“There are a lot of ways to do things. Some are more fun than others.” S.R. Foley, Jr., Adm, USN
“There are a lot of ways to do things. Some are more fun than others.” S.R. Foley, Jr., Adm, USN Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash
Uniquely Great
Great leaders have things in common. They also have different ways to find their individual greatness. Here are eight ways you can find your own individual greatness. Find the beat of your own drum and march to it. It is so easy for me to get distracted and off course when I look at what…
What Makes a Teacher Great?
What makes a teacher great? Here are traits that you should consider if you want to become a great teacher. Communication A great teacher can communicate clearly and effectively with their students, colleagues, and parents. They can explain complex concepts in simple ways, listen actively to feedback and questions, and use various modes of communication…
No Excuses
Authenticity and self-honesty are critical to success. You can’t solve a problem until you admit that that you have a problem. However much it may hurt, the first step to bouncing back from a mistake is to be honest, with absolutely no excuses, that you made a mistake Photo by Antoine Rault on Unsplash
How the Best Leaders Manage in a Crisis
Difficult managers use crisis as a management tool. Everything is serious. Everything is urgent. They shake everybody up. The Power and Failings of Leadership: The Caine Mutiny https://www.jaywren.com/leadership-so-when-does-the-crisis-start/
Leadership | Quotes | Success
Creating a Positive Workplace
Focusing on a negative can distract people from the positive side of doing their job. It’s Not about Fruitcake I love fruitcake. Like everything else, fruitcake has people who love it and people who do not. Nearly two million fruitcakes are sold each year. I doubt that many people eat an entire fruitcake, since most…
The Personal Benefits of Helping Others
Helping Others is Rewarding Some of the best things I have done for myself involved helping other people. Giving my time to help other people in turn benefited me mentally and emotionally. Helping other people increased my self-esteem as a person of value. I had activities to plan and anticipate. I got to know as many…
Quotes on Hiring Great People
Hiring the Best People and Empowering Them to Excel: How do great leaders build great companies? Here are some of the things great leaders say. Lee Iacocca – Automobile Executive “I hire people brighter than me, and I get out of their way.” Bill Gates – Co-Founder Microsoft “The competition to hire the best will…
Career Strategy: Creating a Powerful Plan for Your Success
Career Strategy: Where do you start in creating a strategic plan that is tailored for you? What do you need to know about adjusting your plan to an ever-changing job market? Check-off List A career plan creates a check-off list. Through this check-off list, you will create focus and direction. Your intuition can emerge to…
Thinking: Learning how to Manage the Pain Between our Ears
Thinking: Happiness is easy when everything is going our way. However, we can suffer, even when have everything we want. By managing our thinking, we can find joy from learning how to think about our world. Thinking: Learning how to Manage the Pain Between our Ears Being happy is a normal. Staying unhappy is not….
