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Most of us have experienced bad bosses at some time in our lives. Maybe you’ve had one in the past; maybe you have one now. Maybe you were one in the past; maybe you are one now. So, for most of us, the question isn’t if we’ll run into one of these disagreeable creatures, but when.
But there’s a better question regarding bad bosses, and it’s this:
What can you learn from them?
The leader is frustrated. “I don’t know why I’m having such trouble getting the team to buy-in to the company vision! It couldn’t be simpler!”
Then he shows me the company vision. It’s five paragraphs long. It contains sentences like, “To enhance the long-term value of the investment dollars entrusted to us by our shareholders,” and “To consistently strive to improve efficiency and productivity through learning, sharing, and implementing best practices.” It reeks of having been written by a committee—a committee ...
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Are you stuck in a creative rut? Do you need an idea—now—but nothing’s coming? Don’t worry, your creativity is still there. Your brain is just taking a little “creativity catnap.” Here are a few ways to wake it up again and get those creative juices flowing.
1. Read an article. [You: “About what?” Me: “About anything!” You: “Huh?” Me: ...
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Yesterday I was the closing keynoter for a conference of credit union leaders. One of the speakers who was on before me mentioned what was, to me, a startling statistic. He said that the average credit union CEO spends roughly 60% of his or her day just dealing with regulatory red tape. For the record (in case you’re not a credit union professional), this is not the best or most productive use of the CEO’s time. Which begs the question:
Are ...
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Leaders should be intelligent, right? I mean, it doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s kind of the ideal. We want our leaders—community, corporate, political—to be intelligent.
But what kind of intelligent?
There are some leaders who know everything there is to know about their industry. Other leaders have read dozens—maybe even hundreds—of books about leadership. Some leaders are particularly strong in emotional intelligenc
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“Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”
~ Samuel Johnson
If there were a “magic bullet” trait for living an interesting (and interested) life, I would have to echo Dr. Johnson’s sentiments and go with curiosity.
I’ve found that the most intelligent, the most interesting, and the most creative people that I know tend to also be the most curious.
[You: “Curious about what?”]
[Me: “Good! You’re curious about that! Way to go!”]
Curious about, well, everything. These people have ...
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