Early in my career, I (Rip) worked for a very demanding boss. I do not say this in a negative sense of the word. Rather, he was tough in that he had very high standards and expected a high level of performance from everyone on his team. When he praised you, you knew you had… Continue reading Leadership Challenge: Make Encouragement Your Business
Do you want dependent employees … or enabled employees? To phrase it another way, do you prefer your team members to wait for your direction and instruction before taking action (any action)? Or, do you get excited when your employees grab hold of the company’s vision, goals, and objectives with both hands and get the… Continue reading Leadership Challenge: Empower Employees for Extraordinary Results
At some point in your tenure as a business leader, your company, department, or team is going to be shaken up. Even without the hopefully-once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, upheavals happen in every industry and with every business as markets flux, innovations emerge, economies adjust, competitors advance, and for countless other reasons. If you are in a period… Continue reading Leadership Challenge: Be Your Own Disruptor
If you had to sum up in just one word Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, what would that word be? My vote is for “inspiring.” This speech is considered one of the major turning points of the Civil Rights Movement. It was inspiring in the true sense of the word in… Continue reading Leadership Challenge: Breathe New Life into Your People
Fifteen years have passed, but I (Tim) still remember the meeting as if it was yesterday. A dozen senior leaders were sitting around the conference table. I was leading them in an exercise to identify their core values. One of the executives frowned down at the materials in front of him, then caught my eye.… Continue reading Leadership Challenge: Are You Anchored or Adrift?
As a leader in business, have you ever had occasion to say, “That sounds good in theory.” Skepticism – even cynicism – underlies that statement. Roughly translated into a glorious jumble of mixed metaphors, what you really mean is, “I hear what you are saying and I think you are living in an ivory tower… Continue reading Taking Up the Leadership Challenge