Gaining Respect in the Workplace in 10 Easy Steps
Gaining respect in the workplace affects your income, job security, and career progress. Here are 10 ways to get the respect you deserve. Gaining Respect by Giving Credit People gain respect when they give credit to the correct person. Giving credit is a compliment with substance. On the other hand, people who claim credit for…
Leadership Development: A Four-Step Process for Success
Leadership Development: How can companies hire and train people to become leaders? Here are four steps to effective leadership development. Companies that produce great leaders become greater companies. ~ www.jaywren.com Leadership Development — Four Steps Creating future leaders is critical to the long-term growth of a company. An element in succession planning, creating leaders from…
Creating Leaders: 4 Elements of Leadership Development
Creating Leaders: How can companies hire and train people to become leaders? Here are four steps to effective leadership development. Companies that produce great leaders become greater companies. ~ www.jaywren.com Creating Leaders — Four Steps Creating future leaders is critical to the long-term growth of a company. An element in succession planning, creating leaders from…
Toxic Personalities: A Poison in the Workplace
Toxic personalities create stress that spreads throughout an organization. What are the skills that you can develop to survive and even change toxic people? Know What You Can Control If you have the authority to act on the people with toxic personalities, it is your responsibility to change the behavior of these people or remove…
Getting Discovered: How Powerful People Find Great Jobs
Getting Discovered: You have all the skills, the talent, intelligence, charisma, and emotional intelligence for success. But what does it matter if no one knows? Spread the Word Retailers, manufacturers, and service providers have resources for putting their name out there. They run ads in print, radio, television, social media, and billboards. Furthermore, they sponsor…
Habits: Giving Up the Behavior that Weakens Our Careers
Habits: The things we don’t do are as important as the things we do to be a winner in the workplace. Here are eight things to avoid as you work to build a successful career and become a leader among your peers. Often, it’s the things that we don’t do that count the most. ~…
Network Event Anxiety: Tools and Skills for Success
Network Event Anxiety: becoming effective at networking events may require that you step outside of your comfort zone. Meeting new people, especially for introverts is never easy. At times, extroverts feel awkward when networking. Feeling uncertain in new situations is common, perhaps even normal. Preparation for Overcoming Network Event Anxiety Talking with strangers is easy…
Anger Prevention: How Small Steps Can Help You Decompress
Anger Prevention: Anger is a normal feeling when we have experiences that threaten our beliefs or possessions. We can learn skills that give us a choice in the way we respond to that feeling. Anger Prevention: Different Triggers for Different People We all have individual triggers. I say individual triggers, because different things create different…
Stress Reduction for a Clear and Productive Mind
Stress reduction: Life’s challenges create pressure. I can’t always eliminate these challenges, but I can reduce the pressure by being smart about how I respond to them. Action I feel stress when I put things off. To overcome procrastination, I simply agree to do one small thing. A common example is to go for a…
Leadership Skills: 7 Steps to Creating Powerful Teams
Leadership Skills: 7 Steps to Creating Powerful Teams. Ways to interact with teams to create engagement and understanding. Smart Leaders Share Their Ideas with Others It takes time and patience to share ideas and train team members. Leaders who invest this time to show team members shortcuts and special skills increase the success of the…
Bias Dictates the Thoughts that Govern Us
Bias dictates to our reason and wisdom, but is it always bad? What role does it play in decision-making and in governing our actions? Knowing that we have bias and learning how to manage our bias empowers us to act intelligently to the world in which we live. The biggest challenge is managing our bias…
Rebel: The Power of Being Different
Rebel: The world is full of successful people who conform to the norm. However, a rebel can blow past the norm and change the world. I have never known a rebel who was boring. ~ www.jaywren.com Companies have guidelines and rules. But what do you do when the guidelines block you from achieving your goals?…
Bad Bosses: How to Excel In Spite of Them
Bad bosses can destroy your career as they make your life miserable before you get away from them. Here are ways you can protect yourself and your career. If you are working for a bad boss, you have my understanding and empathy. I have had a couple of bad bosses. One had no interest in…
Leadership | Quotes | Success
Leadership Qualities that Create Great Teams
