Eric Jacobson

Posts Tagged ‘Leadership’


What Will Be Your Legacy?

In Leadership, Leadership Skills, Leading By Example, Management on December 20, 2012 at 9:40 pm

Eric Jacobson LeadershipI recommend that all leaders every so often read the What Will Matter poem by Michael Josephson.

It serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of unselfishly serving and leading with character.

I’ve highlighted in bold and in color my favorite parts of the poem:

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.

All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.

So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.

It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.

Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success, but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.


Year-end Thoughts For Leaders

In Eric Jacobson On Corporate Culture, Eric Jacobson On Leadership, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leading By Example, Management on December 20, 2012 at 9:18 pm

Eric Jacobson Leadership

Two years ago, Lynn Flinn of EWF International in Tulsa, OK wrote the following in her business’ newsletter.  It’s so powerful I wanted to bring it back again this year as 2012 comes to a close.

So, here goes…Lynn’s year-end advice for leaders:

• Do something that you are afraid to do. Run through the fear rather than running away from it.

• Take a personal risk. Tell someone something you’ve always wished you’d said to them.

• Write a note to someone who inspires you but probably doesn’t know it.

• Pick one characteristic about yourself that you’d like to change and earnestly work on changing it. It is really hard to change a behavior, but it is possible if you are aware, patient and persistent in making a change.

• Realize when you are not engaged and re-engage. Turn off the television, turn off the cell phone, and pay attention to the people around you.

• Smile and talk to strangers that you meet. It is amazing how much shorter a long line feels when you are talking to someone versus focusing on how long the line is.

• Meditate, pray, relax, exercise, hike, laugh or whatever brings you peace. Some people say they are just too busy to do these things, but taking time for self-renewal shows self-awareness, not selfishness.

• Take a trip somewhere that you’ve never been. It could even be a place you’ve never visited in your home town. How many experiences have you overlooked in your own town, because you just keep going to the same familiar places?

• Do something meaningful for a non-profit organization. Volunteers are the lifeblood of non-profit organizations. If everyone volunteers a few hours a week, think how much non-profits can accomplish.

• Don’t get stuck in the same old routine. Shake it up and do something different. Something as simple as taking a different route to work or going someplace new for lunch makes life a little more interesting.

Thanks Lynn for this great end-of-the-year advice.

EWF International provides professionally facilitated peer advisory groups for women business owners and executives.


Breakout Of Your Compfort Zone

In General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Management on April 20, 2012 at 6:07 pm

Inspirational leadership wisdom came awhile back from Bahram Akradi, the CEO of Life Time Fitness.

From that health club’s monthly fitness magazine, Experience Life, Akradi says:

  • Once we get comfortable in our habitual patterns, we may fail to notice when they have outworn their useful purpose, or when new alternatives might serve us better.
  • Once you’ve encountered a second way of seeing things, you’re more likely to entertain the possibility of a third and fourth way, too.
  • Do something that makes you just a little bit uncomfortable–and that renders you a little more awake.

Thanks Akradi for encouraging us to break out from predictability.

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25 Ways To Be A Better Leader

In Company Culture, Effective Communications, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Listening Skills, Management, Nonprofit Leadership on March 20, 2012 at 5:30 am

If you don’t have time to read a book about how to improve your leadership skills, tackle a handful of these tips, complied from the works of many authors:

  1. Don’t micromanage
  2. Don’t be a bottleneck
  3. Focus on outcomes, not minutiae
  4. Build trust with your colleagues before a crisis comes
  5. Assess your company’s strengths and weaknesses at all times
  6. Conduct annual risk reviews
  7. Talk about values more than rules
  8. Reward how a performance is achieved and not only the performance
  9. Constantly challenge your team to do better
  10. Celebrate your employees’ successes, not your own
  11. Err on the side of taking action
  12. Communicate clearly and often
  13. Be visible
  14. Eliminate the cause of a mistake
  15. View every problem as an opportunity to grow
  16. Summarize group consensus after each decision point during a meeting
  17. Praise when compliments are earned
  18. Be decisive
  19. Say “thank you” and sincerely mean it
  20. Send written thank you notes
  21. Listen carefully and don’t multi-task while listening
  22. Teach something new to your team
  23. Show respect for all team members
  24. Follow through when you promise to do something
  25. Be courageous, quick and fair


Leaders: How Will The Value Of Your Days Be Measured?

In Company Culture, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leading By Example, Management on February 15, 2012 at 9:04 pm

I recommend that all leaders every so often read the What Will Matter poem by Michael Josephson.

It serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of unselfishly serving and leading with character.

I’ve highlighted in bold and in color my favorite parts of the poem:

 

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.

All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.

 

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

 

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.

So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.

 

It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.

Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

 

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success, but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

 

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

 

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.

 

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.


