Dave Anderson | Tag Archive | Courage

Last month, I spoke to over 700 people about the role of courage in leadership. I had 10 minutes to speak.

Courage goes beyond the physical courage displayed by our soldiers on the battlefield. Moral courage is needed from leaders in the hallways and boardrooms of businesses and non-profits as well.

Click on the image below to see and hear what I had to say to that audience.

Question:

How else do leaders display moral courage in the workplace?

Trust in a relationship, whether it is at work or at home, is the foundation to the success of that relationship. Without trust between individuals or on a team, mediocrity and failure are the most likely results.

I have worked for people who told me I had to earn their trust. I have worked in organizations that made the same thing clear, without someone verbalizing it. In both situations, the team was dysfunctional and selfishness prevailed.

I believe the first thing a leader needs to establish on a team is trust. The fastest way to establish trust is to be the first one to trust! Continue Reading…

Ownership or excuses. One is the mark of a leader. The other is a sign that I am bound for mediocrity and failure. In the long run, people who make excuses stall out.

Making excuses is a habit. I wrote about how West Point deals with this habit in West Point: How Leaders Seize Accountability. But what are the results for me if I habitually make excuses?

Lying, cheating, and cowardice, are all habits that can become addictions in the same way smoking, drinking, pornography and drugs can become addictions.

I have often used the latter to explain how our character habits are formed. But last week I heard Pete Hinojosa (www.petehinojosa.com) speak on leading and coaching people. As he discussed a leader’s role in affecting the beliefs of his people he defined addiction:

An addiction is a compulsive belief or behavior that brings short-term benefit but creates long-term problems. Continue Reading…

WWWWD or better W4D. I am sucker for the movie Braveheart. I love the action, the humor and the history of it. My wife always knows when I have watched clips of the movie, because she comes home to my bad Scottish accent.

But, beyond that, I love the hero. William Wallace sets an example of leadership and of manhood all of us should aspire to. What if leaders used William Wallace as a filter to for our own leadership?

It had been almost five years since I had seen my West Point classmate. I always enjoyed seeing him. We have a common bond all academy graduates have. But, after our first hour together, he said something that rocked my world.

“Dave, you haven’t changed a bit.”

I smiled and secretly hoped he was talking about my pant size.

Email is a terrible way to communicate. There are multiple studies showing about 50% of all emails are misinterpreted. My experience and your experience probably support that fact.

I have received angry emails from my customers, my peers and my leaders through the years. They can make me both angry and frustrated. Unfortunately, the way I choose to respond to those emails usually escalates the emotions involved.

We all have a choice in how we respond to these messages.

I had a dream that I worked for a company that got rid of it’s Human Resources Department. There were no more HR manuals or HR classes.

This was not a result of ineffective HR professionals. They just weren’t needed in that company. Was this heaven?

No. It was a dream. But, after rereading John Maxwell’s book, There Is No Such Thing As “Business” Ethics, I believe there is one Standard Operating Procedure that could make the dream a reality. The Golden Rule. Continue Reading…

In a nutshell: Inflicting pain on myself or someone else is a test of character and courage.

There are some decisions I make in leadership, I know are going to hurt. They may hurt me, or they may hurt others. In these situations, it may not be my integrity being tested. It is most likely my courage.

As a leader, one of my biggest mistakes was believing I should treat everyone equally. This is a societal fallacy that has moved into HR driven management training. In fact, treating people equally is management not leadership.

Treating all people equally is a management strategy that is meant to prevent litigation. It is a strategy that has little to do with driving productivity, developing leaders, or motivating employees.

As I strived to build Low Maintenance Teams in a bureaucratic organization characterized by equal treatment for all, I would often tell my people, “I will treat you all fairly, but I will not treat you equally.”

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