Leadership Qualities: Some teams have a manager but still suffer from a lack of leadership. What qualities help leaders raise the team standards and increase team success? Four Leadership Qualities that Create Great Teams Leaders have many qualities that make them more effective. For example, a leader with charisma easily draws people to them and…
Wise Choices: Little Adjustments Can Change the Day
Wise choices: Success comes from making wise choices about how to feel and respond to the things that happen to us. When I am having a bad day, I can strain to push myself through the day. Ruminating, sulking, and whining are great ways to stay stuck in a bad day. On the other hand, I…
Confidence Development: Clearing the Mental Clutter of Job Stress
Confidence Development: Stress loves mental clutter. As the pile of clutter grows in a person’s mind, stress becomes more powerful. The clutter creates confusion and undermines our ability for confidence development. Instead of planning for upcoming events, we worry about upcoming events. The growing stress robs our energy. Lower energy leads to inaction, procrastination. Inaction…
Interviewing | Job Skills | Leadership | Quotes | Success
Meeting Agendas: Gaining Control Through Preparation
Meeting Agendas can empower you to set and control the purpose of a meeting as well as the agreements reached during the meeting. Are you tired of meetings that accomplish nothing? These lessons from sales training might help. Case Study During lunch, a field sales manager of a major consumer goods company told me about…
Leadership | Quotes | Success
Winning Traits: Empower Yourself for Success
Winning Traits: What traits do successful people have that empower them for success? Are they traits that you can develop? Horrible things happen to all of us. Things beyond our control. But developing winning traits can change the questions we ask when we meet challenges. We stop asking, “Why me?” Instead, we ask, “What steps…
Career Intelligence: Learn as if You Will Live Forever
Career Intelligence is a prerequisite for career agility. “An agile career is the result of an awareness and willingness to learn new skills that increase your value to your current and future employers. ~www.jaywren.com Building a lifetime career is a continual process of expanding your skills and your network. Every single day, innovation changes something…
Accomplishments: Knowing the Purpose of Your Goals
Accomplishments: Why is it that some companies and some people fail to achieve their goals? How can they define their goals better with stating what they hope to accomplish? The Benefits of Knowing What You Want to Accomplish Goals are the things we hope to do. Before we set goals, we should ask ourselves what…
Choosing Better Friends: Powerful Steps to a Happier, More Successful You
Choosing better friends is more than picking friends you like. And it does not mean breaking ties with friends you cherish. The Experience of Choosing Better Friends As you make better friends, you will drift away from the friends who bring little value or even diminish your life. Rather, choosing better friends is a means…
Effective Communications: 7 Steps to Being Understood
Effective Communications are part of the job for professionals in all types of fields and responsibilities. Here are 7 ideas for communication success. Headlines Even when speaking, you will help people understanding you with a headline. The headline states the topic. “Bill, let’s talk about the plan for this weekend” is a simple sentence that…
Winning: 4 Conditions that Empower and Motivate Successful Teams
Winning: The best conditions empower, motivate, and engage teams. Additionally, these conditions create bonds and ownership among the team members. Four Conditions for Winning Teams. Inclusiveness Ownership Recognition Honesty Inclusiveness The words “we,” “our,” and “together” create feelings of membership in a group. Additionally, calling people by their name increases bonds. For example, picture this…
Mental Flow: Present Moment Awareness Continues Through Time
Mental Flow: Living in the present moment is like riding a canoe. You have control with your paddle, but you ride effortlessly in the river’s current. ~ www.jaywren.com In a previous article, Becoming Aware: The Power of Living in the Present Moment, I wrote, “Doing one thing at a time and clearing my mind of…
Action: Just Being On Time is Not Enough
Action: Just Being on Time is Not Enough. Successful people use their time effectively to accomplish more. ~ www.jaywren.com Big Projects and Time Management When going through lengthy periods with big projects, I sometimes push aside the big project to do the things that are easy and pressing. I let the most pressing tasks take…
Team Success: 5 Traits that Engage and Build Loyalty
Team Success: What traits engage and build loyalty among team members? This article covers five of the traits I have found among successful organizations. Traits of Successful Teams Inclusiveness Ownership Recognition Honesty Communication Inclusiveness The words “we,” “our,” and “together” create feelings of membership in a group. Additionally, calling people by their name increases bonds….
