Do you ever wonder why your team isn’t as excited about that bold, new project as you are? Have you ever been disappointed when your motivating pep talk (the one you practiced for hours) falls on deaf ears? It may be that you’re trying to sell them on features and benefits about which they care not a whit.
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I shouldn’t be writing this. Really. If I had any sense, I wouldn’t be writing this. I wouldn’t be writing anything. Why? Because it’s late at night on Sunday, and I have an early flight tomorrow morning. So I shouldn’t be writing. I should be in bed asleep.
So why am I writing this article, and what does it mean to you?
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Part of a leader’s job—a big part—is to define the destination. You can call it the vision, the target, the goal. At a certain point, these terms become almost interchangeable. They are all some version of “This is where we want to go.” Problems can arise, however, when the leader follows “This is where we want to go” with a rigid “And this is how we’re going to get there.”
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Leaders—good leaders, that is—put a lot of thought into the makeup of the various teams for which they’re responsible. They’re very concerned with, as Jim Collins put it, “getting the right people on the bus.” I’ve even written about the 5 people you should have on your team (you can read that post by clicking here). But, what about the size of the team? It turns out, when it comes to teams, size does matter.
David Bowie existed before Ziggy Stardust, but it was Ziggy Stardust that put him on the map. The striking, glam costume; the red hair; the over-the-top Spiders from Mars tour—all these elements, plus, of course, the music, shot David Bowie into stardom. But the glam rock era eventually faded. And if David Bowie had stayed there, he would have been solely of that time, and faded along with it.
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I remember my first performance appraisal. This was back in the days when companies still made this an annual event. (Some companies are still back in those days.) It went something like this:
BOSS: Here’s the stuff you’re good at. [reads small list]
ME: Thank you.
BOSS: Here’s the stuff you suck at. [reads much longer list]
ME: Um…okay.
BOSS: So for the next year, I need you to focus most of your energy on ...
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Americans have a fascination with the Lone Ranger. Not necessarily the Old West character played by Clayton Moore in the 1950s, but rather the whole idea of one man or woman acting alone, and triumphing against the ...
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A recent article in The Wall Street Journal talks about leadership and creativity (one of my favorite topics, and the focus of my keynote program The Emmy Effect: How to Develop and Lead Award Winning Talent and Teams). In the article, author Justin Brady says:
[quote]Most leaders talk about creativity (or its cousin, innovation) without understanding what it is and how it happens. The process of real creativity is messy, chaotic, sometimes even disgusting, and ... Continue Reading →Posted by:
