JUDGING HOW TO SPEND TIME AS A LEADER
At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, swimmer Michael Phelps broke the world record for the most gold medals won by an individual during a single Olympiad. In the 100m butterfly, the race in which he tied the world record by collecting his seventh gold, Phelps won in a photo finish. In fact, to the naked…
Read MoreThe right picture of success
Last week, I shared some of the wrong definitions of success that so many of us believe in. I shared my belief that they’re either wrong, or at best, incomplete. I believe success is ultimately a journey. So how do you get started on the success journey? What does it take to be a success?…
Read MoreSuccess: What it isn't
The problem for most people who want to be successful is not that they can’t do it. The main obstacle for them is that they misunderstand success. Maltbie D. Babcock said, “One of the most common mistakes and one of the costliest is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic, something or…
Read MoreUnleashing the power of passion
One of my roles as a motivational teacher is to try to help people reach their potential. For years, I tried to inspire passion in audiences by going about it the wrong way. I used to tell people about what made me passionate, what made me want to get out and do my best. But…
Read MoreFASHIONING AN EMPOWERING WORKPLACE
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”~ Thomas Jefferson As consumer tastes change, so must companies, or else they quickly become extinct. As a clothier with 150+ years of history, Burberry has had to reinvent itself to stay relevant in the digital age. Best known for…
Read MoreEMPOWERMENT: PUTTING THE ODDS IN YOUR FAVOR
In America’s 50 largest cities, the high school graduation rate is 53%. Nearly ½ of students do not earn a diploma within four years of starting the 9th grade. Not finishing high school adversely affects a person’s life in numerous ways. For example, dropouts are far more likely to be unemployed or imprisoned compared to…
Read MoreKnowing the difference between players and pretenders
If you’ve ever led people, you’ve come across followers who would rather act the part than do their part. Those people are pretenders, and while they can sometimes masquerade as players, there are ways to tell the two apart. It’s important to find all the pretenders within an organization, because otherwise, they will steal momentum…
Read MoreComing next month: A Day About Books
Just this week I finished the preliminary work on the creation of my next book. Not the one for 2012 – that one’s been finished since last fall. No, this is my 2013 book, which we need to turn in THIS fall. That’s the way publishing works: everything takes a long time to go from…
Read MoreCOMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT
Are those with fortunes simply fortunate? Do our life circumstances depend more on fate or choice? Are leaders born or made? Harvard economist Michael Porter looked at these questions from the standpoint of national economic performance. Why do German engineers, Swiss chocolatiers, and Japanese electronics manufacturers enjoy a competitive advantage over the rest of the…
Read MoreHOW LEADERS DEVELOP
Leadership is not an exclusive club reserved for those who were “born with it.” The traits comprising the raw materials of leadership can be acquired. Link them up with desire and nothing can keep you from becoming a leader. Some people have a more intuitive grasp of how to lead than others. These “natural-born leaders”…
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