LEADERSHIP MINTS

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Archive for the ‘Commitment’ Category

Carpe Diem: Just DUE It Today

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on March 15, 2013

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you complete your goals on time. Reading time: 2:56

          You’re exhausted. You already pulled an all nighter launching this new product and now you’ll be up at least another 24 hours chasing elusive customers, and combating critical media at this major industry convention.

        63 Hours Of No Sleepcharles lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh Time Magazine's first Man of the Year in 1927

Charles Lindbergh Time Magazine’s first Man of the Year in 1927

            The next time you find yourself in this exasperating situation, think of the 25-year-old who had also been up 24 straight hours and then launching what turned out to be a 33 hour ordeal fighting certain death if he had fallen asleep.

        Charles Lindbergh, in a 63-hour stretch of no sleep, flew his way into the history books and on to the cover of Time Magazine as its first Man of the Year in 1927 after becoming the first to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

       Carpe Diem: Seize the Day.

        That’s what Charles Lindbergh. did in demonstrating a key leadership skill: Leaders take action despite the circumstances. They DUE it more than simply do it. Read the rest of this entry »

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Leadership Development: Jockeying for Position

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on March 8, 2013

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you continuously improve your skill sets. Reading time: 3:38

      They’re off and pacing. The race horses explode out of the starting gate and head for the first turn: 16 horses jockeying for position.

     harness racing1 harness racing3What if your leadership skills were like those 16 different horses in the starting gate, each jockeying for position?

     And what if you thought of your next annual review as if it were the finish line in a one-mile race. By the quarter-mile mark (in 90 days), you would have a pretty good idea just how  skillfully you are leading all 16 different horses or just how woefully you are just along for the ride.

       But of course your chances of winning the race, of performing well through the remaining 3/4 of a mile — throughout the remaining 9 months of completing your annual review — will depend on how well you anticipate and compensate for challenges ahead to your leadership skills and your ability to shore up your weaknesses and affirm your strengths literally on the run — in the heat of battle– and against vigorous countervailing interests.

Conduct a Quarterly PREVIEW

               That’s why the most effective leaders conduct a QUARTERLY PREVIEW — more than simply an annual review — in evaluating their staffs’ skills on the job. Career Development then becomes a visionary process–an on-going race to a non-existent finish line– more than a punitive report card on a random calendar date 12 months away. (And how may “annual” reviews are conducted 3-6 months late? Too many.)  Small wonder the word — career—stems from the French word for a race course.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Professing Your Professional DECREE 24/7

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on February 11, 2013

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s and idea to help you reinforce your conviction. Reading time: 3:03

         It’s been another gruelling and challenging day. You’re exhausted. As you’re heading back to the airport, you see an “Off-Duty” light beaming  atop a taxi cab.  You fantasize: “Oh if only I could install one of those off-duty lights in my office.”  Absurd? Of course. Leaders are always on duty, 24/7.

    off duty   taxi cabs  As PROFESSionals, leaders consistently profess their personal conviction that they are doing what they were meant to do, 24/7.  They don’t have to wait for Pay Day. Every day is Pay Day.

        And every day,  PROFESSionals unleash the music inside them on the job as poet Kahlil Gibran notes in his book The Prophet:

     “When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.”

          No wonder Archimedes made music in the bathtub, proving a famous mathematical concept. O.Henry made music while  in a bar in New York City,  writing Gift the Magi. Adam Smith made music at the British Coffee House in London, writing The Wealth of Nations. Thomas Edison made music  in the baggage car on a railroad train, conducting experiments  And in 1908, Jack Norworth made music on a train, writing  Take Me Out to the Ball Game– still the most popular song sung at baseball parks.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Keeping Your Oars In the Water

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on January 2, 2013

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to stay focused on increased performance. Reading time: 2:37.

        You won. But you’re not done. Not yet. Leaders don’t take time to rest— no matter how good the profit margin; no matter how prolific the units sales, no matter how pre-emptive the new product launch. There’s just TOO MUCH left to do.  Going forward.

       EDITED OAR  At least that’s the assessment of Lee Iacocca who led Chrysler from the brink of bankruptcy.  “Never rest on your oars as a boss, if you do, the whole company starts sinking.”

        The most effective leaders intuitively know they need to continuously improve.  Consistently  perform. Persistently progress.  After all:

  • Karate practitioners, the day after their black belt exam, are expected to be on the mat the next day practicing, improving  and improvising.
  • Artist Grandma Moses would finish a painting and then 10 days later study it to see where she could improve and improvise.
  • Author James Michener was asked to name his favorite book among the more than 35 he had authored. Michener said:  “My preference is always the next book” where he could improve and improvise.

    Abraham Lincoln always kept his oar in the water even when it seemed his boat was sinking. The president quickly paddled his way out of his situation, no matter how devastating the defeat or how exhausting the effort or how hopeless the condition. Keep rowing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Continuous Learning: Leaders Take It Personally

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on December 3, 2012

 By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to increase your learning potential. Reading time: 3:17.

      As a boy, Thomas Edison once sat on a geese eggs for hours to learn for himself how eggs are hatched. Bizarre?  Peter the Great wore an engraved seal when he became the first Russian czar to tour Europe on a learning expedition. The seal read: “I am a pupil and need to be taught.” Weird?

      eggs

      Not really. Leaders are learners.

       Leaders embrace William Ward’s contention that “curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” The most effective leaders continue to learn and earn their Ph.D – their Personally Harbored Discipline. And “Discipline” is a key leadership talent. The word –Discipline–stems from the Latin word for learning and learners (Disciples). Read the rest of this entry »

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