• Peter Jeff - The Leadership Mints Guy

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  • Pages

  • Leadership Mints

  • Recent Posts

  • Memorable Mints

To Bee or Not To Bee a Leader

Posted on May 31, 2013 by The Leadership Mints Guy

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. Continue reading →

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

Crying Like a Leader

Posted on May 28, 2013 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you strengthen your emotional intelligence. Reading time: 3:52.

The four-star general –all 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds of him — was scared. Not of the battlefield.

General Norman Schwarzkopf

General Norman Schwarzkopf

After all he led the US coalition of troops from 30 countries to victory in the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

No General Norman Schwarzkopf was scared of even more than the demands of war when he became the first US general in 46 years to win a major war.

In fact he was scared of those armed and- even those UNARMED-who seemed less than human, especially when you looked them in the eye: They couldn’t or wouldn’t cry.

“Frankly, any man who doesn’t cry scares me a little bit,” Schwarzkopf admitted to Barbara Walters on ABC television’s 20/20 program in March 1991. “I don’t think I would like a man who was incapable of enough emotion to get tears in his eyes every now and then. That person scares me; he ‘s not a human being.”

Leaders cry.

Yes, generals cry, Schwarzkopf asserted. General Ulysses S. Grant cried when he learned of Lincoln’s death. General Eisenhower wiped away tears when he saw the planes take off on the eve of D-day knowing he could be sending most of them to their deaths. And the Commander-in-Chief, President Abraham Lincoln wept when he visited the injured soldiers during the Civil War.

The most effective leaders know that their tears-rooted in empathy and grounded in a well-developed emotional intelligence-are part and parcel of their humanity.

Leaders realize that expressing their humanity (crying) and connecting to the feelings and concerns of others (relationship building) is the crux of leadership.

In fact, a study at Penn State said tears in a man are a sign of honesty and another study reported in the Journal of Psychology of Men & Masculinity found that football players who cried had higher levels of self-esteem that gave them a competitive edge on and off the field. Continue reading →

Filed under: Emotional Intelligence | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Speech Breathes Life Into A Leader

Posted on May 24, 2013 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you foster more commitment to sharpening your public speaking skills. Reading time: 5:08

You are tasked to lead 12 entry level employees
in a leadership development workshop on public speaking.
More than half of the class fears
public speaking and the other half
would rather be anywhere else. What do you do?
Consider the following speech that one leader delivered to
reframe public speaking as a skill that breathes
life into you rather than scares you half to death.

Life1If I were not an adult or even a child, I probably wouldn’t be standing and I certainly wouldn’t be speaking. I’d be on my hands and knees, screaming not speaking because I was a baby.

And I would be an infant in more ways than one since the word “Infant” comes from the Latin word meaning “unable to speak.”

But I am not an infant. I am able to speak. I am able to break through the sound barrier and soar higher and higher on the wings of speech. Growing from a baby, growing into a child, growing up to become a man.

Yes. Speech breathes life.

In the next few minutes I am going to share with you three specific examples of how speech breathes life –BREATHING life into a 6-year-old infant, BREATHING life into ordinary people who become extraordinary and memorable, and BREATHING life into depressed nation on the verge of world war. Continue reading →

Filed under: Public Speaking | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Sapere Aude: Dare To Be Wise

Posted on May 21, 2013 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to break down communications barriers. Reading time: 4:35

“Respice adspice, prospice. See you on the 24th at 9 am.” Potius sero quad numquam.”

Latin_plaque_7_Jul_1883That’s the entire note that a vice president e-mailed to each member of his staff under the subject line: Your Annual Review. Only the specific time changed on each personalized e-mail.

The vice president clearly got his staff engaged—if only to force them to look up the translation of the Latin phrases.

He knew he was late again in conducting annual reviews. He also knew his tardiness last year and the year before that rubbed off on the staff so much that annual reviews had become perfunctory minimum salary increases. They no longer bought into the management notion that the annual review served as a strategic assessment tool that would turbo-charge their personal careers and enhance the overall viability of the company.

The vice president knew he had to change that mindset. His own leadership viability depended on it.

