In my first book, Presidential Leadership, which focuses on learning from the strengths of U.S. Presidents and identifying, improving, and leveraging your own strengths, I closed with a Call to Action that includes the following story: “In the mid-1700s Benjamin Franklin developed a personal system for cultivating his character by focusing on improving in …
As I’ve mentioned in recent articles, intentional, positive habits are the most powerful tools at our disposal for achieving greater success personally, professionally, and organizationally. If you desire greater success in any area of your life, cultivating the right habits is key. In my book, Be An Inspirational Leader: Engage, Inspire, Empower, I spend …
This time of year many of us are thinking about the habits in our lives that we want to change—or new habits we want to establish. Some habits are very easy to identify as “bad.” For example, we all know smoking is bad for us, we shouldn’t look at text messages while driving, and staying …
Habits. We all have them. We’re aware of many of our habits, but there are likely many more to which we haven’t really given much thought. It’s easy to take habits for granted and to just keep doing things the way we’ve always done them. But in doing so we miss out on the huge …
Whether it’s as simple as your daily routine or how you shake hands, or as significant as what words appear most in your vocabulary or how you respond to pressure in the workplace, habits control a very large portion of your daily life. In fact, habits likely dictated when and how you went about …
These last few weeks we’ve been talking about the importance of giving authority, refraining from micromanaging, and encouraging appropriate independence and autonomy. These are all things that require trust. Without trust, leaders are hesitant to delegate tasks, and try to retain as much control as possible—which not only causes them unnecessary work and stress, but …
When given the freedom to do it in their own way, employees feel a greater sense of ownership for their work, which in turn boosts morale and engagement. In contrast, when given responsibility but not corresponding authority, employees quickly become frustrated, discouraged, and disengaged. As leaders, we should strive to give those we lead authority …
Micromanaging is one of those terms you most often hear in association with disliked bosses and disgruntled employees, and you hope it doesn’t apply to you as a leader! So let’s do a quick self-check. Micromanaging Leaders The definition of micromanage is “to manage or control with excessive attention to minor details.” To put it …
Lately we’ve been discussing how to empower those you lead. One of the most important keys to empowering those you lead is to give them appropriate authority. This is the area most people think of when they hear the word empower, and it is a vital component of inspirational leadership. Author and management consultant Mac …
Investing in the life, wellbeing, and growth of those you lead is one of the greatest elements of inspirational leadership. However, some leaders are hesitant to really invest in their employees. Why? Because they’re afraid they will lose their investment if that person chooses to leave their organization and pursue other opportunities. While that is …
It should go without saying that inspirational leaders are encouraging leaders. Inspiration and encouragement go hand in hand, and nothing is more opposite inspiration than discouragement. It is virtually impossible for a person to feel both discouraged and inspired at the same time. So to inspire, a leader must also encourage. Encouragement boosts morale, motivation, …
Giving and receiving feedback is one of those things that we all know is important, but in practice, can be daunting and uncomfortable—for both the giver and receiver. So how do you deliver feedback, especially corrective feedback, in a positive and constructive way? Here are 9 best practices: Be timely. “Timeliness is critical in order …
I recently had lunch at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The experience was significantly different and better than what I normally experience having lunch throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and for that matter, throughout America as I travel for business and pleasure. As I reflected on my experience, I identified 5 reasons I felt …
I recently read an excellent article by John Meese titled “How To Protect Key Relationships While Building Your Platform.” In the article Meese shared 5 key rules to follow if you desire to build healthy relationships with the people around you while also building a successful online platform. I think Meese’s advice can be slightly …
A few weeks ago we discussed the critical importance of investing in those you lead, including providing relevant training and education options and creating opportunities for individual growth. Another way in which inspirational leaders invest in and empower those they lead is by equipping them beyond the essentials required to fulfill their job description. …
A few weeks ago I posed a simple question to my LinkedIn connections and followers: “In a word or two… what does Inspirational Leadership mean to you?” 17 people took a few moments to respond, and each response was excellent! Here they are: Kind Trust, caring, encouraging Uplifting, inspirational Visionary, mentor Listening and empowering Practicing …
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch In this day and age, I think very few leaders want their employees to perform their duties like mindless drones as opposed to the thoughtful, innovative people that they are. …
Leading by example may seem like an overly simple (and endlessly repeated) concept. So much so that you likely haven’t spent much time thinking about it in recent years because you already know that leading by example is important. But I hope you don’t dismiss this age-old principle as overrated or too obvious to even …
Retired attorney and ethics professor Michael Josephson once wrote: “Great leaders are principled; they are not merely effective, they are ethical. They adhere to moral principles in forming their objectives and using the methods of influence. They engender trust and credibility because of their integrity and loyalty and because they care about their followers and …
You probably don’t have your personal values written out and posted on the wall somewhere. You likely haven’t even thought through and named each of the values you strive to embody. But whether articulated or not, everyone lives by a set of values, and organizations should too. Some may argue that “corporate values” just end …