Leadership | Quotes | Success
Workplace Winners: How to Gain Respect and Create Success
Workplace Winners: How do people set the tone and take the action to become a winner in the workplace? Here are four steps I have seen that separate workplace winners from the crowd. Workplace winners show respect for the people who respect them. ~ www.jaywren.com Respond Intelligently to Criticism When someone criticizes me, I can easily…
Arriving Early: How a Simple Behavior Makes Life Easy
Arriving early: How does this simple behavior make life easier for you and the people around you? What does this character trait have to do with success in your job and success in your personal life? Get there early. You might miss something. ~ www.jaywren.com The Freedom from Stress of Arriving Early When I know…
Job Skills | Leadership | Quotes | Success
Communication: How Effective People Speak and Write
Communication: Effective speaking and writing are part of the job for professionals in all types of fields and responsibilities. Here are some ideas to make your business and personal communications more powerful. Headlines Even when speaking, you will help people understanding you with a headline. The headline states the topic. “Bill, let’s talk about the plan…
Leadership | Quotes | Success
Impact Writing: 4 Ways to Engage Your Reader
Impact writing: In a digital world, everyone is a writer. However, not everyone entered the digital world with the same writing skills. How can you engage your readers for action and interest? 4 Ways to Engage Your Reader with Impact Writing Don’t Add the Word, “Very.” Don’t write “Is, Was, and By.” Use Words that…
Leadership | Quotes | Success
Words that Empower and Motivate Successful Teams
Successful Teams: Words that empower and motivate teams create bonds among the team members. These words acknowledge ownership of responsibility. Furthermore, they show recognition of team member contributions. What are some of these words? Categories for Words that Motivate Successful Teams Here are four categories for words that help teams become more successful. Inclusiveness Ownership Recognition…
Job Skills | Leadership | Quotes | Success
Emotional Intelligence: 12 Steps to Empowering Your Mind
Emotional Intelligence: Learning how to manage emotions is part of growing up. However, becoming aware that our feelings are making us dumber is not always easy. How do successful people deal with emotions to make better decisions? Developing Emotional Intelligence Although it is normal to have emotional highs and lows, successful people separate their emotions…
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Character: Four Leadership Traits for Long-Term Success
Character traits for leadership are more than a leader’s personality. These traits are a leaders’ moral, emotional, and mental makeup. What character traits empower leaders to excel? Leadership Character Traits They are many character traits that make leaders successful. Here are four of those traits. Accountability Authenticity Commitment Humility Accountability President Harry Truman said, “The…
Creating Future Leaders: 4 Steps to Leadership Development
Creating Future Leaders: How can companies hire and train future leaders? Here are four steps companies can take to strengthen their leadership for the long term. The Four Steps to Creating Future Leaders Creating future leaders is critical to the long-term growth of a company. ~ www.jaywren.com Hire for leadership Establish Authority & Responsibility Teach for…
Open-Ended Questions: Solving Problems and Creating Leadership
Open-Ended Questions: What are they? How do they create opportunities for greater understanding in solving problems and creating leadership? One of the most important skills in leadership is the ability to answer open-ended questions. ~ www.jaywren.com Examples of Open-Ended Questions Open-ended questions enable a person to give meaningful, well-developed answers. The person uses knowledge, feelings,…
Leadership | Quotes | Success
Triggers: When Emotions Control Our Thinking
Triggers are anything that cause negative emotoinal response. Everyone feels stress. However, the degree that people experience stress, the things that create stress, and the way people respond to stress varies. Different Triggers for Different People We all have individual triggers. I say individual triggers, because different things create different feelings and different responses in…
Toxic People: How to Deal with Destructive Personalities
Toxic people create stress that spreads throughout an organization. What are the skills that you can develop not only to survive but to grow around destructive personalities? Change What You Control If you can control the actions of toxic people, your first step is to stop what these people are doing. The way that I…
Simplicity: The Essential Leadership Skill for Success
Simplicity: As situations become more complex, simplicity is a powerful tool. How do leaders eliminate the clutter to create success? Simplicity creates clarity and empowers leaders to remove the roadblocks to success. www.jaywren.com The Clarity of Simplicity Simplicity creates clarity. When leaders speak with simplicity, their message is easier to understand. Simplifying their schedule creates…
People: 18 Point Check-Off List for Making Great Hires
People: What are the steps for building teams? How do you know which person is best for the work you need done? If a company has great people at all levels, great goods and services will follow. ~ www.jaywren.com The Challenging Work of Selecting Great People As a recruiter who worked with wonderful human resources people…
Leadership | Quotes | Success
Winning Behavior: 8 Bad Habits to Break
inning Behavior: The things we don’t do are as important as the things we do to be a winner in the workplace. Here are eight things to avoid as you work to build a successful career and become a leader among your peers. Sometimes it’s the things that you don’t do that count the most….
