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As the Elephant’s company continued to grow, he noticed his team of ants struggle to keep up with the volume of work.  The ants worked hard, and he hired new ones as fast as possible, but the higher volumes and faster turnarounds seemed beyond the ants’ skill and experience. The Elephant decided to hire a…

In my last email, I explained how being “nice” is self-focused and short-term.  Mastering kindness develops many skills that are an essential part of leadership like choosing long-term results over short-term.  Giving honest feedback versus spin.  Communicating, not just talking numbers. If you didn’t receive my comments about nice vs. kind leadership, you can read…

The commercial message for the KIND® protein bar was a smart play on words, “Nice tells you what you want to hear, but kind is honest.” It brought me back to a time long ago that taught me to be kind, instead of nice. I was at a software company, and we were having difficulties finding new…

A Real Life Leadership Story A college senior I know was the Director of a team of engineering students competing in SAE Aero Design, an international competition to design, build and fly an original aircraft.  I was asked to coach him in leadership and team building. The time came for the competition.  There were dozens…

It’s that time of year when we get a clear view of how the year will turn out.  There is still much business to do, but the planning is complete, and the decisions made.  You can begin assessing how your organization performed. One more question, how did YOU do this year?  As the organization’s leader,…

Years ago I joined a company just as they were preparing to launch a new (and expensive) marketing campaign. A focus group comprised of a dozen customers was invited to preview the campaign. As the new executive, I was asked to attend. The central message of the campaign was “innovation.” Its focus centered upon all…