LEADERSHIP MINTS

Bite-Sized Ideas to Freshen your Bottom-Line Thinking

Do the Write Thing Personally

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on June 18, 2013

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to encourage you to write more personal notes. Reading time: 3:14.

        If your word is your bond, then your signature is your imprimatur. No wonder a leader’s personal handwriting in general and signature in particular is a meaningful leadership tool.

       Making a Signature StatementSignature-Abraham-Lincoln2

        Through their personal handwriting, leaders more directly dip into the ink well that bottles their being.

        Write-sizing leaders become more reflective than reflexive; more self-less than selfish and more personable than procedural.

       Fountain-Pens Through their personal handwriting, leaders more readily squeeze their most productive and instructive feelings and thoughts onto the page like so many drops of blood, sweat and tears embedded within the drops of ink.

       With that emphasis on personal handwriting, the most effective leaders invest mightily in their fountain pen of choice as a validating tool of their leadership. Their fountain pen of choice prescribes their personal elan and the savoir faire requisite in a leader.  Their fountain pen of choice also projects as much of the leader’s performance portfolio as the Rolex on their wrist.

2000px-JohnHancocksSignature.svg          The investment is well worth it since the pen just may be mightier than the sword.

            After all, handwriting analysis as a behavioral tool — a key leadership indicator–predates the formal study of psychology, according to author Bart Baggett,  a leading handwriting analysis expert and founder of Handwriting University.  And today psychologists focus on handwriting to better define that person’s personality and fears.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Rubbing the Genie Out of your Bottle

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on June 14, 2013

 By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you become a more effective coach. Reading time: 3:19.

       “Are you watching your speed…we are,” flashed the digital sign display overhead. The motorist immediately checked her speedometer and instinctively eased up on the accelerator.

        digital speed sign 1That real-time feedback leading to a practiced and well-defined behavioral change is what coaching is all about. Think of an executive coach as your personal 24/7 feedback digital sign display.

        Flashing your feedback in real time, your personal or executive coach gives you real-time analysis of what you are doing so that you can make real-time changes to how you are doing it and why.

        But too many executives, ensconced in their comfortable corporate suites,  think they don’t have the patience or the time to put up with a real-world coach dealing with real issues. In real time.

Beyond the Corporate Car Wash

        Those insulated–and isolated– executives would rather spend a few days a  year at an Executive Retreat at a swanky resort listening to other smart, creative, intriguing people like themselves share leadership development ideas.

       Of course that spray and pray it sticks –the Corporate Car Wash Model of leadership development – is  futile.  A few minutes after getting back on the open road (on the job) your car (your job)  is covered with mud. Again Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Relationship Building | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Stomping Out the Stigma of Mental Illness

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on June 11, 2013

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you more fully cope with stress. Reading time: 2:36

    The pressure is on.  Stress slaps you like a brick in the stomach. Depression digs its fangs so deep into your body you can hardly get out of bed.

    mental health1   At least that’s how troubled he felt struggling with  his “melancholy,” his life-long bout with depression.

      When he was 29,  he was so depressed his friends took away his razor and kept him in a locked room to keep him from hurting himself.

       Yet 22 years later Abraham Lincoln became one of the most revered presidents in the history of the United States during one of the  nation’s most stressed times.

   A Treatable Disease

       Mental illness can affect anyone –from Abraham Lincoln to other leaders such as : Ludwig von Beethoven, Vincent Van Gogh, Isaac Newton, Winston Churchill, Michelangelo, Patty Duke, Art Buchwald, Dick Cavette, Rod Steiger, Mike Wallace and Billie Joel among so many others.  They know from personal experience that mental illness is treatable just like any other illness such as heart disease or diabetes.

                 In fact, in the Surgeon General’s first report ever  on mental illness issued in 1999, Dr. David Satcher noted:  “…just as things go wrong with the heart, the lung, the kidneys and the liver, things will go wrong with the brain. And seeking help should carry no shame.”

                 That’s why the most effective leaders seek to stomp out the stigma of mental illness. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Attitude | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Visually Branding Your Leadership Role

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on June 7, 2013

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to strengthen your personal brand. Reading time: 3:22.

      What’s your signature brand– some artifact or gesture –that sets you apart from others in the same field as you; something that establishes your personal “theme song?”

     Lawrence Welk Larry King, the former talk show host on CNN, brandished his suspenders; Columbo, the fictional television detective, always wore his wrinkled trench coat.

      Lawrence Welk, the band leader, always enveloped himself in soap-bubbles masquerading as champagne bubbles to augment his Bubbles-in-the-Wine theme song.

     johnny carson Johnny Carson, former host of the Tonight Show on NBC-TV, concluded his nightly monologue with his clubless golf swing.

    George Burns fingered his ever-present cigar. Bat Masterson twirled his cane. Jack Benny whirled his violin. Kojak swirled his lollipop. And The Lone Ranger unfurled a black mask..

      Indeed, the most effective leaders differentiate their organizations visually for added memorability and relevancy. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Perception | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Your employees ARE NOT your employees

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on June 4, 2013

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you appreciate your staff more fully. Reading time:3:54.

   With apologies to Kahlil Gibran:

silhouette-man-standing         Your employees are
not your employees.

       They come to work
for you but

      They are not necessarily
of you.

       And though they are
with you,

      They belong
not to you.

      You may give them
your valuables.

        But not your values.
    You may house their bodies
But not their souls.

  

      Maybe that’s why the most effective leaders develop compacts more than contracts with their employees — compacts that empower more than employ; compacts that inspire confidence in employers to proclaim as Henry Ford once did:

“You can take my factories,
burn up my buildings but give me
my PEOPLE and I’ll build the business right back.”

       Notice that Henry Ford did not say “my employees.”

       Indeed, his PEOPLE were much more than hired hands.  His PEOPLE were the heart beat of the company.  His PEOPLE were the spirit, energy and drive behind his company. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Relationship Building | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

 
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 35 other followers