How to Preserve Your Leadership Presence

How to Preserve Your Leadership Presence And how not to lose it. We’ve all been there.You’re tired, over-worked, and/or stressed out.Someone says something, does something, insinuates something, and that’s it.  You lose your composure.And, you feel totally justified when you do.In the moment, you may feel right.  You may even feel righteous.But after time passes, you’ve calmed down and distanced yourself from the situation, you reflect and think:“Maybe not my…

Type A’s are Successful, Suffering, and Satisfied

Type A’s are Successful, Suffering, and Satisfied And they like it that way. Go figure. For Type A people, the glass is 2% empty.  They/We are the annoying types who, when everyone was glad to get a 75 on a really tough exam, they were wondering why they missed one question.Type A’s live below the surface.  Outwardly, they tend to be striving, high-achieving, and often successful.  Some are annoying and…

Why You Should Avoid Being a Storyteller

Why You Should Avoid Being a Storyteller Just answer the question. There’s a popular thesis that great leaders are great storytellers, that if you aspire to be a great leader, you need to develop your storytelling skills.I’ll save the debate on that thesis for another 60-Second Read.Suffice it to say that I believe there are other skills that leaders need to develop before storytelling, such as delivering great results, leading…

How Big is Your Blind Spot?

How Big is Your Blind Spot? Who will tell you as it actually is? Image by www_slon_pics from Pixabay Our news and social media streams are filled with people in politics and business whose integrity and character are less than stellar. One question that comes to mind when I see the newly fallen at the podium is: “What’s changed?” By “What’s changed?” I mean, why is the person apologizing now?…

Do Your Leader Vacuums Need a Cleaning?

Do Your Leader Vacuums Need a Cleaning? If You Don’t Address It, They will Fill It. Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay “Nature abhors a vacuum.” The quote is often attributed to Aristotle, the Greek philosopher (and student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great) who lived from 384 to 322 BC. The quote has nothing to do with your carpets or your Hoover, Electrolux, or Dyson. Aristotle was…

Why You Should Know What Your Leaders Do.

What Your Leaders Need to Do. And, please, don’t look backwards. Image by RoboMichalec from Pixabay All great hockey players are ambitious and have a desire to win. Therefore, if I am ambitious and have a desire to win, I should become a great hockey player. As absurd as this sounds, versions of this logic arise in leadership development. Example:We study a select group of great leaders, see what attributes…

This is Not Your Grandmother’s Artificial Intelligence

This is Not Your Grandmother’s Artificial Intelligence A new era for leaders everywhere If you haven’t heard of ChatGPT from OpenAI, you will very soon.And it will disrupt how you work and how you lead.What is ChatGPT?Instead of getting into the nitty gritty details of artificial intelligence, here’s how ChatGPT will impact you:When you search for something via Google, you enter some text, even a question, and Google lists websites…

But What Does “Be More Strategic” Really Mean?

But What Does “Be More Strategic” Really Mean? How to develop that skill in yourself and others At various points in a leader’s development, they can be asked “to be more strategic”. Often the request/demand will come in the form of a conversation with one’s manager, in which the manager will say at some point, “David, you simply need to be more strategic.”  Ideally, my manager would elaborate on what…

Do You Still Say, “Span of Control”?

Do You Still Say, “Span of Control”? More importantly, are you relevant to others? If you’re old enough, “span of control” used to mean something. Leadership positions were often measured by their spans of control, the number of direct reports they managed. But I can’t remember the last time I heard someone talk about a leader’s span of control. Here are some potential reasons why: First, because of the Great…

Are You Focused on Being Busy or Being Accomplished?

Are You Focused on Being Busy or Being Accomplished? It’s time to get out of the blender. Photo by Johan Lindberg To say we live in the information age is an understatement. However, just because we have an overwhelming buffet of distractions, doesn’t mean we need to consume all of it. And yet it can be quite addicting, and we can be self-deluding. In short, what we’ve gained in information,…