Bookmarks
Below is an archive of all our bookmarks, reblogs, and shared podcasts/video series.
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Want to know what characteristics are important to make great leaders. In this article, we discuss 10 characteristics of a good leaders. We hear all the time about what great leaders should be like. But what about the traits that make for poor leaders? In reflecting on what sort of leader I want to be, now, I draw from those negative experiences just as often as I do the positive ones. The truth needs no defense, it simply is. The expectations of a Major are very different than those of a Captain, and not everyone knows what these expectations are or the impact they have on personal and professional success. I want to share my thoughts on this to help you be successful – successful for the right reasons. No one is just born with all of the traits necessary to lead others. So how then do great leaders evolve? Rules are particularly helpful when learning something new, like leadership. They are helpful when learning to break a bad habit or establish a new one. Rules become habits. Habits become the foundation of great leaders. Perhaps you’ve heard of a “not-to-do list.” CEOs and productivity experts recommend the idea as a huge productivity booster that will help you free up time and headspace for all the things that really matter. But what should go on it? Here are nine suggestions of bad work habits that you need to desperately eliminate. In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated. Dealing with the good experiences – when your advice is accepted – is relatively easy. The bad experiences tend to build “scar tissue.” So, how do you deal with those negative experiences? What are you supposed to do when you speak truth to power and no one listens? Are your leadership skills effective? Here are eight things you can to do improve them. If you're going to tell the truth, you'd better do it well. Speaking “truth to power” was never an issue for me. I’m not one to hold my opinion, especially when the topic is important. I did so understanding that there were often consequences to voicing my opinion, not all of those consequences being positive. I believe, as French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault stated in 1983, speaking truth to power is “a duty to improve or help other people,” an obligation that transcends “self-interest and moral apathy.” Learn how to express your opinions more adeptly, to speak truth to power in ways that are less brutal and more finessed. Today's businesses are increasingly and dizzyingly complex -- and traditional pillars of management are obsolete, says Yves Morieux. So it falls to individual employees to navigate the rabbit's warren of interdependencies. In this energetic talk, Morieux offers six rules for "smart simplicity." Not just for Lieutenants but all Leaders. Tips to care for your people, effect change, be accountable, and more. The world functions easiest in a state of inertia -- Break the status quo and move against the grain. Here are 6 ways to make something happen that helps people in a positive way. Time realists look at a task and break down the math of it. They’re conscious of how long things take, and they factor that in to their plans for the day. Time optimists, by comparison, are just that: hopeful about things they would like to do. It leads to them to overstuff their days and become frustrated when their list of to-dos doesn’t get completed. Be a time realist. Here’s how. You probably wouldn't want to work for Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. It's not just because they're villains – they've made some serious management blunders ruling the Galactic Empire. Top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain in control. The ability to remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. Calm people know that asking “what if?” will only take them to a place they don’t want — or need — to go. Here are 10 ways smart people stay calm and in control. The influence of leaders on their environment, and the people around them, is difficult to overstate. Like magnetism, their disposition and decisions tend to affect everybody in the vicinity. If you're a leader, it's a good idea to remember some of the many ways you can influence company culture — sometimes without even trying to. Here are 10 of them. If “the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do”, then the essence of execution is truly not doing it. That sounds simple, but it’s surprisingly hard for organizations to kill existing initiatives, even when they don’t align with new strategies. Instead, leaders keep layering on initiatives, which can lead to severe overload at all levels. Most of us are pretty good at managing our time. What we’re not as good at is managing our attention. One study found that when we’re working in front of a computer, we focus on one thing for an average of just 40 seconds before switching our attention to something else. We’re distracted a lot. At the same time, we rarely choose where we direct our attention – the world decides for us. We accomplish our intentions more often by taming distractions ahead of time. Here are a few ways to do this. A root cause of resistance to change is that employees identify with and care for their organizations. People fear that after the change, the organization will no longer be the organization they value and identify with. By explaining how the envisioned change will result in a better and more appealing future, leaders can overcome resistance to change. Nobody knows everything about being a leader when they're just starting out, and sometimes you learn some surprising lessons along the way. The members of Forbes Coaches Council know this well. We asked 15 of them to share one leadership lesson they wish they'd picked up sooner in their careers. Here's what they had to say. Number 3 combined with 7 is my personal favorite strategy. Work in sprints -- stay focused for a period, then take a break and get out from behind your desk to feel more energized and increase your efficiency. What works