Attitudes: How to Choose the Way We See the World
Attitudes: How is it that some people seem to have a natural, positive attitude? Even when life gives them challenges, these people live wonderful lives. Attitudes not only affect the way we see the world. Attitudes change the way we deal with the world. Understanding Moods and Attitudes When I am in hungry, tired, or…
Complaints: How Top Managers Manage Feedback
Complaints are a grievance issue, not a management feedback issue. Knowing the difference is important to becoming a strong manager. www.jaywren.com Why do weak managers confuse complaints with reporting a problem? How can we train managers to build teams with an effective flow of information? The Difference Reporting a problem is feedback that something isn’t…
Worrying: The Pointless and Painful Abuse of Fear
Worrying: Fear is a healthy emotion. However, when we turn our fears over and over in our mind, we experience pain with no purpose. Things That Worry Me I am a risk taker. I stepped out of a secure career in the consumer products industry to start my own business. At the time, I had…
Anger: Managing Your Emotions for a More Powerful Mind
Anger gives us the energy to avoid or overcome danger. However, managed incorrectly, anger can destroy relationships, ruin careers, and linger forever. Success starts with a clear mind that is free from anger. ~ www.jaywren.com Why I Wrote This Article About Anger I am not a professional mental therapist. Nor am I qualified to give…
15 Leadership Soft Skills that Create Greatness
Leadership soft skills: What are the leadership soft skills that create great employees and successful companies. How can you develop these skills? The most successful leaders not only develop technical skills; they also develop powerful leadership soft skills. ~ www.jaywren.com 15 Leadership Soft Skills that Create Greatness “That some achieve great success is proof to…
Trust: The Most Important Trait of Leadership
Trust: What makes this trait so valuable to leaders? What is the role of this trait in the relationship between leaders and their teams? Building trust can take years; losing trust can happen in an instant. ~ jaywren.com Creating Trust There several traits that make leaders great. Intelligence. Emotional maturity. High energy. Decisiveness. But…
Composure: How to Overcome Meeting Anxiety
Composure: Whether they make mistakes or simply must deal with intimidating people, everyone has stressful moments in meetings. How can you stay composed? Composure creates poise under pressure. ~ www.jaywren.com Composure: How to Overcome Meeting Anxiety Anxiety in meetings can be a problem for anyone. However, whether you have natural poise or suffer social anxiety,…
Great Leaders: 7 Steps to Creating Greatness in Others
Great Leaders: Some leaders are not only great themselves, but also inspire others to become great. What do they do differently? Great leaders do more than achieve success. They create greatness in others. ~ www.jaywren.com Great Leaders: 7 Steps to Creating Greatness in Others Some leaders have command presence. Colin Powell is an example of…
Winning Teams: 5 Traits that Lead to Team Success
Winning Teams: How is it that some teams continue to win while other teams continue to lose? What are the things that winning teams do differently? Here are some traits for team success. The power of winning teams exceeds the power of the individual members. ~ www.jaywren.com Winning Teams: 5 Traits that Lead to Team…
Confidence: How to Feel Comfortable in a Crowd
Confidence: From time to time, everyone feels insecure. Our feelings turn inward. Here are five tips for turning insecurity into poise and confidence. Confidence: Only You Can Deny Yourself Permission to Feel Comfortable in a Crowd. ~ www.jaywren.com Confidence: How to Feel Comfortable in a Crowd I have a fair amount of confidence in a crowd….
Authenticity: The First Step to Greatness
Authenticity: Why are rebels so appealing? Why are they so successful? Authenticity – The First Step to Greatness If you copy other people, you are an impersonator. When you remake the work of other people in ways that it becomes your own work, you are authentic. When authenticity leads you to break the rules and…
Leadership | Quotes | Success
Bias: How We Interpret the World with Our Feelings
ias is the noise above reason and wisdom, but is it always bad? What role does it play in decision making and in governing our actions? It is always easy to believe the voice of my own bias. I have always heard it. ~ www.jaywren.com Bias: How We Interpret the World with Our Feelings Bias…
How to Use Your Emotions to Make Better Decisions
Emotions: How do some people keep a clear mind to make intelligent decisions? Is managing emotions a skill anyone can learn? There are no bad emotions. There are only bad uses of emotions. ~ www.jaywren.com Emotions Have Positive Purposes All feelings help us interpret our world and make decisions. Even anger, doubt, and fear have positive benefits….
