Tom Peters famously said “True leaders don’t create followers. They create more leaders.” If you’re a leader, your whole purpose in business is to help others develop into the best person they can be and contribute meaningfully to an organization. This, of course, means identifying potential future leaders who can be groomed to move from high performing individual contributor to high performing leader. This shift doesn’t come easily, though. Over half of the individuals who are placed in formal high potential programs leave within the first five years. Because we are confident that past performance predicts future performance, we make … Read More
How Leaders Can Defeat Imposter Syndrome
It’s very common for first time leaders to go through a stage where they feel like they fooled people into believing they’re ready for the job, but they aren’t; and it’s only a matter of time until everyone learns the truth. Surveys show up to 70% of the population experiences feelings of fraud at some point in their lives, including musician Chris Martin, actress Natalie Portman, comedian Tina Fey, executive Sheryl Sandberg, and even poet Maya Angelou. For most people, that feeling goes away after a few months on the job. For others, Imposter Syndrome is a core part of … Read More
Eight Resolutions for a Healthy Leader
Whether you call it a resolution or a goal, it’s all the same thing. We’re all looking for that one thing we want to do differently in 2018 to make it our best year yet. The vast majority of personal New Year’s Resolutions involve becoming more healthy (eat less, work out more, etc). When we think about health, we think about the things that are easily measured: pounds, inches, calories, grams of sugar, blood sugar, and cholesterol. Rarely do we measure our mental health or consider the impact it has on our physical health. The role of a leader is … Read More
Leaning Into Conflict
The word conflict implicitly carries a negative connotation. When we think of conflict, we often have a physical as well as emotional response. Heart rate, breathing, and perspiration increase while our fight or flight response engages. Certainly, approaching conflict as an all-or-none equation by either reacting aggressively (fight) or avoiding the conflict entirely (flight) results in a net-negative. There is value, however, in embracing conflict. Through conflict, we challenge assumptions, establish priorities, identify weaknesses, and generate ideas. We should be open to conflict that can create better business outcomes. This doesn’t mean we hand out a set of boxing gloves … Read More
How to Thrive as a Default Leader
This month marks the 16th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Every year, Americans find themselves re-living the emotions and imagery of that day through social media and news reports. Naturally, on the anniversary, many people use social media to share their memories from that day including what they were doing, where they were, and how it changed their lives. As time passes, and I add more people to my network of friends and colleagues, I realize that every year I hear new stories of heroism from average people on that day.
Always Start with a Frog
What kept you awake last night? Was there one thing mentally nagging you that kept you from a restful night’s sleep? That one thing that wouldn’t let you take control of your thoughts last night will continue dominating your mental energy today — unless you do one thing: Eat the frog. Mark Twain popularized a way to procrastinate less and get more done. “Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” If you start your day by doing your least favorite thing, then you’ve already accomplished the worst task you … Read More