for you? And what's on your "To-Don't" list? Because word doesn't always have to be hard. Stupidity is overlooking or dismissing conspicuously crucial information. People think stupidity is the opposite of intelligence. In fact, stupidity is the cost of intelligence operating in a complex environment. Here are seven situational factors that compromise your cognitive ability and result in increased odds of stupidity. These five tips will help you manage your emails with more focus, clarity and effectiveness. What is your strategy to improve the email culture at work to free up time to do more important things? Time is your most valuable asset--you need to prioritize how you spend it. Unfortunately, the more time you spend pretending that ultimate truths don't exist, the more time you waste not being your authentic self and getting the most out of every precious second. Here are 20 brutal truths that every single person needs to hear. With help from some surprising footage, Derek Sivers explains how movements really get started. (Hint: it takes two.) Vision, empathy, patience and integrity are just a few of the top qualities you'll find in a great leader. Can you think of what else? Great things happen when you focus on people as much as you do on results. If these five benefits don’t motivate you to focus intently on both, nothing will. The 9-to-5 grind has created a cult of workaholics. Mondays are dreaded. Wednesdays are "hump days." Friday mornings bring relief because they're the final push before the weekend. The idea that workers are expected to endure 70% of their week so they can enjoy the other 30% is collective insanity. The Information Age represents the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution -- why my company decided to implement a 5-hr workday? An Army perspective. As a field grade officer your job is to implement, manage, and optimize systems that keep your organization running. Rather than only solving the problem at hand look beyond to the root cause ... don't fight fires, curate systems. Take the time to think through the tools required for success. Encourage your employees to do what they’re best at. Here are 3 go-to questions for identifying the strengths of each member of your team. How do you arrange your minutes at work to reach optimum productivity? How do you sort your priorities? Do you lead or manage? Politics aside, this is a great short clip to answer these questions and help identify "how to find time at work to escape from the grind." Even with the odds against him, Han knows that his secret weapon in getting out of sticky situations is his mastery at pinpointing key pain points that he can ameliorate, thus allowing his audience to save face and partner going forward. This doesn’t always work out for Han, but he doesn’t give up on it … May the Force, and Han’s leadership guidance, be with you as you continue your own Jedi leadership training. Hold your team’s would-be hero in check, and other practical lessons for managers. Here are some lessons from "The Last Jedi" that you can use to lead a successful team. Lightsabers are optional. You’ve been given the mission to lead a team. However, have you got leadership skills? Learn from these three basic lessons! If you’re neurotic, introverted, or otherwise weird, embrace those qualities and use them to your advantage. Do you constantly feel overwhelmed or mentally drained? If so, chances are you might be suffering from mental fatigue. Here's how you can beat mental exhaustion and improve mental clarity, according to a psychologist. There’s strength in being strong enough to admit your weaknesses. After all, we all have areas in which we excel, and others in which we could use a little work.If you can commit to personal growth so that you can strengthen your weaknesses, it can make you a more well-rounded individual and more diligent worker. This can have incredible effects on your career. In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Ryder Carroll explains the art of the mental inventory and recovering from decision fatigue by getting started with more meaningful to-do lists. Balance – it’s a concept many military professionals embrace philosophically but fail to employ in their day-to-day lives. How do you balance and structure your schedule to be able to push pause and enjoy time away from work? Read this article to learn how to effectively distribute energy between life's priorities. Positive thinking needs to do with having the capacity to control your concentration paying little heed to what sort of difficulties you are confronting. In this article, we examine the significance of having the capacity to think emphatically and will offer you a few hints on how you can utilize this to change your life. We can only handle so much in the way of emotional demands, so avoid the switch from feeling empathy to just thinking emphatically. Great leaders realize if their message doesn't take deep root with the audience then it likely won't be understood, much less championed. It is the ability to develop a keen external awareness that separates the truly great communicators from those who muddle through their interactions with others. Here are a few of the communication traits, which if used consistently, will help you achieve better communication results. Alan Lakein, one of the most well-known time-managements experts, once said, "Time = life; therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life." You need help for those time management myths that are causing you to fail. Here’s how to beat them. Success in challenging physical events comes down to physical and mental preparation. Acing these requires a high state of motivation, self-confidence, and most importantly, discipline. How to build upon these intangibles is a tough question to answer. Here are some recommendations to prepare for the toughest of goals set in your future. "With profound simplicity, Coach John Wooden redefines success and urges us all to pursue the best in ourselves. In this inspiring talk he shares the advice he gave his players at UCLA."
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