His mea culpa (my fault) rekindled new vitality in the annual review process with an e-mail note that invited his staff to really examine where they are and where that want to go in their career. The English translation: “Look and examine your past, present and future.” Then after inviting each to a specific meeting date and time, he wrote “Better late than never.” Continue reading →

Filed under: Meeting Magic | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Exercising Your Veranda Rights

Posted on May 17, 2013 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you think more before you act. Reading time: 4:38.

Ah, a veranda. How inviting! How relaxing!

DSCN6791You can almost feel yourself settling into a comfortable and comforting rocking chair on that veranda.

It’s a warm summer afternoon in a small mid-Western town at the turn of the 20th century. And you’re sipping a tall, cold glass of lemonade.

If you squint hard enough from your vantage point on the veranda you can almost see barefoot kids in the distance toting fishing poles and waving like a scene out of Huckleberry Finn.

Time seems to slow down on the veranda. And your thinking seems to speed up. Your conversation, problem-solving and interaction on the veranda seems to be much more insightful, much more stimulating and much more meaningful. Call it The Veranda Vitality syndrome.

Too bad too many of today’s 21st century leaders no longer exercise their Veranda Rights.

Too bad too many leaders don’t take the time to STOP and think of more creative options before reacting to the problem de jour in Whack-a-mole fashion.

Too bad too many leaders are more focused on how quickly they can address -and dismiss -this one issue in front of them before the next issue pops up and grabs their attention.

Stop & Think

Maybe today’s leaders need a reminder to stop and think every time they confront a significant new problem. Maybe they need a reminder to consult with others, to bounce ideas off others who have diverse points of view.

Maybe they need to exercise their Veranda Rights -a signature process statement - that does for leadership what the Miranda Rights do for justice: let cooler heads prevail especially in volatile situations. Continue reading →

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

Focusing Your Vision Over The Rainbow

Posted on May 14, 2013 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you better define your vision. Reading time: 4:26

Think of a rainbow the next time you’re developing a vision for your organization.

RAINBOW Like a rainbow, a vision is not an object, not a “thing” despite the dismissive citation of a former US President.

Like a rainbow, a vision is a frame of reference, a vantage point from a SPECIFIC ANGLE to see your organization in a different light.

And like a rainbow, a vision can’t be seen and/ or developed from the top down; a vision can only be seen and/or developed from the side -no matter what kind of rose colored glasses you are wearing.

From the side, a leader can better get up close and personal to more accurately assess key components of a vision such as competition, customers and employees.

From the side-up close and personal -a leader can come to more personally experience their company’s strengths and weaknesses in the marketplace; threats and opportunities, and key trends for product or service differentiation.

From the side-up close and personal- a leader can more fully listen to what the customer is NOT saying that would enhance the value-add of their product or service.

And from the side-up close and personal-a leader can more directly look their employees in the eye to gain and retain their trust.

But first, the leader’s view from the side has to be precise to discern a viable vision, much like the specific 42 degree angle of vision required to see a rainbow, according to the laws of physics. No wonder the most effective visionary leaders realize their followers may have the same view but not the same vision as you; they may have the same location but not the same vantage point .

Continue reading →

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

Letting Go To Gain Your Mojo

Posted on May 10, 2013 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you gain momentum. Reading time: 2:25

“Weeeeeee,” giggled the 6-year-old boy flying so freely on the playground swing. “My stomach tickles.”

No wonder the little boy giggled even louder when he later saw the flying trapeze artist at the circus swinging with the greatest of ease.

That flying trapeze artist would go on to teach all of us that day a counter-intuitive lesson in leadership: to get a stronger grip on the ladder of success, first let go.

Watching the flying trapeze artist at the circus, the boy already knew the feeling of exhilaration from the acceleration of a swing, the sense of negative G’s that slosh your organs around to tickle your tummy.

The boy already knew the sense of freedom in flying high on a swing toward new vistas, new horizons, new visions, defying gravity with a demonstration of both kinetic and potential energy.

And the boy already knew the sense of personal power he exhibited in personally pumping his legs on a swing to get higher and higher to see farther and farther. Continue reading →

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

Next Page »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 79 other followers