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”

A few days ago, I decided to change a photograph that’s been on display for the last several years in one of the picture frames that currently grace my desk. The photograph was a picture I had taken of my girls several years ago on one of those summery days we tend to look back on fondly through a soft-focus lens. Of course, in the time since that photograph, my girls have grown up and it seemed overdue that this photograph be replaced by a more recent memory of our time together.

Although the act of replacing this photograph was fairly mundane, I still found myself being much more aware of this picture frame’s presence on my desk. Naturally, my first assumption was that this was simply a result of a new image staring out at me from that frame. However, what I realized was that this greater sense of awareness regarding this picture frame on my desk had less to do with the image itself and more to do with the fact that it had changed from something familiar and consistent, to something new and different.

What’s also interesting is how something that I Click here to continue reading »”Reframing How We See Change”

Photo courtesy of curtis.kennington

This past Tuesday, I had the opportunity to appear as a guest on the Real Recognition Radio show, which airs every Tuesday at 1PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on the VoiceAmerica Business channel.  In this week’s episode, titled “A Better Workplace Conversation”, hosts Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown interviewed feedback expert Sonia Di Maulo and myself on the issues of leadership, workplace interactions and fostering motivation in employees (Sonia has written a follow-up piece about our interview on her blog.  I invite you to check it out and find out what key points stood out from this discussion).

For those who didn’t get a chance to hear the radio broadcast, or who’d like to hear the show again, you can listen to the interview using the audio player below.  Or if you prefer, you can download a MP3 copy of the show from the Real Recognition Radio show web page.

Some of the topics discussed during this show include:

• Why giving positive feedback is critical to creating a productive workplace.
• How listening can foster opportunities for growth.
• Why the best leaders are those who focus on serving those they lead.
• The importance of praise and recognition in the workplace and how we can start implementing it today.
• How we can engage our employees in these tough economic times.
• Why leaders should encourage a more emotional workplace.
• What are the most important opportunities facing organizations today.

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I want to take this opportunity to thank Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown for inviting me to appear on their show.  It was a pleasure to share my insights on leadership and motivating employees with your listeners.  And I look forward to hearing your thoughts about this conversation on leadership and motivating employees.

What ideas resonated with you and what would you add to the discussion on these issues?