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- Higher Ed Scam?
- What Does Your Castle Look Like?
- Perfection and Harmony are Mutually Exclusive
- Breaking Reproduction, Embracing Revolution
- Article: Bridge the Generation Gap
- They Want To Hire You
- The Manager’s Cheat Sheet
- The Mathematics of Success
- How To Prove You Are An Expert
- The Dirty Little Secret of Success
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Category Archives: Leadership
Higher Ed Scam?
Just finished watching the video below:
Agree with most everything.
When I moved to higher education I expected to be surrounded by many bright people and I was.
What I hadn’t thought through was the value of a nimble mind. Although many of my colleagues were very intelligent and were experts in their fields of study, very few were able to practice divergent thinking and even fewer were visionaries.
Posted in Leadership, Office Musings
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What Does Your Castle Look Like?
Over the course of my multiple careers, I've put in a lot of hours counseling people through crisis situations. I've been screamed at, cursed, threatened with firearms and most anything else you can imagine. However, in every case, we found some resolution, some peace, and deepened a positive relationship with each other. I hope I've learned a few things along the way and am excited to share one of those insights with you on this post.
Perfection and Harmony are Mutually Exclusive
We seem to be in the throes of a culture that demands perfection within a corporate culture. Ain't gonna' happen. We're human; we'll never be perfect. That inescapable fact leaves us with two alternatives if we continue to embrace the current corporate paradigm:
- All those who fall short of perfection are run out of the workplace on a rail (raise your hand if you are not perfect and more than likely to screw up very soon), or
- We bend the workplace culture to tacitly support the myth of perfection while we apply the expectations unevenly across the workers
Posted in Leadership, Office Musings
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Breaking Reproduction, Embracing Revolution
Funny title, isn't it?
Reproduction is a term that is often used in the field of critical pedagogy. Sparing you the complexities and philosophical arguments surrounding the concept of reproduction, let me offer a vary simplistic definition:
Reproduction is the practice of embracing the culture and ingrained ways of thinking from parents or other strong influencers without seriously interrogating those beliefs. Whew . . . that almost hurt to write such a complex sentence so long after completing my terminal degree.
Article: Bridge the Generation Gap
I like this article on www.electronicnotepad.org:
“Bridge the Generation Gap with an Electronic Notepad”
It cites a Lexis/Nexus study that clearly shows a technology gap among Gen Y, Gen X and Baby Boomers concerning “polite” use of technology and acceptable use in the workplace. For example, many Baby Boomers thought it unacceptable to use electronic devices during meetings. However, those of us who think of technology as another set of productivity tools think nothing of creating digital notes on the fly.
The article highlights the gaps and suggests a particular approach that I like a lot.
The Manager’s Cheat Sheet
I don’t have a lot of comments about this–just want to be sure you have this excellent resource for leaders:
The Manager’s Cheat Sheet: 101 Common-Sense Rules for Leaders
Great compact reminder of things that are important for effective leadership. The articles addresses the following areas of leadership:
- Body Language
- Meeting Deadlines
- Getting Along with Employees
- Manage Yourself
- Boosting Productivity
- Managing Finances and Resources
- Communicating with Clients
- Keep Up with Change
- Resolving Problems
- Go Above and Beyond
-Rich
How To Prove You Are An Expert
For many years I have enjoyed teaching and coaching young professionals about how to prove to prospect employers that they are experts in their fields–beginning experts, but experts nonetheless. The problem is not that they are not experts, it is that they don’t know how to let it out, how to provide convincing evidence that they know their stuff. Over the years, I’ve found a few things that convince the interviewer that the job hunter is an expert but I want to focus on the two most important ingredients that must be present to convince an interviewer that you know your stuff.
The Dirty Little Secret of Success
Maybe the title is a bit strong–maybe not. The secret that is a critical part of almost all success, true and lasting success, is PERSONALITY.
It is personality that determines whether that boss across from the desk decides to hire you or not. He knows what makes work bearable from day to day is the personalities of the people who must work together. If you’re not going to be workable, guess what? You won’t be working.
It’s personality that determine if that next customer will buy from you, either in person or from the copy you’ve written for your personality is smeared all across everything you do.
Posted in Leadership, Office Musings, Personal Development
Tagged charisma, leadership, personality, success
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“Failure is Not an Option” is NOT Leadership
It seems to be popular these days to wave the banner that reads, “Failure is Not an Option!” Failure might not be an option from the viewpoint of middle managers and upper administration, but it has always been an option of the working class and workers who are fed up with the status quo.
Posted in Leadership, Office Musings, Office Politics
Tagged bad leadership, failure, leadership
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Continuous Improvement – The Bondage of Never Enough and Killer Stress
The Chains of Continuous Improvement
In the current, ever-upward striving to shape the culture of corporate America to closely resemble the Third Reich, we seem to have swallowed hook, line, and sinker the bondage of continuous improvement.
How It Used To Be
Gone are the days when a manager or boss might start a business meeting with the words, “Good job! We’re doing great. Just keep doing what you are doing right now!” That never happens anymore. What we do now in our jobs and professions never seems to be good enough. We are not only expected to improve our performance, we are expected to continuously improve it. From a business math perspective, that means improvement must take place over the smallest time increment possible.
Posted in Leadership, Office Musings, Stress Management
Tagged bad leadership, continuous improvement, leadership, Stress
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