Leadership | Quotes | Success
4 Traits that Form the Foundation of Great Teams
Great Teams: Why is it that some organizations always create great teams? Additionally, why is it that other organizations never create great teams? Creating the foundation for great teams is fundamental to the management of any organization. ~ www.jaywren.com 4 Traits that Form the Foundation of Great Teams On every list that I read, Google,…
Reduce Turnover with These Powerful Steps
The most valuable assets of any company walk out the door at the end of the day. Ensuring that those assets return the next day is the obligation of all managers. ~ www.jaywren.com Reduce Turnover with These Powerful Steps. With these steps, you will reduce turnover and increase the value of your employees. Match Jobs…
Grumpy versus Grateful: Do We Have a Choice in How We Feel Today?
Grumpy versus Grateful: Why is it that some people manage to find happiness during tough times? “Choosing to Feel Happy Is Good for Our Health.” ~ www.jaywren.com Grumpy versus Grateful: Why Does It Matter? Few people choose to make themselves unhappy. However, many people are unhappy. Additionally, many of those people don’t know that they have…
Leadership | Quotes | Success
Empowering Teams: How Leaders Create Success
Empowering Teams: How Leaders Create Success. When a team performs below the sum of its members’ abilities, has leadership failed? “The greatest leaders empower the people they lead.” www.jaywren.com Empowering Teams: Leaders use different methods to create powerful teams and reduce turnover. Here are some simple steps that any leader can use. Empowering Teams: How Leaders…
Fun: In What Way Can Fun Increase Productivity?
un: What are the things that you can do to reduce stress in the workplace? In what ways can we enjoy our work and can increase our productivity? Fun: In What Way Can Fun Increase Productivity? I enjoy my work. The requirements of the job are simple yet fast paced. The tools are a lot…
Cold Calls: How Do You Take the Chill Out of Cold Calls?
Cold calls: do you fear calling people you don’t know? How do successful people open doors to opportunity through a simple phone call? Cold Calls: How Do You Take the Chill Out of Cold Calls? Cold calls: do you fear calling people you don’t know? How do successful people open doors to opportunity through a…
Business Meetings: Bringing the Right Tools
Business Meetings: job interviews, sales calls, client service meetings, meetings within your own company. What tools can add power to your presence? Business Meetings: Bringing the Right Tools What you bring to a business meeting is as important as the things you say or do in a business meeting. Getting to a business meeting to discover…
Leadership Traits: What are Four Traits Leaders Must Have?
Leadership Traits: Some teams have a manager but still suffer from a lack of leadership. What traits help leaders raise the team standards and increase team success? Leadership Traits: What are Four Traits Leaders Must Have? Leaders have many traits. Some of these traits are good traits that not all leaders have. For example, a…
Team Culture: Creating Success That Endures
Team Culture: Why do some teams pull together, even in the face of adversity? On the other hand, why do winning teams break down and go separate ways? Team Culture: Creating Success That Endures There are many things that characterize team culture. One of those things is that they share common goals. Second, team members…
Mentors: A Source Of Power Or A Waste of Time?
Mentors: What is a mentor? How can a mentor help you? What skills do you need to benefit from mentoring? What type of mentoring will work effectively for you? Mentors: A Source of Power or A Waste of Time? For many people, a mentor is a source of inspiration, wisdom, and solutions. Some people rely…
Success Made Simple: Do These Things.
