Dave Anderson | Leadership Training and Consultation
What if we did not allow early failure to become enduring failure? We all try. But do we try long enough? Do we persevere?
What makes some persevere and others quit? For a lot of us, it is the habit of making excuses. The willingness to make excuses stops many people from going past Plan A or Plan B.
Too often, once we have tried Plan A or Plan B that seems good enough. What about Plan C, D, E, F, G…?
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I started my first team from scratch and it took us over two years to hit our stride. My second team had a mix of experienced and novice members on it. We took about a year to begin to fire on all cylindars. The next team was pieced together from other teams. The individuals were all tenured and successful but most had not worked together before. We hit our stride quickly.
The way a leader launches into leadership with a new team can often determine that team’s trajectory for years to come. Continue Reading…
Two companies competing in the same market can have wildly different results. One company will thrive and the other will flounder. Why? Does one company have smarter people? Or better information?
That is unlikely. There is not a shortage of smart people in business today. The people available for businesses to hire have never had access to more education and more information.
Brains and skills abound in most companies. Brains and skills are hired and reinforced through training. Yet some companies lag behind the leaders. Why? The answer is dysfunction not incompetence. Continue Reading…
Many people are not prepared for leadership because their leader has not prepared them. Some leaders fail to develop the people around them because they don’t allow them to make decisions.
When a leader prevents people from making decisions at lower levels, the organization is creating an environment where low potential followers flourish and future leaders flee. Continue Reading…
It’s like a sad Dilbert cartoon. A leader sitting in his office shooting email after email off to people he can see through the glass window of his office. It’s sadder when he has set up a culture on his team that he expects an immediate response to his emails.
Is this a Dilbert cartoon on leadership? Unfortunately it’s not. Over the last few years training and developing frontline leaders from multiple companies and industries, I hear tales about this form of leadership. But it is not really leadership. It is management. Continue Reading…
My people were sick of training. In every meeting, we did some sort of sales training. The term “sharpening the saw” was being overused.
I agree a dull blade is ineffective. But, poor sharpening will make the blade duller. Plus, a blade can be ground down to nothing with too much sharpening. We had reached the point of diminishing returns. Continue Reading…
Ready – Shoot – Aim! Unfortunately that can be my decision-making process. On the other end of the spectrum are leaders who tend to be Ready – Aim – Aim – Aim….
Both styles can be problematic. One causes a lot of starting and a lot of stopping to happen. The other causes nothing to happen.
I may be tipping my hand and giving everyone an insight into my personality, but I also know I speak for a lot of people who are waiting on their leaders, when I say, “Pull the dang trigger!” Continue Reading…
He was a borderline narcissist. His reaction to my coaching often approached rage. I hired him for his past performance in another industry. But, I failed to fire him quickly when I realized he was unwilling to change.
Every now and then I add another entry to my un-resume. These are my leadership screw-ups and the lessons I have learned from them. Wisdom does not come through perfection. Wisdom comes through failure. Continue Reading…
The reward for leadership is the opportunity to make more sacrifices. I see many talented people become disillusioned leaders because they are not prepared for this fact.
I attended the National Council On Culture and Leadership Annual Summit (NCCL Website) last week and heard a fellow West Point graduate Steve Ingalls describe the sacrifices we all must make when we become leaders. Continue Reading…
Early in my leadership career in Corporate America, I followed the pack. I did what others did. I remember watching my sales manager lead a certain way, and I emulated what he had done. Unfortunately by following what was commonly done, my teams consistently had very common results.
Like many people, being common was never one of my goals growing up. I came to the realization that I needed to change. If I wanted to be an uncommon leader, I needed to do things that the pack was not doing. Continue Reading…