What does it mean when you say yes or no to something?
I want you to think of something that you were asked to do recently that just seemed out of reach—impossible to get done.
Chances are that when it was given to you it came across like this, ‘What do you think you . . .’ or ‘Do you think you could . . .’ where whoever asked the question truly would have expected a Yes or No answer.
What you’re remembering or thinking of, hold it for later. Continue reading
It’s not even lunch yet, and you seem to have spent a whole morning, being the office fire warden—putting out fire after fire and dealing with the endless list of things that just some days keep on growing. Some days, things just never seem to go right. Continue reading
The question can also be—Are you still qualified to do your job? Harsh question right? After all who am I to ask you out there whether you’re qualified to do the work you do? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to offend, but I found myself pondering the legitimacy of the question. Continue reading
Of all of the things you may ever have to do as a leader, or any person in a leadership position—nothing is more time consuming than what it means to keep an eye on people, and most specifically yourself. Looking inwards, being self-critical at all times can sometimes be mentally exhausting.
Quantity or Quality? Speed or Accuracy? Performance or Reliability? Questions where the answer can be situation dependent but one thing that can be considered each time is ‘What are you willing to accept?’
What standards are you going to apply before you give yourself an answer? Because whatever you’re faced with, the question truly becomes—What is right?
Because after all a standard is by definition ‘the minimum level of what can be accepted.’
Time can only be used once & hind sight is always 20/20. It’s easy to look back on something that went wrong, and after forensically examining the wreckage—knowing what went wrong and why. The point is you [individually or collectively] took away a major learning experience. Continue reading
Despite what you may think—it has nothing to do with that. This isn’t about dealing with the ‘wrong person’ or anything like that.
No, the hardest thing that you can do as a leader is to put yourself first. That’s right. Above all else, putting yourself first.Not the company, not the mission—but strategically yourself first! And that can mean time out! Continue reading
Sounds a bit fluffy right? Or maybe it sounds a bit vague, a bit . . . Abstract, but having a common vision is something that you need to have with your team, both up and down. In the military this is called the commanders intent, and as mentioned previously the vision and the belief that goes with it are one of the most important aspects to being a leader. Continue reading
Before we look at the initial answer, if you’ve never been put into a position of leadership the answer will most likely be no! The first time—no one is ready, no one is prepared. Chances are you probably just stepped in to get something done or thought you could do it better. At the very least that’s a start. Continue reading