Success Made Simple: What are the things that successful people do differently? How can you simplify your life to simplify your success? Success Made Simple There are many things that successful people do. Here are some of those things. Success Made Simple: Act Once. Some projects need extra effort and attention. Sometimes completing those projects is…
Finding Confidence in the Face of Fear
Finding Confidence in the Face of Fear Finding Confidence in the Face of Fear: Do you fear giving a presentation or job interview? Many people have those feelings. How do they deal with them? Fear is a thief. Finding Confidence in the Face of Fear You can have power over fear. Furthermore, you can enjoy…
Creating the Story of Why You are Great
Creating the Story of Why You are Great: What makes people want to hear or read about great people? How can you make people want to hear or read about you? Creating the Story Think about the simple tools of advertising. Advertisers use images. They include music. They create a message to try to appeal…
Wired For Success: Five Steps to Upping Your Mental Game
Wired For Success: Some people procrastinate, worry, and accomplish very little. However, other people get into action, have peace of mind, and achieve success. What do these people do differently? Wired For Success: Five Steps to Upping Your Mental Game Wired For Success: Some people accomplish very little. On the hand, other people get things…
How Leaders Create Powerful Teams and Reduce Turnover
Powerful Teams: Leaders use different methods to create powerful teams and reduce turnover. Here are some simple steps that any leader can use. How Leaders Create Powerful Teams and Reduce Turnover. Leaders use different methods to create powerful teams and reduce turnover. Here are some methods that simply work. Keep an open door with your…
Successful Leaders: What is the one thing a leader must do?
What is the one thing a leader must do? There are all kinds of opinions on what leaders must do. But what is there is one thing that all successful leaders have in common. Leadership Gold by John C. Maxwell Successful Leaders: What is the one thing a leader must do? There are countless articles…
Mental and Emotional Burnout: When Self-Sacrifice Becomes Destructive
Mental and Emotional Burnout: Do you look at your work and say, “I can no longer do this?” How do you recover the energy and excitement to do your job? Mental and Emotional Burnout: When Self-Sacrifice Becomes Destructive The term “burnout” in reference to job performance comes from an article “Staff Burn-Out” by Herbert J. Freudenberger,…
Isaac Asimov: How Did He Create a Lifetime of Success?
Isaac Asimov: What are the things that Isaac Asimov did that enabled him to become a professor, writer, and success story throughout his life? Isaac Asimov: The Power of a Lifetime of Learning Continuing to learn is fundamental to success for a lengthy career. Industries change. Tools change. Opportunities disappear. New opportunities are not always…
6 Signs Your Boss Hates You and 6 Solutions
Signs Your Boss Hates You: What are the signs and what can you do about them? Should you just ignore the situation? Should you act? 6 Signs Your Boss Hates You #1 Your boss’s criticisms are personal. Your boss has the responsibility to keep you on task and doing your job on time. However, criticizing…
Delegating Authority in Large Organizations
Delegating Authority in Large Organizations Cruise ships are complex organizations. Examining the operations of a cruise ship presents an operating to see the necessity of delegating authority. Delegating Authority in Cruise Ship Operations. What can we learn from the operation of a cruise ship? How does it compare to other complex organizations? Just because you…
Auftragstaktik: Empowering Site-Based Leaders
Auftragstaktik: Empowering Site-Based Leaders. What is Auftragstaktik? What are its limitations and risks? How does it free leaders for greater success? The German word Auftragstaktik is coined from the phrase: Auftrag (assignment) taktik (tactics). The idea is that everyone in an organization needs to know how much authority they have and how to use that authority. Simple Example NOTICE: In the…
Empowering Others: Leadership and General Patton
Empowering others is not a concept that people often associate with George S. Patton, Jr. But at what point does success depend on empowering others? “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” General George S. Patton, Jr. This quote from Patton gives us…
Hiring the Best People and Empowering Them to Excel
Hiring the Best People and Empowering Them to Excel Hiring the Best People and Empowering Them to Excel: How do great leaders build great companies? Here are some of the things great leaders say. Hiring the Best People Lee Iacocca – Automobile Executive “I hire people brighter than me and I get out of their…
Poise: You can have it, and it’s free. Here’s how.
