LEADERSHIP MINTS

Bite-Sized Ideas to Freshen your Bottom-Line Thinking

Archive for the ‘Perception’ Category

So You’re Having a Bad Day? Read & Heed !

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on February 21, 2013

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you stay positive in your outlook. Reading time: 1:13

     

President William Harrison

President William Harrison

Consider this “Reality Show” out of the history books whenever you’re having a bad day.

1. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON  caught a cold and died 30 days 12 hours and 30 minutes after he became president of the United States in 1841–the shortest presidential administration in the history of the United States.

2. GENERAL GEORGE PATTON  who dodged enemy bullets for many years was killed in a car accident when an army truck ran into his limousine on the day before he was to leave Germany for the United States.

3. GENERAL STONEWALL JACKSON of Civil War fame was accidentally killed by his own men.

4. GREEK SOOTHSAYER CALCHAS laughed himself to death, choking while drinking wine.

5. GALILEO, the first man to peer to the heavens through a telescope, died blind. Read the rest of this entry »

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Filling Up Your Fool Tank

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on December 23, 2012

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to clarify your decision-making skill. Reading time: 2:58.

           The chief executive officer (CEO) nodded approvingly as her strategic policy team reviewed the highlights of their careful research.

        a indecision  a diceTheir decision-making process —— imbued in detailed documentation and sprinkled with broad expertise and experience —- was right on target, especially after six months of very detailed review  and a meaningful consensus on the situation that seemed to counter  all objections. All agreed including the CEO: this was the direction to go.

        But then the CEO surprised everyone. She abruptly adjourned the meeting “to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain even more understanding of what this decision is all about.”

        Indeed, the CEO reaffirmed that the most effective leaders regularly pump high performance “fool” into their decision-making tanks: The CEO understood her responsibility to guard against the overwhelming power of group-think, citing the notion that:

                    ” When everyone thinks alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”

        And that CEO saw first hand what psychologist William James once said, “What the whole community comes to believe grasps the individual as in a vise.”

         No wonder the most effective leaders break out of that vise-like grip. They realize the significance in first filling up their Fool Tank, lest their new path of decision-making  run out of gas.

       Read the rest of this entry »

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CYA : Check Your Assumptions

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on December 14, 2012

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you gain a new perspective problem-solving. Reading time: 2:17.

                  You’ll know you successfully crossed the threshold from manager to leader when you rely more on your insight than on what’s in sight. Effective leaders check their assumptions.  They practice CYA.

Modern day exterior elevator at Lloyds in London.

Modern day exterior elevator at Lloyds in London.

      That’s what happened when hotel guests  complained about the lack of elevators. But the hotel owner balked at the prospect of shutting down the only elevator in the building  for at least a week to bore the additional elevator shaft in the building.

       The hotel owner is concerned: in solving the problem of too few elevators he will have to make the crowding problem even worse for a short time. The owner had seen this movie before.

        Then he flashed his CYA. He checked his assumptions when a janitor offered a different perspective.

          The  janitor, sweeping near the elevator banks, overhears the architect and the hotel owner planning to add the elevator shaft inside the building.

          Read the rest of this entry »

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Persuasion: From Sumo to Judo

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on September 14, 2012

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you counter challenges in the marketplace. Reading time: 2:02

            You’re the CEO of a family friendly resort. But the prostitutes seem to be more visible than ever before around the resort, no matter how much security and police patrol.

Judo –Using an Opponent’s Weight Aganst Him

           Now the prostitutes are getting even more brash, distributing their business cards in public lounges, on vending machines and in bathrooms among others places throughout the resort.

         It seems the faster the janitorial staff confiscates and trashes those business cards, the quicker those prostitute business cards reappear. (For a Fun Time call xxx-xxx-xxxx).

       How would you solve this problem?

       Practice judo not sumo. That’s what the most effective leaders do. They outsmart the prostitutes.

     They  use their strength—against them — the way combatants in judo use each other’s weight against themselves.

      Forget trying to out power them the way sumo wrestlers do. Forget trying to confiscate those business cards faster than they can distribute them.  Out do them with judo like this:

       The CEO  decided to turn the prostitute’s strength –their business card distribution system–into their weakness. He had his janitors carry a label stamp.

       This time the janitors picked the prostitutes business cards up, stamped them with a three-word message and put them back on the vending machines, in the bathrooms and in the public lounge areas.

      The three word message: “First Hour Free.”

      Within 24 hours none of the prostitute business cards could be found on the resort.

       Read the rest of this entry »

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Clothes-ing The Sale in Style

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on August 20, 2012

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you reinforce your personal reputation and influence. Reading time: 1:58

Steve Jobs wearing his iconic turtleneck

            Turtleneck. CEO. Computers.

           No doubt you already started thinking Steve Jobs long before you read the word “Computers.” And no wonder. The former CEO at Apple used his trademark Issey Miyake designed $175 St. Croix Black Mock Turtleneck to reinforce his image and reputation as our generation’s Thomas Edison.

           After all, clothing can be a critical leadership tool in establishing authority in general and reinforcing a reputation –an expected behavior — in particular. Consider the white-coated scientist, the stove-top white hatted chef, the orange-vested traffic cop. Clothing differentiates.

           Read the rest of this entry »

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