All businesses depend on innovation to stay ahead and thrive in an ever-more-competitive landscape, and all innovation begins with a creative idea. But many businesses have set up policies that actually make it harder for people to come up with and/or implement these vital creative ideas. Is yours one of them?
When I was the executive producer of Seattle’s ...
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“In the Spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”
So says Tennyson.
“In December a young (and not-so-young) leader’s fancy somewhat more heavily turns to thoughts of goals for the following year.”
So says Stainton. Although not as poetically. But in order to give yourself the best chance of achieving those goals, you need to make sure you don’t make any of these 5 mistakes.
One of the greatest benefits a long-term leader can bring to his or her organization is their experience. The experienced leader has seen it all before. The experienced leader isn’t likely to get fazed by the bump in the road. The experienced leader is the face of calm in the midst of the storm.
But the experienced leader can also be missing the boat—and with it, opportunities.
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“Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom” – Gen. George S. Patton.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe” – Abraham Lincoln.
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people” – Eleanor Roosevelt.
Great leaders have said some great things. But not everything that comes out of a leader’s mouth is pure gold. Sometimes leaders say things that are—let’s be honest here—pretty dumb. Unfortunately, ...
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Elite athletes will tell you that much of their physical performance is driven by what they put in their bodies. Elite leaders will tell you that much of their mental performance is driven by what they put in their brains — both through their eyes and their ears. So what do you think they listen to?
I once had dinner ...
Do you want to produce breakthrough results in your business? In your industry? In your life? I’m not talking about incremental results, the “Hey, look, we got a new logo!” kind of results. I’m talking about the game-changers. The quantum leap kind of results that can redefine an industry. If those are the kind of results you want to produce, you might be able to learn a thing or two (or three)…from Donald Trump.
You’ve probably heard the idiom, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” or some version of it. I’m not sure what the documentation is regarding the plans of mice; I’m not entirely convinced that they’re really “planners.” But I can certainly vouch for the best-laid plans of men—and women! I’ve had my share of best-laid plans go awry, and I’m guessing you have too. So what do you do when that happens?
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You’ve got a great vision for your team, and you’re genuinely excited about it. Great! Good for you! But now, how can you get your team as excited about it as you are?
When I was producing my TV show Almost Live!, I was fortunate that my team was nearly always fully engaged in the outcome (or at least ...
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As a business speaker who helps extraordinary leaders produce extraordinary results, I’m often asked, “How can I get my team excited about the outcome? How can I get my team to ‘buy-in‘? How can I get my team engaged?” Believe me, as a leader who’s led a team to extraordinary results, I’ve asked those same questions.
I’m embarrassed to ...
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It’s relatively easy to be a leader when everything’s going well. But what about those times when things go wrong? What do you do then? It turns out the answer is not easy…but it is simple.
