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Beware of Spraying Praise Like Perfume

Posted on September 30, 2011 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea on appreciating more than simply praising your employees.

“Oh, Mrs. Cleaver you look so very nice today,” gushed Eddie Haskell in the old television program Leave It To Beaver.

Leave it to Beaver cast (Beaver (l) and his brother Wally (r) flank Mrs. Cleaver.

The teenager‘s sugar-coated voice oozed with a specious sap of insincerity.

Eddie Haskell sprayed praise as if it were some kind of perfume that choked the air with manipulation. Casting his gratuitous smile and unctuous politeness on anyone and anything, Eddie Haskell killed his victims with faux kindness.

Do you know any Eddie Haskells in your organization?

Worse yet, are you falling into the Eddie Haskell trap of sugar-coating your relationship with your boss?

After all, gratuitous praise (a.k.a. brown-nosing) can become a weapon to stun and stunt others who hold a more powerful position than you do. As Sigmund Freud noted “When someone abused me I can defend myself. Against praise I am defenseless.”

Continue reading →

Filed under: Trust | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Meetings: Make Commitments not Appointments

Posted on September 29, 2011 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here are a few ideas to help you get more control over your calendar. Reading time: 4:17

I seemed to be running from one meeting to another. And often I was running late. Finally my New York team started joking with each other that “he’s on Chicago time.” I would rationalize my tardiness with something like: “I have too much responsibility to parcel my time out to the precise minute. Besides I can be a few minutes late. The important aspects of the meeting usually don’t start until a few minutes into the meeting anyway.”

But that was before I met our new company president. I always was on time for her meetings. One day the president seemed to be in a philosophical mood. She looked at her calendar for the day and said more to herself than to me:

” Leaders are never too busy to lead.

  1. They invest time. They don’t spend it.
  2. They make commitments not appointments.
  3. They fulfill their promises rather than fill full their calendars.”

Continue reading →

Filed under: Meeting Magic | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Power Lunch - Feeding More Than Your Ego

Posted on September 28, 2011 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s a scenario to remind you to keep your ego in check. Reading time: 2:52

The vice president hosted a luncheon for 20 members of his team to celebrate a successful product launch. Everyone munched on great-tasting sandwiches between celebratory cheers at their favorite deli. After awhile, everyone was full of good food and good laughs.

Then, the waiter arrives with a second round of sandwiches for all 21 people at the table. The staffers were astonished. “Who ordered all this,” asked a couple of the team members in unison? “Well, I did,” chimed the vice president. “You all deserve it. Job well, done.”

It didn’t matter to the vice president that no one at the table wanted another sandwich. Neither did the vice president as it turned out.

This afternoon’s Power Lunch had little to do with feeding his staffers. It had more to do with the vice president feeding his own ego. He had the power of an expense account to spend money on lunch. So he made a unilateral decision to order another round of sandwiches.

Just because he could. Continue reading →

Filed under: Emotional Intelligence | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Coloring Beyond The Bottom Line

Posted on September 27, 2011 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea on using children’s books to ignite creative thinking. Reading time: 4:06

The butcher paper covering the exquisitely polished executive conference room table seemed out of place as the 11 vice presidents filed into the palatial mahogany and marble executive suite for their regular meeting with the company president.

The president called the meeting to order and immediately started passing out large purple crayons.

The president sat back in his chair and stroked his crayon as if it were a fine cigar. He cradled his cigar/crayon as if it were a treasure to behold.

Then with all the showmanship he could muster -and with a poker face -he waved that crayon as if it were a mini magic wand and said:

“There’s power in this crayon, power that we can use to draw greater profitability and productively into our company,” the president deadpanned to his skeptical executives. “The power to create our own business climate no matter how lousy the economy.”

The executives were sure the president had snapped under all the bottom line pressure. They were incredulous, their body Continue reading →

Filed under: Creativity | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Public Speaking in a Bathrobe and Beyond

Posted on September 26, 2011 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here are few ideas to make the opening of your next speech more visually compelling. Reading time: 4:57

The president called a special 7 a.m. meeting of all 400 managers in his company one Sunday morning —the last day of a three-day conference at a resort.

Everyone grumbled at having to get up that early because of a venue scheduling conflict. At 6:59 a.m. the huge hotel ballroom was filled. But the president looked like a no-show.

Finally at exactly 7 am the president walked on stage. In his bathrobe!

Waving a cup of coffee in his hand, he said: “Geez, who scheduled this early morning meeting anyway?” The crowd laughed. They howled even louder when the president disrobed.

He stood in full business attire as he approached the lectern and began his speech.

The bathrobe-disrobing president tapped into what his audience was feeling at that moment. He connected with them, personally. He demonstrated his emotional intelligence.

And they were now more attentive to his message. Even at 7 in the morning on a normal day off for most employees.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Public Speaking | Tagged: , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Getting To Know You Intimately

Posted on September 23, 2011 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to gain EVEN more productivity from your staff.

“Getting to know you.
Getting to know all about you.
Getting to feel free and easy
When I’m with you.
Getting to know what to say.”

—From “The King and I”

I am convinced that Anna’s song in The King and I is the anthem of the most effective leaders I have known. Those leaders don’t have to study the research that says the MOST important leadership skill is taking a sincere personal interest in your employees. They already know it.

Lewis and Clark with guide/interpreter Sacagawea

In fact, the most effective leaders know it is more productive for them to understand their followers than it is for their followers to understand them, as author Garry Wills notes in his book Certain Trumpets.

Forget the touchy/feeling stuff. There’s a bottom-line, performance-driven significance to that getting-to-know-you focus on followers.

Consider the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the three-year, 7,000-mile plus exploration of unknown land from the Dakotas to the Pacific that would virtually double the size of the United States of America.

Lewis and Clark persisted, leading their team over the Rocky Mountains, despite hardship, hostile natives and illness. They succeeded in part because they got to know their followers, as noted historian Stephen Ambrose notes in his book Undaunted Courage. Continue reading →

Filed under: Relationship | Tagged: , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Leading Against the Odds

Posted on September 22, 2011 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Having a bad day? Here’s a quick peek into the history books to give you a lift. Reading time: 3:18

The Brooklyn Bridge Stands as a Testament to Perseverance

You’re in the middle of a big project and you suffer a terrible accident that paralyzes you for life. You can hardly speak. What do you do?

If you’re Washington Roebling you continue for 13 years to build the Brooklyn Bridge. Roebling was paralyzed when he suffered the bends while inspecting the footings of the bridge.

Instead of giving up, he supervised the bridge construction through binoculars from his window. He communicated construction orders to his staff through a finger-tapping code with his wife who relayed the message to his engineers.

Against the odds like that, leaders find a way to get it done. Consider the following odds and the leaders who faced them. Continue reading →

Filed under: Adversity | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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