LEADERSHIP MINTS

Bite-Sized Ideas to Freshen your Bottom-Line Thinking

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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 »

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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 »

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To Bee or Not To Bee a Leader

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on May 31, 2013

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to better focus on your key behavior as a leader. Reading time: 3:56.

           You’re a leader. So, what do you do all day?

       bee-pollen-2    Walt Disney had an apt answer when a little boy posed that challenging question to the father of Mickey Mouse.

           The creator of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi , Dumbo and so many more memorable cartoon characters said:

   “Sometimes
I think of myself
as a little bee.

I go from one area of the studio
to another to gather pollen
and sort of stimulate everybody.”

       Pollinating the growth of others is an instructive metaphor for the essence of leadership behavior.

   No wonder the most effective leaders wing their way early and often among their staffs. Nothing planned. No meetings scheduled for at least the first hour “in the office.”

       Instead they flap their proverbial wings 180 times a second –or an amazing 11,000 times  per minute– and soar to a new higher, more developed,  more productive level from their father’s version of managing-by-walking around.

      Their series of impromptu interactions,  always on their staff’s turf either in their workstations or in the hallways,  are quick and pithy. It only seems like they’re trying to match a bee’s pollination proclivity in visiting up to 5,000 flowers a day. Read the rest of this entry »

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Keeping Your Heart & Sole in the Game

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on February 14, 2013

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you lead your former teammates more effectively. Reading time: 3:58.

           You’re a newly appointed vice president moving into your new office. You’re thrilled with the opportunity yet concerned that your direct reports know you first and foremost as their long-time teammate. Now you’re their boss.

         Running Shoes and Teamwork

         You question yourself.  Sure you have the authority but do you really have the power? Your self-doubt begins to overwhelm you, but then you wake up and smell the smelly shoes!

         At least that’s what one newly appointed vice president did while unpacking  a framed picture he had kept in a drawer but never showcased in his previous office. The picture of well-worn running shoes and socks always seemed so out of place in an executive setting.

       But not this time.

       This time the smelly-looking photograph emitted the more pleasant scent of teamwork –a whiff of humility and an aire of staying in touch with his former teammates as their leader more than their boss.  Now the newly appointed vice president proudly showcased the photo in his office.

     No wonder: those smelling running shoes and socks in the photograph provoked a lot of inquiry. And the newly appointed vice president gladly obliged. He turned the photo into a leadership teaching opportunity well beyond the obvious cliche of teamwork, dedication and conviction that most sports imagery evokes. Read the rest of this entry »

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Are you a liar or a leader?

Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on October 24, 2012

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to maintain a relationship if not the truth. Reading time: 2:58.

          The customer is clearly wrong. Yet the savvy leader makes it right without losing his or her integrity and without losing a customer. Let’s take a lesson on walking this tightrope of customer service from Michelangelo, the sculptor turned psychologist or customer service maven.

A close-up of the face of David by Michelangelo

        Michelangelo’s customer—The Ruler of Florence Piero Soderini —thought the nose on David was too big. Michelangelo disagreed.   After all he had carved up plenty of corpses in studying for himself the anatomy of the human body. Michelangelo knew he was right.

          But Michelangelo also knew he had bills to pay. He needed this relationship with this customer to work. What could he do to save this account and his artistic integrity?

        He lied.

        Michelangelo scraped up some marble dust in his hand, then climbed up on the 17-foot tall scaffold and pretended to chisel the nose while letting the marble dust in his hand fall to the ground as the customer smiled his approval. Michelangelo climbed down and the customer beamed his delight.

       Was Michelangelo a leader or a liar?

       Consider a similar situation from the movie  It’s a Wonderful Life” when the dad –Jimmy Stewart–“fixes”  the petals  of  a flower she kept on her bed-stand.

      The dad surreptitiously stuffs the separated petals in his pocket and puts the flower back on the bed-stand letting his daughter, Zulu,  think he magically pasted the petals back on the flower.

      Was the dad a leader or a liar?

       The dad was a leader. So was Michelangelo. Read the rest of this entry »

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