Poise: You can have it, and it’s free! Poise: It’s inside you. ~ www.jaywren.com Some people have a graceful balance. They exude confidence. Their presence is dignified and reassuring. They have a quiet command presence. They have poise. Inner Calm Poise begins with an inner calmness. This calmness radiates outward. Here are some things you…
Social Anxiety: Is It Killing Your Career?
It is your responsibility to stop thinking negative thoughts about yourself before they become fixed in your mind as beliefs. Smile. Say something nice about yourself. Make a list of your blessings. Social Anxiety: Is It Killing Your Career? “Don’t let the world change your smile. Let your smile change the world.” A Work in…
Fear is what people say behind your back.
Fear is not equal to respect. Fear is what people say behind your back. Respect is what people say to your face. You can push people with fear. You can fight people with fear. But you can’t lead people with fear. That takes respect. Want Respect? Do These 8 Things. 1. Give Credit. People gain…
4 Winning Steps to Emotional Intelligence
4 Winning Steps to Emotional Intelligence I can listen without bias. When I fail to listen for any reason, I frustrate people. I fail to understand people. I limit the information I have when making a decision. When I bring my bias to a conversation, it is harder for me to hear what people are saying….
8 Leadership Skills You Can Develop Now
Leadership skills: here are 8 leadership skills you can develop now. Share your ideas with others. It takes time and patience to share ideas and train team members. Leaders who invest this time to show team members shortcuts and special skills increase the success of the individual members of the team and the success of…
10 Ways to Get Respect at Work
Getting Respect at Work affects your income, job security, and career progress. Here are 10 ways to get respect at work. You Will Get Respect When You Give Credit. People gain respect when they give credit to the correct person. Giving credit is a compliment with substance. On the other hand, people who claim credit…
Picking Winning Teams and Mentors
Picking winning teams and mentors is an important part of making career progress. Although we often find ourselves on teams our company or a committee has assigned us, there are several times in life when we get opportunities to pick our teams. If we are the team leader, we get to pick the entire team…
8 Steps of Leadership for Team Success
8 Steps of Leadership for Team Success Do your team leaders have authority to direct their teams to win championships? Teams most often come together as the result of coincidence and not design. For example, people land on teams based on positions they hold. In a company or division where all department heads are on…
Authority, Responsibility, Accountability, and Leadership
Authority, Responsibility, Accountability, and Leadership: these are four of the most discussed subjects on business forums and articles. Authority is the power to control the actions of people and the resources of an organization and comes from a person’s position. Responsibility is the accountability that people have in relationship to their authority. I often read articles…
Does Your Boss Hate You?
Does your boss hate you or is your boss just cranky? What are the signs? What are your options? Should you just ignore the situation? Should you take action? What are the signs? Your boss focuses on problems with you. Your boss criticizes you more than your boss criticizes anyone else. Other people get glowing…
You Do Not Have to be a Genius to Manage Well
You do not have to be a genius to manage well. As a new Navy ensign, I was assigned me to work directly for a limited duty officer. The first day that he and I met was my first day of service in the Navy. He did not hire me. I reported aboard the USS…
Humility and Team Success
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” C. S. Lewis” Research on Humility and Teams In an article “The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders,” HBR.org, Jeanine Prime and Elizabeth Salib reviewed research they had conducted on leadership. The research involved six countries and twenty-two companies. It showed that employees who believed…
Small Business Saturday: Jobs Where You Are the Boss
Small business Saturday reminds us that there is opportunity in working for yourself. To begin self-employment, start simple. The goal is to do the deal, to sell something. William Procter, co-founder of consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, started his first business from skills he learned as an apprentice who dipped candles. When he settled…
20-70-10 Employee Stack Ranking
Many companies have used 20-70-10 employee ranking or “stack ranking” as part of the process in performance evaluations. Some companies once viewed the process as the staircase for success. Jack Welch used forced employee ranking at General Electric. He popularized the concept through his writing and consulting. In a “Bloomberg BusinessWeek article ‘The Case For 20-70-10’“, Jack…