Why Leaders Need a Clear Purpose…

If you really think about the challenge my friend shared with me in running one of his businesses, I’m betting you can relate! To that end, I think it’s safe to assume we’ve all felt that way at some point regardless of the role we’re in. In chapter eight of What’s...

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Should the Type of Organization Determine How We Lead?

If we think back to how we started this look at Leadership Misunderstood, the biggest myths we’ve taken aim at here were few but extremely common:

  • People automatically follow a business owner, executive, manager (or whatever other title you want to insert here) because their paycheck...
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Influence > Position or Title!

As we started down this path, I shared a piece of John Maxwell’s story about how he learned that influence was far more important than a title or position when it came to getting anyone to follow you. And let’s be honest: if no one is following, we ain’t leading!

To provide a...

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Does Leadership Always Matter?

Now that we’ve identified a few of the most common misconceptions (or myths) around how leadership impacts EVERY organization and we’ve connected the dots on how productivity and profitability come into play for nonprofits and public sector organizations just as much as they do for...

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Impacting EVERY Organization

I see or hear something every couple of months that gets me all riled up and on a soapbox calling attention to the stark differences between managing a group of people and actually leading a team. One of the biggest misconceptions I’ve seen is that those two words, leading and managing, can...

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We Can’t Blame HR for Everything…

Early on in this process we looked at two separate profitability killers that nearly always feed off of each other and contribute to just about every metric a company tracks; the cost of high turnover and the cost of constant recruiting. In far too many cases, the responsibility for each of these...

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Expansive Leader Development, Driving Engagement!

Whether there’s an exemplary top-down approach throughout the organization we’re a part of or not, each of us will be able to achieve better results within our own areas of leadership responsibility when we earn genuine buy-in from the team reporting to us! This particular thing, as...

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A Top-Down Leadership Approach

If the owners or executives in any organization want to have the best shot possible at improving profitability by building better leaders, they will need to be just as engaged in developing their own leadership and communication skills as they are in providing any kind of resource to the key...

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Three Ways We Can Answer…

I believe the most vivid memory I have of someone in a leadership role answering cries for help was that of President George W. Bush at Ground Zero just days after 9/11. As he was addressing the crowd, someone yelled that they couldn't hear him and he responded, “I can hear you. I can hear...

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What Are They Looking For?

As we’ve worked through each of these individual profitability killers, my goal has been to provide you with some basic, practical steps you can take in applying specific behaviors that help you communicate with and lead your team members more effectively, making a measurable difference in...

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The Cost of Using the Wrong Tool

As I mentioned before, painting the picture of the tools you can provide a potential team member to grow within the organization once they come onboard can play a significant role in the recruiting process. Failing to make good on those promises though, sooner than later, will be a direct...

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But I Thought We Were Friends?

While Joe was outstanding at pretty much every technical aspect in the department, there was one thing he didn’t have to worry about when he accepted the lead role; he never seemed all that bothered about alienating long term friendships. I think that was largely a result of him being able...

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