Archives For Leadership

A Thirst for Criticism

May 24, 2013 — Leave a comment

It is a spectacularly beautiful Friday morning and a great start to Memorial Day. Please remember the meaning and purpose of Memorial Day. Remember those who have fallen serving in our military and their families.2008 Memorial Day Poster #3.

Do you thirst for criticism? I can hear you saying “Do what???” Why in the world would anyone want to be criticized? Most of us have enough issues with our self-image as it is, right?

The thing is, is that when you receive criticism as an opportunity to examine yourself and to see if here may be a grain of truth in the criticism, then you have the opportunity to grow. You have the opportunity to deal with weaknesses or blind spots in your life and to become even more effective in your life.

Now if the criticism comes from those who care for you and you trust, then it is greatly important that you receive and reflect on their words. Scripture talks of the value of the “wounds of friends”.

So – do you really want to grow even more into who God intended you to be? If so, then not only do you need to embrace criticism s an opportunity and gift, you need to actually thirst for it.

Have a great Memorial Day, but do please stop and remember those who have fallen and then pray for their families.

BG

In Leadership, Personal Management , ,
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Being Nosey Makes You A Better Team Member

May 22, 2013 — Leave a comment

Well good morning and welcome to the middle of the week!Barn - Keely's photos

Recently I received some strange advice – if you want to be a better team member, then be nosey! I don’t know about you, but I was taught that being nosey was impolite. However, after it was explained to me it makes perfect sense.

I love our country and our people, but there are some things about our culture that just get in the way sometimes, especially when we take a good trait too far. We value the individual greatly and we are individualistic. There are some benefits to this as shown by our history, however, there are also downsides when it is taken too far. We have developed a mentality that everything is private  and we should not “meddle” in other people’s lives (does that seem odd to you that while we are so private one-on-one,we share too openly online? Weird). In doing so, we have lost touch with one another – we don’t really know each other. To be an effective team, you have to trust one another. To trust someone, you need to know them and them know you.

So, get nosey – find out the birth dates of your teammates, find out about their families, their dreams, their frustrations, and so on. Get nosey and get to know those you work with and get transparent. Lead the way with sharing about who you are and see what happens. You just might see trust starting to build on your team.

What other ideas do you have for building trust on your team?

Have a great Wednesday!
BG

In Culture, Leadership, Teams , ,
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One Major Mistake In Evaluating People

May 20, 2013 — Leave a comment

Good morning, I hope you had a good day yesterday. It was a spectacular day here yesterday although a tough time for others in the Midwest.Blue Skies Lauren 2013

Have you ever heard someone say that size someone up with a glance? How often have you heard that first appearances are everything? Think about those statements for a bit. Is that really sound thinking?

This weekend I was talking with one of our daughters about the wonderful complexity of people. We were discussing how even after many, many years of marriage or friendship that you continued to discover new aspects of the other person. People have so many facets to them and are ever changing due to so many different things.

However, as individuals that are so busy, we don’t seem to want to take the time to understand others, so we use “boxes”. We want to size someone up quickly and place them into one of our own predetermined categories so that we keep our thinking and our relationships in a nice and neat system. This is really shallow and lazy thinking, is most often wrong, and robs us and them of something important. Think about the following quote:

“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.” Jesus – John 7:24

Jesus says to use right judgement, but most often we do judge by appearances. Some of us also have the foolhardy notion that some how we are good at doing so. So the question for you is are you judging people quickly by appearances and placing them into one of your boxes (categories) or are you taking the time to appreciate the depth and wonderful complexity of who they are?

It takes more time and is messier, but it is oh so worth doing. Take some time today and get to know the people you do life with a little better today. Go get a cup of coffee and hear their story. YOu will be amazed at what you learn.

Hope your week gets off to a great start!
BG

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THE LANTERN AND THE LIGHTHOUSE: A LEADERSHIP PARABLE

Posted on May 18, 2013 In Leadership , ,
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Three Benefits of Wise Counselors

May 17, 2013 — Leave a comment

It is Friday! Looking forward to the weekend after a good, but pretty intense week.

“. . . with those who take advice is wisdom.” Proverbs 13:10

“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, . . .” Proverbs 13:20

“Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, . . .” Proverbs 22:17

This week, I was part of a two day meeting facilitated by our team for a committee of the board of directors of a nonprofit plus some of their senior management staff. The executive director of the nonprofit was seeking the counsel of the board committee as well as that of our team regarding key strategic issues. I highly respect and like the people involved and it was a rich, rich time.

Scripture talks about the wisdom of having many counselors and for the last two days I saw that biblical principle at work. There are three specific benefits that I saw this week:

1. A broadened perspective – with a diverse group of people from different disciplines and a wide range of experience the view of the executive director, and everyone for that matter, was broadened considerably. We were all able to begin seeing or framing the opportunities in different ways and to even see new opportunities.

