Category Archives: Leadership

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4 Teamwork Lessons from the Iditarod

Iditarod

As seen on Fox Business

Saturday begins the Iditarod, a grueling dog sled race that spans nearly 1,000 miles from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. Not only is the terrain challenging but wind chill temperatures have fallen to as low as 130 degrees below zero in past races. The winner of the first Iditarod in 1973 took almost three weeks to finish. Today racers can complete the “Super Bowl” of dog sled races in less than 10 days.

Adversity faced by sled dog teams racing in the Iditarod makes the event a stress test for teamwork and the cohesiveness of a team’s culture. Reading about it, I could see parallels between sled dog teams and teams of people in organizations.

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San Antonio Spurs’ Culture of Sustainable Superior Performance

Gregg Popovich

Image Source: Flickr Spurs-Magic080

As seen on Fox Business

Earlier this month, Gregg Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs basketball team, won his 1000th NBA basketball game, making him the 9th NBA coach in history to achieve this feat. Popovich adds this to a long list of achievements including five NBA titles with the Spurs and three NBA Coach of the Year honors.  This is his 16th season as the Spurs head coach.

How has he been so successful?

Like all great leaders, Popovich creates a culture that produces sustainable superior performance.  Here are four factors that contribute to making the Spurs’ culture a source of competitive advantage.

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Advice to Taylor Swift on Sustaining Success

Taylor Swift

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia User MyCanon

As seen on Fox News

Taylor Swift has successfully managed living in the frying pan of fame for nearly a decade now. That is a difficult thing to do, especially for singers who come on the scene in their teenage years (ahem, Britney, Miley and Justin). Personally, I think she may become the Queen of Media who reigns for decades, akin to the first Queen Elizabeth who ascended to the throne of England at 25 and ruled England for more than 40 years during its Golden Age and was beloved by many.

Because I advise leaders, I took a moment to imagine what it would be like to advise Ms. Swift about maintaining her realm, just as the faithful and wise William Cecil, Lord Burghley advised Queen Elizabeth I.

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What Marcus Mariota Teaches Us About Success

Marcus_Mariota_v._Colorado_2014

Marcus Mariota throws a pass while playing against Colorado in 2014. Photo courtesy of Alex Thies.

As seen on Fox Business

Marcus Mariota’s list of accomplishments is impressive. Although his Oregon Ducks football team ultimately lost the national championship game to Ohio State, the young quarterback can still claim a Heisman Trophy, Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl victories, and numerous other awards earned in just a few short years. His success as a quarterback places him in an elite group of individuals who have reached the pinnacle of their fields.

But how do people like Mariota become so successful? Are there certain characteristics these people share that set them apart?

I’m happy to share that my article entitled “Closing the Leadership Gap” has been featured in The Smart Manager’s November/December issue. Learn how combining intuition and analytics is the best way to diagnose and correct employee engagement challenges.

Appearance: Closing the Leadership Gap Featured in The Smart Manager
Outlet: The Smart Manager
Location: India
Format: Magazine
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December Leadership Development Carnival

Leadership Development Carnival Logo

I am honored to host the December installment of the Leadership Development Carnival, a collection of helpful leadership advice from top bloggers. This month’s carnival doesn’t adhere to any particular theme, but rather features content on a variety of leadership topics and issues.

Take a moment to click through each of the great submissions, and be sure to share this collection of posts with someone you believe would benefit from the advice. 

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The Optimum Number of Annual Goals

Woman Writing Goals on Board

#61 Set “Top Five” Annual Goals

Both individually and as a team, set no more than five challenging but achievable annual goals.  If you go beyond five annual goals, it will diminish focus and effective execution by tending to overwhelm those responsible for implementation. One day each week, review your weekly plans to see that they are aligned with your Top Five.

This is the sixty-first post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others. Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

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Closing Your Company’s “Leadership Gap”

The Office Cast, Photo Courtesy of NBC

The Office Cast, Photo Courtesy of NBC

Historically, leaders have relied on their internal networks and intuition to assess employee engagement and strategic alignment.  Tom Peters and Robert Waterman called it “management by wandering around” or “MBWA” in their classic book In Search of Excellence.

Just as intuition once tricked us into believing that the world was flat and the sun rotated around the earth, it is a flaw of human nature that most leaders are mistaken in their assessment of the engagement and alignment of people they lead. They don’t recognize employee engagement and alignment problems until they feel the pain from underperformance or face reality in the form of poor results from an employee engagement survey.

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Lead Like a U.S. Marine

Marine-Corps-1024x680

Great leaders know that task excellence alone is not sufficient to achieve sustainable superior performance. They also know that relationship excellence alone is not sufficient in the end. Instead, truly great leaders realize the vital importance of both elements.

The dual focus of task and relationship excellence can be difficult for many leaders to grasp. In our daily lives, we see many illustrations of what it looks like to focus on task excellence and many illustrations of relationship excellence, but it is rare to find examples of leaders who demonstrate both.