Mastering the S-Curve of High-Powered Careers Playing to Your Strengths at Work
Do you get to play to your best strengths at work? For two-thirds of us, the answer is “no” (see the last few paragraphs of the Gallup webpage). But imagine what innovation and energy we could unleash if most of us could answer “yes”. Now that’s exciting. So, what can we do to move toward [...]
Leadership Lessons From Steve Jobs
Beyond the amazing innovations he has brought to our world, there are three lessons I have learned by observing Steve Jobs, the leader, from afar. And the good news is that these don’t require being an inventive genius to be useful. Career Resilience: Steve Jobs was publicly and unceremoniously fired, yet came back to rise [...]
Being Brave: Lessons from Basketball
I have been at the European National Championship Basketball tournament this week, rooting for the Great Britain Under 20s Women’s team which last year, for the first time in history, was promoted from the B League to the A League. By beating last year’s bronze medal team in the first round, they have already “won” [...]
Why Like-Mindedness is Limiting for Leaders
We inherently like spending time with people who think like us, and maybe even act and look like us. It’s easy, comfortable and fun to be with people who understand where we are coming from and share our interests. As well, it builds our confidence to have others we respect tell us they think we [...]
Intensity
in·ten·si·ty [in-ten-si-tee] – great energy, strength, concentration, vehemence, etc., as of activity, thought, or feeling[1] Why do some people train hard in the gym and play hard on the court, while others go through the motions? Are those hours equally well spent? Some would ask what the point is of showing up if you aren’t [...]
How Great Leaders Inspire Action
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the YouTube video link that my daughter recently forwarded to me (“we watched this in class today and I thought you might like it”). Well, it turned out to be great. So great that it is worth sharing. It is Simon Sinek’s TEDTalk on why the most inspiring [...]
Leaders are not Colorfast
The people we surround ourselves with have a big influence on how we think and behave, as well as how we are perceived. That’s why parents care that their kids are not running with the “wrong crowd”. The same holds true for the people you choose to work with and, most importantly, to work for [...]
Would You Take This Job?
The following situation (or something substantially similar) actually exists in real life. How close is this to your dream job, or is it pretty much the opposite? The Job: Congratulations. You have been chosen to start work at our organization. You get to pretty much design your own job; it just has to fit within [...]
5 Ideas for Keeping Your Composure
Keeping your composure when you feel safe is easy. The question is how to regain and retain it when you are no longer in your comfort zone, when you feel out of your element. Add pressure to any situation (speed it up, raise the stakes, increase the competition) and at some point, performance drops. Most [...]
Winning, Losing and the Case for Composure
Sports tournaments make for some interesting lessons on leadership and performance, and these apply equally to business and life overall. Last week, I had the chance to observe first hand the dynamics of winning and losing at the Women’s U18 European Championship Basketball tournament in Romania. Whereas the early rounds of competition were about separating [...]
