Written by: Becky Robinson, Mike Henry & Chery Gegelman This is the story of how a few people with a big vision are making a difference for the city of Tulsa. It’s a story about partnerships, sharing resources, and making a difference for workers and leaders. It started with Mike Henry, whose vision of bringing » Read More
As the twentieth century came to a close, the industrial age ended as well. Where most employees once worked in large manufacturing firms that relied on rote tasks performed on large assembly lines – from autoworkers to assemblers in all fields, today’s workers are more likely to work in service related jobs that require diverse » Read More
Theory: all good managers have ready access to two fundamental skill sets—the ability to Relate and the ability to Require. “Relating” encompasses relationship-building behaviors: asking, listening, including, coaching and encouraging. “Requiring” refers to results-oriented activities: creating expectations, focusing on goals, insisting on excellence, setting appropriate controls, asserting your views and confronting problems. Over- or under-utilizing these skills can damage business results and/or relationships.
A couple of months ago, another big name publisher tried to justify petty behavior under the name “leadership.” This time Forbes published an article entitled Sometimes Micromanaging Is Good – And Necessary by Christine M Riordan (click through the advertisement). The subtitle explains further: “But not for long. Here are the times you have to » Read More
This is part 2 of a series on the need for both management and leadership. You can read the first post here. While we often talk about the distinctions between leadership and management, I think we can learn just as much about how to be effective by distinguishing where they converge. When we are working » Read More
Last night I attended my second Spanish lesson. During our exercise working out how to say our occupation, I got a real eye-opener.
Part 1 – The Leadership Myth There is a lot of conversation on the topic of the difference between leadership and management particularly among those who study and/or teach either topic. In the process it seems to me that a myth has been born – that leadership is better than management.
The more I think about character-based leadership and the leadership traits I want to model, I keep coming back to the gap between who you lead and who you serve. Character-based leaders tend to line those up pretty closely. The question seems to be: How big is your “WE”?
We all want to win. No one gets up in the morning and decides, “Today, I think I’d like to lose for a change.” You never tell your spouse, “Honey, I’m so used to losing that today, I’m managing expectations. My goal is to lose. That way, when I lose, I’m a winner!” We use » Read More
A book’s length is not a direct indicator of it’s value or depth. Many a lengthy book has put me to sleep and many a short book has had wonderful insights. The Leadership Test by Timothy R. Clark Ph.D. falls into the later category. It’s a very quick read but it left me with a » Read More
Recent Activity
