“You have to change or we’re leaving.” Those may be some of the most powerful words to hit me as CEO of Tasty Catering. And they’re also ones I am most grateful for two employees having the courage to fire at me in 2005. When Tim and Jamie approached me, it must have felt like confronting a drill … [Read more...]
Solving External Leadership Challenges Through Engaged Employees
Command and control leadership placed internal and external challenges on my shoulders and placed me in a position of managing issues, policies and procedures. The pressure was unrelenting, resulting in the inability to use emotional intelligence to control my emotions. One day, several years ago, … [Read more...]
November 2013 Leadership Development Carnival
The November 2013 Leadership Development Carnival is rich with contributions by thought leaders who are taking leadership to new levels of excellence in varying organizations across the globe. Thanks to Dan McCarthy for the opportunity to host this month’s Carnival and to all of you who took the … [Read more...]
As We Enter Q4, How Are We Preparing for Next Year?
There’s still one quarter yet to finish for 2013, yet we are already focusing on what will begin ninety days from now. That’s what leaders do, after all! Typically, the prospect of a new calendar year is exciting. A business can reflect on what has happened in the current year, sort out the … [Read more...]
Handling Change: by a Boomer Entrepreneur
It seems like just a few years ago when great entrepreneur explosion of the late seventies and early eighties took place in the United States. Excitement abounded as small companies opened with bootstrap financing. Some of these companies earned national recognition in magazines such as Inc. … [Read more...]
How to be a Good Coach: Tips for employee-focused leaders
Being a good coach means putting others before yourself and always making decisions for the good of the team. Here are a few tips on how to take coaching principles into the workplace in order to be an employee-focused leader. Listen This is the most important part of communication. Part … [Read more...]
Coaching vs. Managing: Why coaches are better leaders than managers
For the past several years, I’ve had the pleasure of coaching young females in the sport of softball. Throughout my time, I’ve learned that being the coach of a team and being a leader within an organization is not much different. The same principles span both responsibilities. In fact, when you … [Read more...]
5 Key Steps to Gaining Company-Wide Discretionary Thinking
If every employee gave just five or ten percent more than the required thoughts every day at work, how much stimulus towards performance excellence would result? Is it possible to raise the level of your staff’s discretionary thinking, company-wide, and find out? Yes! It is possible, and those … [Read more...]
How to Attract (and Keep) Olympic-Caliber Employees
In the last post, we compared an entangled employee to an Olympian, versus an engaged employee, or collegiate athlete. Just to recap, the engaged employee has risen to a level above most other employees. He has skills, commitment and dedication but doesn’t exhibit the same kind of care for the … [Read more...]
Letting Go Of Command & Control
This video has been brought to you courtesy of The Center for Values-Driven Leadership … [Read more...]
