Why Your Team Needs A Devil’s Advocate
I love my job. I love training. I love to see the look on a participant’s face when they suddenly “get it” and learn a new concept. I also love what I learn from my participants. I’m the trainer but [...]
The CRAAP Test: Your Best Friend for Making Really Good Decisions [RGDs]
The C.R.A.A.P. Test for Making Good Decisions A State Farm television commercial portrays a savvy Mike using his phone app to record some damage to his car when he encounters his friend who informs him she’s waiting on [...]
Beware of Unintended Consequences
You’re in the process of making a big decision. You’ve checked your emotions at the door, filtered through all of your assumptions, gathered the facts, arrived at conclusions, and now you’re ready to take action. Or are you? There is [...]
Emotions: The Fast Lane to a Really Bad Decision
In 1973 a young engineer named Steve Sasson went to work for the Eastman Kodak company, the oldest and most successful name in the photography business. According to The New York Times, Sasson was given some electronic parts to play [...]
Kill Your Business in Five Easy Steps; Be a Blockbuster
Once upon a time Blockbuster, a thriving giant video rental store, had the opportunity to purchase a fledgling Netflix for 50 million dollars. The leadership at Blockbuster was skeptical that this new streaming technology would catch on. They turned down [...]
Three Things Great Leaders Do. And Do. And Do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw-jQ-_04DI There are three elements of good leadership that are consistent at every organizational level. From team leader to CEO, when people are following you, your job is to: Cultivate and clarify your vision. Align others with that vision. [...]
Four Facts about Effective Feedback
The Work of Leaders consists of creating vision, aligning others, and executing that vision. Getting your team aligned requires feedback. Execution requires feedback. Each member of your team needs to know what to do more of, what to keep on doing, and what [...]
Basketball and Emotional Intelligence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2XSPW9pBx0 Russell Westbrook is poetry in motion, de-facto team leader of the OKC Thunder NBA franchise, NBA Most Valuable Player for 2017, and a pleasure to watch. In action, he’s a blur all over the court, scoring, passing, guiding his [...]
Four Steps to a Committed Team
You just assigned your team a new project. Their enthusiasm is, well, remarkably luke-warm. How do you build a fire under them to get them behind the project? Here are four steps to kindle the flames of team commitment. Build [...]
Intentional listening can be the best gift to give at Christmas
By Charlotte Lankard ---The Oklahoman When someone deeply listens to you, it is like holding out a dented cup you've had since childhood and watching it fill up with cold, fresh water. When it balances on top of the [...]
Gut Instinct, and How Leaders Use It
The e-mail read: Can a job applicant alter their personality style profile to influence the results so that their style appears to be more like the style we’re looking for to fill this position?” The rest of the story: This [...]
Four Actions to Improve Your Listening Skills, Impress Your Boss and Make Your Girlfriend or Boyfriend Crazy About You.
I’m going out on a limb here: The ability to listen well is the most important tool you’ll ever put in your leadership tool kit, or for that matter, your tool kit for living well. There. I said it. What [...]
CAUTION! You’re only Five Steps Away from an RBD (Really Bad Decision)
We all make bad decisions. Sometimes the consequences of those decisions are inconsequential. Other times they can be devastating. A few years ago Blockbuster Video had the opportunity to acquire a little start-up (Netflix) for a paltry 50 million dollars. [...]
Is It Time to Throw Out the Compliment Sandwich?
Bored? Looking for a little excitement? Try googling, “Compliment Sandwich.’ You’ll find a few posts that define it and a bunch of articles on why you should NEVER use one. So, what is a compliment sandwich? It’s placing critical feedback [...]
Four Reasons New Leaders Fail from the Start
When front line workers are promoted to leadership they must learn a new set of skills in order to be successful. There are four challenges that will derail a leader at any level if they aren’t addressed. In my consulting [...]
Making Polenta and Developing Great Leaders in Four Steps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTHL-wsU68o (Four things that Making Polenta and Developing Leaders have in common) Today I made polenta for the first time. It’s an Italian version of grits, only better. A few weeks ago I enjoyed osso buco; It’s the Italian [...]
Six Things You Need to Know About Expectations
---- Ruthie Hast, M.Ed., LPC Expectations are how we hope or anticipate life will be. They encompass all areas of our lives—our work, our relationships, the way our life will unfold. They play a major part in how our [...]
Cultural Intelligence: What is Your CQ And Why Should You Care?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2C7Mfft9OY (From Mona Earnest, Speaker, trainer, HR consultant and partner at Encore Life Skills) Yesterday, I taught a course on Cultural Intelligence for the State of Oklahoma Office of Management & Enterprise (OMES). Just as your own Intelligence [...]
I Hate Emotional Intelligence
I hate Emotional Intelligence. Well actually, I dislike the term, “Emotional Intelligence.” Why? Intelligence is something you are stuck with. You get your quotient, your share, and that’s it. Done. Experts say you can stretch it a little bit, but [...]
Five Things You Must Know About Conflict
Conflict. Some of us really don’t like conflict. We would much rather get along than get cross with each other, and a workplace where people are nice to each other is a good thing, right? Well, actually not. Being “nice” [...]
The Big Catastrophe that turned out to be, well…nothing.
You couldn’t find your wallet and you panicked. You missed your plane and thought it was the end of the world. You experienced what appeared to be a catastrophic event in the making. But that really bad thing you thought [...]
What’s Trust Got To Do With It?
Sick Teams usually share one thing in common: They don’t trust each other. How do you fix a team that doesn’t trust? First of all, agree on what it means to trust each other. [...]
Q&A with Tim Hast
Tim hast, principal of Edmond-based Encore Life Skills, offers four skills that separate experts from novices when it comes to listening. Great leaders create, align and execute visions. […]