Building Teams That Succeed

Teams of People, Not Robots

I want to give you a straight-forward, cookie cutter approach to building successful teams. I want to, but I can’t.

TeamThe problem is the number of variables that come into play. Building team skills into an Executive Team that has worked together for years (but perhaps not well) is different than pulling together a set of people who barely know each other – if at all – for a short-term project. A large organization with many players to choose from to form their team has different issues than the small organization that doesn’t really have options for who will be on the team. And the variables go much deeper than that since the organization’s culture impacts everything. Continue reading Building Teams That Succeed

The Boss vs. The Company

Who Do You Follow?

The BossThe popularity of my article, When The Boss Doesn’t Get It, leads me to address a related challenge…

The scenario: Your boss is all about his own reputation. In fact, sometimes he tells you to do things that will help him look good, even when the company or your clients will suffer for it. You’re between the old proverbial rock-and-a-hard-place.
Continue reading The Boss vs. The Company

When Leadership Isn’t Warm & Fuzzy

What’s Best vs. What’s Wanted

Lion face: Tough or warm & fuzzy?It’s a good thing for a leader to be liked. People are motivated to do their best for someone they like. But good leaders know that warm & fuzzy feelings can’t be the most important thing. Like a doctor, good leaders even need to be willing to inflict some pain when appropriate. Continue reading When Leadership Isn’t Warm & Fuzzy

Leading Yourself Through Change

Easy Unless You’re Human

I suspect change would come much easier if I was leading robots. Replace some hardware, upgrade the software, and presto! Change complete. But then again, for change to be that easy I would have to be a robot, too.

Leading others through change starts with leading myself through the change. Continue reading Leading Yourself Through Change

Defining Leadership Success

It’s Not About You

How do you know if you’re a successful leader? Regardless of your title, two things are true if you’re really a leader:

  1. Someone is following you. No followers, no leader. Following under compulsion (like just to get a paycheck) doesn’t count. People choose to follow true leaders.
  2. You’re going someplace. If you’re going nowhere, you’re not leading.

Leadership is inherently other-centric. You only succeed when your followers do. My followers should be more successful with me leading than if I wasn’t. My success is multiplied when my followers become leaders whose followers are becoming leaders. As a student in a recent class commented, leadership is a “pyramid scheme”. Continue reading Defining Leadership Success

Climbing the Corporate Ladder

Why Faster Isn’t Always Better

Throughout my career, responsibilities always came to me before titles.  And I usually gave responsibilities to others before giving the corresponding titles.  If this seem unfair, it’s more considerate than giving a title too quickly and having to take it away when it doesn’t work out.entrepreneur-1103722_640  So rather than feeling under-appreciated when you’re given assignments that fit the next position up the ladder, consider it a sign of leadership’s confidence in your potential. Continue reading Climbing the Corporate Ladder

Selfishly Selfless

Getting Ahead by Putting Others First

C.S. Lewis said, “Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first and we lose both first and second things.”1

That’s sound advice, but it raises the question, “What are the first things and what are the second things?” As free-thinking individuals, we get to choose what our first and second things are going to be. But our choices have consequences and to make the choice is to accept the consequences of that choice.

When it comes to our careers and growing our organizations, one of those choices is how we’re going to view other people. We can choose: Continue reading Selfishly Selfless

Leading When You’re Not the Boss

The Art of Managing Up

“If I were in charge, I would…”

But you’re not, and wishing won’t make it so. And if you were in charge, would you be equipped to lead your followers who would be saying, “If I were in charge, I would…”?woman-214785_640

Managing up isn’t as different from managing down as you may think.  Continue reading Leading When You’re Not the Boss

Success From the Start

Leveraging Your Personal Values

Andrew CROPOur guest blogger, Andrew, is currently serving as an intern at enLumen Leadership Services.  Andrew wrote this article about his older brother, Timothy, who continually inspires Andrew toward excellence as he pursues his career in the music industry.

Timothy was nineteen when he landed the job in Community Care, a public relations branch at Action Property Management Company. Typical kid, typical entry-level job. What set Timothy apart were the values behind his work ethic. Timothy is the sort of person who will not rest until he has done the best, most efficient job possible. From day one, he demonstrated this through his tireless pursuit of excellence at Action. Continue reading Success From the Start