2. A more robust process – a couple of processes were developed in this meeting and with the experience in the room, along with a strong sense of collaboration, we developed much more robust processes.

3. Greater unity among the board members and the senior management – one great benefit in my opinion is that the friendship  respect, and sense of team deepened significantly among the board members and the senior staff members as they engaged intensely on the challenges and opportunities and emerged with some good results.

The benefits of having many wise counselors is valuable – if you use them!

Have a great weekend,
BG

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4 Very Powerful Things to Say

May 14, 2013 — 2 Comments

Good morning!garage window 2013

As leaders, there are some things that we just forget to say or that we somehow don’t think we need to or should say. That’s a mistake. In her article on the Inc. site Maria Tabaka lists four statements that she has found to be powerful and necessary.

1. I’m sorry

2. I was wrong

3. I need help

4. I don’t know

These seem pretty simple and obvious right? Yet, somehow they are difficult for us to use sometimes, especially when we are the leader.

If you are not using these simple words on a regular basis, maybe it’s time to find out why and then to start using them. They are powerful.

Blessings,
BG

In Culture, Leadership , , , ,
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Great Leaders are Simplfiers

May 7, 2013

Quote for the day:

Simple Book

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.“

- General Colin Powell

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How You Impact the Mood and Behavior of Those You Lead

May 3, 2013

Good morning to you on this fine Friday morning. I hope you have something fun planned with you family for the weekend!blue sky by Keely

As the leader of your team, most often you are the one directly responsible for the good or bad mood of your team members. Surprising? According to this Harvard Business Review article, “The leader’s mood and behaviors drive the moods and behaviors of everyone else. A cranky and ruthless boss creates a toxic organization filled with negative underachievers who ignore opportunities; an inspirational, inclusive leader spawns acolytes for whom any challenge is surmountable. The final link in the chain is performance: profit or loss.“

Your emotional style sets the tone for those you lead – you have a direct and powerful impact on the mood and behaviors of the ones you lead. I can still remember when I was about to become the commander of an Army unit, the admonishment of my battalion commander. First he said, “Your duties are simple, you are responsible for everything your unit does or does not do.” Then he went on to say that an Army unit eventually takes on the personality of its commander and if I did not like how it was operating, to go look in the mirror for the cause of the problem. The bottom line is that your emotional style will become the emotional style of your team. The researchers call it mood contagion.

What that means is that your emotional intelligence is critical to your success as a leader. It means you have to come to a deep understanding of yourself; your strengths, weaknesses, conflict management style, preferences, tendencies, how you project yourself, and all the other aspects of who you are – good and bad. By the way, you can’t do this alone. You need to take the various excellent personality assessments that are out there and then have a knowledgeable person walk you through what the assessments mean. You need to have a personal 360 SWOT done by those in your life. It won’t be fun, but it will be oh so valuable!

As a leader (actually everyone), you need to learn to manage your inner life. To lead effectively you need to be an authentic person that sets the proper emotional tone for your team. Your emotional leadership sets the tone for your team and is one of the most important factors for the success of your team.

So in what ways do you set the emotional tone for your team? How are you managing your inner life?

Have a great weekend!
BG

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The Crisis of Complexity

May 2, 2013

Excellent video on The Crisis of Complexity.Alan Siegel

http://on.wsj.com/173racJ

Have a great afternoon!
BG

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Three Things to Consider for Your Formal Communication System

May 1, 2013

Good morning! I am traveling some this week and having the pleasure of being part of a team that is coming alongside an stream Niles 2013organization that is doing good in the inner city helping them to better manage their organization. Great group of folks. I am writing this sitting on the side of a hotel bed – not the best way to write!

Communication among people is an art and a science and one that is so hard for us to master. Within an organization it gets even more complex. I have found that within an organization you can have people who have good relationships and a fairly strong informal communication process, but you still suffer because there is a weak formal system of communication.

As a leader, you need to establish a robust formal system of communication within your organization. Some things to consider are:

1. Frequency and regularity – people need to be communicated with more often that we as leaders often want to do so. They also need to know that the formal communication will be regular and reliable. If you are supposed to have some type of information meeting every Friday – do it and don’t skip a meeting. Especially don’t skip several meetings.

2. Remember that each of us don’t take in information the same way, some prefer to hear it, some read it, and so on. Therefore, you need to ensure that you are taking advantage of the many and varied mediums or channels that are available to us to communicate more effectively.

3. Say it and then repeat it at least seven times in various fashions. Just because you understand it doesn’t mean your team understands. Research shows that you need to repeat something important at least seven times for people to start geting it. So repeat yourself often and do so in various communication channels.

Be intentional and set up robust formal communication processes to keep your team informed. It is critical to the success of your organization.

Have a great Wednesday!
BG

In Culture, Leadership, Relationshps , ,
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