. They may act selfishly. Perhaps they’re great at their jobs but they’re fearful. Should I continue? You have a bag full of reasons why others shouldn’t have decision making authority. Most [.].

Manager 78
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A Powerful Definition of Power

Kevin Eikenberry

I love today’s quotation (more on that later), but here is the back story to my selection today. While the quotations on which I base these Friday posts sometimes come from something I’ve recently read, often the quotations I select come from my files and database – and that is the case today. When I [.].

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To Team or Not to Team?

Kevin Eikenberry

Everyone thinks teams are a good thing. Leaders like to form teams. People, for the most part, believe in the value and purpose of teams. “All of us are smarter than each of us.” and “1 + 1 = 3” are just two common phrases that reinforce and prove how pervasive our [.].

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