Well of course all babies are beautiful and there are very few things more precious than a new life in this world. Yet the analogy of a baby to our work is very interesting to consider. It is difficult, if not impossible, to not see extreme beauty in what we helped create. When we work hard on a project or invest a significant amount of time on anything, we become blinded by the emotional investment we have already made. We lose our objectivity and in some cases “fall in love” with the ugly baby we have created.
We have all heard the horror stories regarding zero tolerance policies in the past. Stories about a teenager being expelled for having a Tylenol in her purse or a five year old removed from the classroom for bringing a toy gun to school are recent examples that have generated buzz in the press. Most of us laugh at the ridiculousness of such examples and consider them to be the exception rather than the rule for today’s society. Why do such policies exist and what purpose do these extreme measures provide the organization? Do such extreme positions provide any benefit? How does such a policy reflect on the leadership within these organizations? And finally, what might be the cost for an organization that must act upon the violation of such a policy?
We have all had an idiot for a boss at some point in our lives. For some of us that pain is a present reality and for others it is a painful memory. And, for others the experience is yet to come. And if you ask the younger workers today, the disease is more prevalent in the workplace than we like to admit. The new worker of today’s high-technology work force seems to resist being led by many of the traditional, short-term focused managers and supervisors in the workplace today.
It is lonely at the top unless we have an executive coach to share the struggles and challenges we face as leaders. Gone are the days of the lonely executive with none among them to trust and confide the challenges and insecurities that exist in us all. In today’s medicated, Prozac era, more and more business leaders are finding (and sometimes being required to utilize) great success from the services of a business or executive coach. Past perceptions of the word “coaching” and the negative stigma associated with a last chance effort to save a faltering manager are fading fast. Today’s high-speed and information intoxicated business climate screams for more and more business coaches to listen to and offer advice for an overloaded, oversaturated and often overwhelmed executive. More common today, at the airport watering hole, are comments like “My coach says…” or “How long have you been with your coach?” type comments.
I recently accompanied my mother on a routine medical appointment with her new physician. This morning appointment and the literal change was more out of necessity than choice since her physician of over twenty years finally threw in the towel and retired. While completing the enormous mounds of paperwork required by a new medical provider in today’s contradictory electronic world, I noticed a young mother walk into the waiting area with two small children.
The concept of leadership within the protection of this article or the walls of any classroom is much different in execution. Too often, leaders understand the factors that promote effective leadership yet still fail to execute at critical opportunities. Why can leaders say (and even believe) the right things and then contradict the very same statement with their teams? Why does leadership theory get diluted in application on the job? How can we develop leaders to execute properly? These simple questions and the answers are in fact a revelation for most organizations.
Why do we follow others? The word leadership logically implies followship. Someone must decide to follow the leader for some reason. But why do we follow another person? When you boil down the complexities of human behavior, the primary reasons we follow someone else are very basic. First, we see a personal benefit to the behavior or actions of the other individual. We see the methodology they utilize as better than our current method or we see an easier way to accomplish a given task. Second, the leader actually influences our thinking to personal see value where it did not exist in the past. This cognitive influence is the more complex of the two pillars of leadership.
Byron runs a very old and historically successful business. His twenty-five hundred employees have seen good times as well as bad times. Business has boomed and business has gloomed in his twenty-five years with the company. Unfortunately, lately has been more gloom and doom than boom.
A recent study revealed that the key to human happiness is the ability to live in the moment and place less emphasis on both the future and the past. This unique tendency of the human animal and our obsessive preoccupation with the past and the future are significant burdens that limit our happiness during life.
Gallup survey results yielded that the employees who responded positively to the 12 questions worked in business units with higher levels of productivity ~ profit ~ employee retention ~ customer satisfaction. It was also discovered that it is the employees' immediate manager, and not the pay, benefits, perks or charismatic corporate leader, who plays the critical role in building a strong workplace. So it implies that people leave managers, not companies.
Ursula manages a small products company in Texas. She has been blessed with a stable workforce and very little turnover. The median age of sixty four employees is fifty one years old. She is starting to feel the attrition as more and more employees notify her of their pending retirement. Additionally, the new applicants are younger and do not seem to bring the same amount of knowledge to the workplace.
What do chief executive officers (CEOs) and turtlenecks have in common? The changing landscape in business is going to reveal some strange adaptations in the future of the American business enterprise. A more youthful workforce will most definitely have a significant impact on both the environment as well as the management that occupies the typical corporate boardroom.
His information is both provocative and engaging. His speeches can be an emotional roller-coaster with the audience laughing one minute and holding back tears the next. Energy and passion are the two most common words used to describe John Grubbs as a speaker and trainer.
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PSST, CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? WE CAN'T...
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It's a humorous book on Servant Leadership that sells for $20 bucks on Amazon. |
