Category Archives: Personal Effectiveness

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Who Cares About Your Strengths?

“Well it’s good to talk with you today, Nathan. Why don’t you tell me a little bit about your strengths.”

Now replace my name with yours. How would you respond?

Fist Pump at ComputerWhen was the last time someone asked you to identify your strengths? Was it in an interview or an application? Were you joining a new organization, team, project, school or program? Maybe you were about to accept a new promotion or a new role with a new set of people. What did you say? Do you answer the same way each time? Do your answers change based on your present circumstances?

If I could share a proven method to discover your strengths accurately, easily and in a quick and inexpensive manner, would that be good news?

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5 Reasons You Should Join Me at Chick-fil-A Leadercast

What are your favorite conferences, seminars or training events? Do you have any that you attend every year? Do you take your team with you?  One of my annual staples is the Chick-fil-A Leadercast seminar. This year it takes place on May 10. Let me tell why Chick-fil-A Leadercast is so special.

CFA Leadercast

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Leading Others the Dale Carnegie Way

Dale Carnegie profileThere are two times most people start thinking about leadership. The first is when they experience poor leadership for the first time. Usually one of their first bosses rubs them the wrong way or they have a poor customer experience from a trusted organization. The second time is when they are put in a position of leadership and experience their first leadership challenge. What once appeared to be so easy, so intuitive, so common sense is now complicated and stressful!

Last month I had the privilege to write a guest post on Eric Jacobson’s leadership blog. I shared the 9 principles Dale Carnegie taught on how to be a leader. (Dale Carnegie is author of the classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People). This was one of the most enjoyable posts I’ve ever written.

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What a Leadership Coach Won’t Do For You

Have you ever considered hiring a leadership coach? Do you know someone who has a coach? Contrary to popular opinion, coaches are not just a luxury service for the rich and famous (as one of my past clients once believed). Writers hire writing coaches, speakers hire speaking coaches, actors hire acting coaches, and quarterbacks hire quarterback coaches. Why should leaders be any different?

Leadership CoachingMany leaders hire a coach when they want to gain clarity, explore future opportunities, form an action plan, or resolve a leadership challenge. They share conversations either on a regular or intermittent basis. Coaches are champions of the clients’ vision. But coaches aren’t saviors. Let’s take a look at some of the things a coach won’t do for you.

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Listen Your Way to the Top

In recent years, we’ve seen a new emphasis placed on the art of listening. It can’t be because listening is all of a sudden more important than it ever was before. Maybe the nature of work in the information age means the the cost of misunderstanding is higher. Or perhaps the experts have been burned by poor listening one too many times and decided to produce more thought leadership on the topic.

At any rate, study after study demonstrates the importance of listening to communication, leadership and influence. We are apparently able to listen about three times faster than we can speak, but we also forget most of what we’ve heard. Listening been identified as one of the top qualities employers seek. And the ability to listen well has been tied to the ability to lead. Leadership is impossible without communication and communication is impossible without listening.

Listening Kid

Everyone wants to be hired, to lead well and to understood. So how can we learn to listen more effectively? The first step is to distinguish between the various listening levels that exist. Here are five of the most common ones:

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5 Thoughts on Becoming a Leader

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Drew Tewell, author of the book The Dream  Job Program: Get the Job You Want. You can purchase it on Amazon, or get it for free when you subscribe to his blog. You can also connect with him on Twitter   and Facebook. If you would like to be featured on this site, click here.

When I was 19 years old, I read my first book on leadership, Be a People Person by John Maxwell. I devoured that book. Today, 15 years later, I am convinced that leadership is crucial if we are going to reach our goals and live out our dreams.

Why? Because if you have big dreams, you will not be able to accomplish them by yourself. You will need other people.

Red leader and business teamHow do you become a leader? I submit to you 5 thoughts.

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Leadership Profile: Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie2I don’t have too many claims to fame, but occasionally I like to tell people that I grew up in the same town as Dale Carnegie: Belton, MO. Ironically, I had to travel to the opposite side of the globe before I invested the time to read what I have since considered the greatest leadership book of all-time: Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. I’ve read through this book many times since then and even attended the Dale Carnegie capstone course which is over 100 years old. Therefore, I’d like to enthusiastically introduce you to one of my leadership heroes. I believe there is plenty we can all learn from the man who pioneered so much work in the area of personal leadership and influence.

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Mentoring 101

Mentor

Telemachus consults Mentor

It’s said that King Solomon was the wisest man who ever walked the earth.  From the stories it seems his leadership ability was pretty astonishing as well.  Imagine what it would have been like to spend an hour with him.  What questions would you ask?  What problems would you want him to help you solve?  What best practices would you want to know about?

I had the privilege of studying under Dr. Jeff Myers in college and he introduced me to the art of mentoring.  My life hasn’t been the same since.  

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What People Want: 8 Things Money Can’t Buy

You may remember the Mastercard commercials that ran on television several years ago. Each one depicted a family having a wonderful (and expensive) excursion together. The punchline informed us, “there are some things money can’t buy. For everything else there’s Mastercard.” The subliminal message may have been that if you spend enough money, you can buy a priceless experience. Regardless, I thought the ads were brilliant. (Who doesn’t want a priceless experience with people they care about?) But they really begged the bigger question: what exactly are the things that money can’t buy?

Dollar Bill

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Coach Bill Snyder’s 16 Goals for Success

I’m a sucker for leadership philosophies embraced by successful athletics coaches. Whether it’s Coack K on teamwork or Coach Burton on developing high school kids, I always come away with something powerful and enriching. I think the reason is that athletics provides one of the greatest leadership development opportunities out there because players learn to work as a team toward a common goal in a competitive environment. In short, it’s leadership development training for life.

Coach Bill Snyder

If you follow college football at all, you might have been surprised when Kansas State University climbed to #1 in the BCS Poll at one point this football season.

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The Value of Asking “Why?”

Why? It’s one of my all-time favorite questions. I’m told I asked my parents, “why?” over and over again as a kid and apparently I’ve never grown out of it. There’s no quicker way to cut to the heart of what’s most important, which is one of the greatest responsibilities leaders have. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. In his landmark book Getting Things Done, David Allen shares six distinct ways asking, “why?” adds value. They are too good to keep to myself, so I’ve listed them here below with my own short commentary.

Why

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Resilience and the Pan Am Flight 73 Hijacking

A couple summers ago I had the incredible opportunity to attend a one week Dynamics of International Terrorism course with the Air Force Special Operations.  I’m still not sure how I had the good fortune to attend.  We heard from military, law enforcement, and security officers who were on the ground during many of the high profile terrorist attacks from the last few decades, such as the Khobar Tower bombings, the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, the Mumbai hotel attacks, and the kidnapping of General Dozier by the Italian Red Brigade (presented by General Dozier himself).

Pan Am flight 73As enthralled as I was with the presentations, one poignant leadership lesson stood out which I knew I’d have to eventually share.  It came from a story Richard Melhart relayed to us.