Year-end Advice For Leaders From EWF International

In Effective Communications, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Listening Skills, Management on December 17, 2011 at 10:23 am

Last year, Lynn Flinn of EWF International in Tulsa, OK wrote the following in her business’ newsletter. It’s so powerful I wanted to bring it back again this year as 2011 comes to a close.

So, here goes…Lynn’s year-end advice for leaders:

• Do something that you are afraid to do. Run through the fear rather than running away from it.

• Take a personal risk. Tell someone something you’ve always wished you’d said to them.

• Write a note to someone who inspires you but probably doesn’t know it.

• Pick one characteristic about yourself that you’d like to change and earnestly work on changing it.  It is really hard to change a behavior, but it is possible if you are aware, patient and persistent in making a change.

• Realize when you are not engaged and re-engage. Turn off the television, turn off the cell phone, and pay attention to the people around you.

• Smile and talk to strangers that you meet. It is amazing how much shorter a long line feels when you are talking to someone versus focusing on how long the line is.

• Meditate, pray, relax, exercise, hike, laugh or whatever brings you peace. Some people say they are just too busy to do these things, but taking time for self-renewal shows self-awareness, not selfishness.

• Take a trip somewhere that you’ve never been. It could even be a place you’ve never visited in your home town. How many experiences have you overlooked in your own town, because you just keep going to the same familiar places?

• Do something meaningful for a non-profit organization. Volunteers are the lifeblood of non-profit organizations. If everyone volunteers a few hours a week, think how much non-profits can accomplish.

• Don’t get stuck in the same old routine. Shake it up and do something different. Something as simple as taking a different route to work or going someplace new for lunch makes life a little more interesting.

Thanks Lynn for this great end-of-the-year advice.

EWF International provides professionally facilitated peer advisory groups for women business owners and executives.


Leadership Lessons From Abraham Lincoln

In Company Culture, Effective Communications, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Education, Leadership Quotes, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Listening Skills, Management, Motivating Employees, Soliciting Feedback, Team Building on November 6, 2011 at 8:27 am

Did Abraham Lincoln really say, “Get out of the office and circulate among the troops,” back in 1861?

He did.  But, not in those exact words.  What he said, according to author Donald T. Phillips, is this:

  • “His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows nobody to see him; and by which he does not know what is going on in the very matter he is dealing with.”

Lincoln made this statement when describing his reason for relieving Gen. John C. Fremont from his command in Missouri (September 9, 1861).

Phillips writes that for Lincoln, casual contact with his subordinates was as important as formal gatherings, if not more so.

Phillips, includes many more leadership lessons from Lincoln in his fascinating book, Lincoln on Leadership, where Phillips presents 15 of Lincoln’s leadership statements in today’s vernacular.

Another leadership lesson from Lincoln is to:

  • Influence people through conversation and storytelling

Phillips explains that Lincoln had a strategy that emphasized the role of stories as powerful motivational tools that spread loyalty, commitment, and enthusiasm.  Stories are important because they are memorable.  They teach.  Employees learn largely by stories and not mounds of data.

Other lessons from the book include:

  • Wage only one war at a time
  • Encourage risk-taking while providing job security
  • Avoid issuing orders–instead request, imply, or make suggestions


How To Lead By Setting A Good Example

In Leadership Books, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Management on October 29, 2011 at 8:00 am

There is nothing more powerful for a leader to do than to lead by setting a good example.

So, here are 15 things you can do to be an effective and successful leader:

1. Praise when compliments are earned.

2. Be decisive.

3. Say “Thank You” and sincerely mean it.

4. Communicate clearly.

5. Listen carefully.

6. Teach something new to your team members.

7. Word hard and lend a hand when deadlines are tight.

8. Show respect for everyone on your team.

9. Follow through when you promise to do something.

10. Allow learning to happen when mistakes are made.

11. Allow prudent autonomy.

12. Respond to questions quickly and fully.

13. Return e-mail and phone calls promptly.

14. Take an interest in your employees and their important personal milestone events.

15. Give credit where credit is due.

And, last but not least, be humble!


Steve Jobs: Simplifying, Perfecting, Timing

In Company Culture, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Management on October 26, 2011 at 6:08 am

Interesting observation about Steve Jobs from Bloomberg’s Business Week magazine:

  • “People credit him as an inventor akin to Edison, but his real genius was seizing upon existing concepts, simplifying and perfecting them, and then putting them forward at exactly at the right moment.”


Break Out Of Predictability

In General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training on September 30, 2011 at 8:05 am

Inspirational leadership wisdom today came from Bahram Akradi, the CEO of Life Time Fitness.

From that health club’s monthly fitness magazine, Experience Life, Akradi says:

  • Once we get comfortable in our habitual patterns, we may fail to notice when they have outworn their useful purpose, or when new alternatives might serve us better.
  • Once you’ve encountered a second way of seeing things, you’re more likely to entertain the possibility of a third and fourth way, too.
  • Do something that makes you just a little bit uncomfortable–and that renders you a little more awake.

Thanks Akradi for encouraging us to break out from predictability.

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