Category Archives: Vision
A Treasure of Wisdom
“A Treasure of Wisdom” By Bob Vanourek Every now and then, I have a chance to read a book a colleague has written and want to tell others about it. Such it is with Frank Sonnenberg’s Follow Your Conscience: Make a Difference in Your Life and the Lives of Others. Frank is an award-winning author and a consultant who works in the areas of leadership, character, values, and personal responsibility. I met Frank electronically through my association with Trust Across America–Trust Around the World. This book is a real gem and is rich with sage advice. I have many pages dog-eared and passages highlighted. Frank covers topics like the power of kindness, forgiveness, and believing; the magic of giving; the most important things to teach your children; …Continue Reading
Leadership Vision
This week we bring you profound advice from a trusted colleague and friend, Robert Whipple, CEO of Leadergrow Incorporated. His recent post really drove home for us, and we wanted to share it with you. It gives 8 actionable items which will help improve your vision as a leader, and help you improve the vision of other leaders. Improving the Vision of Leaders by Robert Whipple Enjoy!
Dreams Versus Goals
“Goals are dreams with deadlines” ~ Diana Scharf, author Goals are the secret ingredient for turning our dreams into reality. Our good friend and fellow leadership practitioner, Bob Whipple, “The Trust Ambassador”, wrote a helpful blog on goal setting recently. We excerpt below some of Bob’s wise insights for setting great goals. 1. Make your goals tangible We all have good intentions and dreams, but to really engage the power of goals, you simply must write them down. The act of committing goals to paper or keyboard means that you can no longer push them aside later on when the going gets tough. 2. Goals should represent reach Easy goals are not powerful because we can accomplish them without effort. Pie-in-the-sky goals are also not very powerful because we see them …Continue Reading
Your Leadership Mindset
iStock Photo What is your leadership mindset? What are your self-conceptions and beliefs that drive your behavior as a leader? In many cases, these are unknown because they operate beneath the level of our conscious awareness. Yet they are crucially important because they affect the way we approach people, situations, opportunities, and risks. In short, our mindset is an essential factor in the quality of our leadership, yet we often operate in the dark about how and why. Enter Carol Dweck and her path-breaking research on mindsets. Dweck is a professor at Stanford University who studies motivation, personality, and development. According to Dweck, her “work bridges developmental psychology, social psychology, and personality psychology, and examines the self-conceptions (or mindsets) people use to structure the self and guide their behavior.” …Continue Reading
Creating Alignment & Balance through High-Performance Leadership
Guest Blog by Charles Walsh One of the most important aspects of leadership today is intentional alignment of purpose and direction. A four-quadrant approach will assist you in achieving high-performance leadership while ensuring balance of effectiveness and impact of results. In the 21st century, the battle cry of top leaders is achieving and sustaining high performance. Such performance is built one employee at a time and is driven by high-performance leadership at all levels of the organization. High-performance leadership understands the differences between and behaviors required for both effectiveness as a manager and influence and impact as a leader. The Concept of High-Performance Leadership Today, high-performance leaders are engaged with employees at all levels, interacting moment by moment to accomplish the enterprise’s work by focusing on the motives and …Continue Reading
Love as a Leadership Imperative, or What’s Love Got to Do With It?
Guest Blog by Chief Karl Bauer We study, teach and write about how to become better leaders. We espouse collaborative visioning, champion the empowerment of subordinates and challenge each other to harness collective wisdom when setting organizational goals. We call upon leaders to provide clear direction, cultivate a climate of support and work tirelessly to create opportunity for others. Whether in academia or on the assembly line, it seems the aforementioned principles weave their way into every leadership dialogue, as well they should. So, what’s love got to do with it? We tend to avoid talking about love as a leadership principle, let alone as an imperative. The concept of love may arise in the context of deeply enjoying one’s chosen profession or organization, but we tend to not talk …Continue Reading
The Missing Links in Goal-Setting (How to Rock Your Goals)
Much has been written about the power of setting goals. Unfortunately, almost all of the advice about effective goal-setting falls short on a few key factors. More on that soon. First, some clarifications. Goals are what you hope to achieve. According to a popular mnemonic, goals should be “SMART”: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. We also recommend using “stretch goals” or “big, hairy, audacious goals” (BHAGs, to employ a term from authors Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in a Harvard Business Review article) Most of the above is by now fairly well known (though often botched in practice). Here is what is missing: 1) linking goals to a higher purpose and vision 2) setting goals for each major stakeholder 3) then prioritizing them As we wrote in Triple Crown …Continue Reading
Botching Mission and Vision
Words matter in leadership. Bob was once talking to a group of employees about his ideas for setting up dedicated teams to focus on problems. One employee responded, “We are all dedicated here.” Oops. Bob meant teams focused on single problems. The employee thought he was questioning their commitment. Semantics. Words matter in leadership. Think of the leader who announces, “We will make our numbers no matter what,” and how that is ripe for misinterpretation, and perhaps even an invitation for unethical behavior. Key Words, Key Behaviors We challenge the conventional wisdom on “mission,” “vision,” and “strategy,” and we believe that sharper thinking in these areas could make significant differences in leadership effectiveness. Here is our take a few terms that are essential for leaders to get right. Purpose: …Continue Reading
Synthesis: A Critical Leadership Skill
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”-Leonardo Da Vinci Leaders today are swamped with information 24/7. The complexity can be overwhelming. Yet leaders are supposed to rally colleagues with insightful analyses of problems and plans for how to succeed. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. spoke about the importance of getting to the “simplicity on the other side of complexity.” Such simplicity accelerates speed and drives change. How can leaders today get to that simplicity? This challenge is one of synthesis. Synthesis creatively fuses multiple elements, often from different areas, into something new and memorable. Synthesis is not a summary. Synthesis takes A + B + C, and then derives D, where D encompasses the essence of A, B, and C but also adds something new that resonates deeply with people. O.J Simpson’s attorney, …Continue Reading
What to Do If You Work For a Jerk
So your boss is a jerk. What to do? Of course, how to approach it depends on the severity of the situation, but here are some tips: 1. Go Lean. You may have to make a change, so you need money in the bank. That’s not tapping into your 401k or IRA. You need six to twelve months of basic living expenses in a liquid account. Cut down on discretionary expenses (lunches and dinners out, subscriptions, etc.) and delay new purchases (new tablet, TV, etc.). There are few things worse than having to stay in a toxic situation because you can’t afford to leave. (Note that many people use this as an excuse to avoid dealing with tough issues, even though they could make it work.) By going lean, …Continue Reading
Is Your Organization Headed for a Breakdown?
Is your organization or team headed for a breakdown? Organizations emit warning signs before breaking down, but the financial signals, such as revenue declines, shrinking margins, and deteriorating working capital ratios, are lagging indicators. Leading indicators are much more important because you can address them before the financials go south. Using our triple-crown framework, here are 20 indicators of organizational breakdowns: Focusing too much on strategy shifts instead of accountability for results Creeping complacency Cutting ethical corners when the pressure is on Not building ethics into day-to-day processes and decisions Falling prey to short-termism Neglecting integrity, cultural fit, and emotional intelligence in talent selection and promotions Failing to invest adequately in developing leaders with character Not seeking input from everybody in the organization regarding purpose, values, vision Failing to inculcate …Continue Reading
