As the number of people who use social media sites continues to grow, it’s only natural that there will be more discussion and debate over how these sites are used for communication and the dissemination of information. In fact, over the last few weeks, I’ve had several discussions with friends and colleagues about how the growing popularity of Twitter might impact the way the site is used or the kind of content that users share.

Of course, one point we need to recognize is that Twitter is nothing more that a communications outlet. There’s no magical powers like that which can transform a frog into a prince at work here. Instead, this is simply another tool that allows people to exchange information and ideas, either from simply broadcasting them to a general audience, or by fostering relationships and conversations in which to transfer such information.

When viewed from this vantage point, there are some practical guidelines leaders can draw from using Twitter on how to effectively communicate with the various departments and employees within their organization. Click here to continue reading »”What Twitter Can Teach Leaders About Effective Communication”

Over the next couple of months, I’ll be hosting some of my favourite bloggers who will share their ideas and insights on leadership and business with my readers here on this blog.  To kickstart this monthly guest appearance, I’d like to introduce you to Becky Robinson, who some of you might know as @LeaderTalk on Twitter.  Becky has been writing, promoting, and managing the LeaderTalk blog for Mountain State University since it began in April 2009.  In March 2010, she accepted the position of serving as an adjunct faculty member in Mountain State’s Bachelor of Science Organizational Leadership program.

I have been blogging about leadership for many months now. Part of my job is to promote the leadership degree programs at Mountain State University. Lately, that has become easier for me because as an adjunct faculty member, I have a front row seat to what goes on in our programs. Teaching in one of the programs has given me a clear picture of what we offer and why it works.

Here’s the conclusion I have drawn about leadership.

It’s simple.

I am not saying that leadership is easy. It’s not. Leading yourself and others is a life-long journey that requires commitment, focus, and determination. Above all, it requires you to look beyond yourself and to maintain an outward focus, one of serving others.

Leadership is making a difference wherever you are, every day.

How do you do that? Click here to continue reading »”Making It Simple”

One thing I enjoy sharing through my writings is looking at how everyday events can provide us with valuable lessons on leadership, workplace interactions, as well as changing how we view our present-day circumstances. It’s for this reason I’m sure many of you won’t be surprised that I want to share with you my thoughts about leadership that were inspired from celebrating Mother’s Day.

As was the case in most households over the past weekend, our house was abuzz with activity surrounding the celebration of a day that honours mothers everywhere. Watching the excitement and intensity my children have for planning and orchestrating the events for Mother’s Day, I realized there are some important connections between mothers and leadership.

Granted, motherhood is not something one thinks about as being a useful role to gain some insights into how to lead others given that the dynamics between a mother and her child are vastly different from that between an employer and their employees. And yet, if we look at this from the perspective of the life lessons we learned as children from our moms, we can see some useful points that can help us better understand how to approach the role of leadership in our organizations. Click here to continue reading »”Mothers – Our First Example of Real Leadership”

Photo courtesy of hael0

The wise man at the top of the mountain – it’s a timeless image many of us are familiar with when we think of the road to wisdom. Most stories about the wise man on the mountain involve someone climbing up to the summit to seek the elderly man’s counsel. These stories often serve as a metaphor for the journey each of us must take in the pursuit for greater understanding and awareness, with the wise man representing who we will become through this process. And yet, if we examine this tale from the perspective of the wise man, we’d find that there are also some valuable insights on the importance making time for reflection.

In terms of the seeker, having the wise man at the top of a mountain makes sense as it implies a challenge to reach this source of knowledge and insight. And yet, there’s an important reason why being at the top of the mountain is beneficial for the wise man as well. From his position at the summit, the wise man is able to take in the full view of his surroundings. Instead of getting caught up in the details, his focus has shifted to understanding the bigger picture, of examining how everything relates and interacts. Being up on the top of the mountain allows the wise man to be free from the distractions found in the village below so that he can instead reflect on the questions in his mind in the hope of finding some answers, if not a greater sense of awareness of the situation.

Like the wise man, it’s important that those in leadership positions take time to Click here to continue reading »”The Power of Reflection in Leadership”

Every now and then when I sit down to write a post for my blog, I find my mind drifting off to other tasks; things that I could be doing at that moment instead of writing. In these cases, it’s not an issue of struggling with writer’s block, as I know exactly what it is I wish to write about. Instead, the problem has to do with something we all face at one point or another in our daily lives – getting stuck in the procrastination rut.

It’s a common situation that we can all relate to – finding ourselves procrastinating when there’s this pile of work that requires our current attention and focus. Of course, thanks to today’s hyper-accelerated sense of immediacy and drive to increase productivity, procrastinating not only draws our frustration and annoyance, but it’s also become something we feel guilty about doing.

Ironically, part of the problem with procrastination is that we’ve created a negative perception around it, instead of recognizing it as being a normal behaviour. After all, even the most efficient workers among us procrastinate at times. In dealing with procrastination, we need to understand that the real issue here is not so much the behaviour as how we choose to respond to it when it happens.

With this in mind, here are some things you can do that will not only help with maintaining some level of productivity, but which will also change how you look at procrastination: Click here to continue reading »”How to Deal with Procrastination”