Eric Jacobson

Posts Tagged ‘Leadership’


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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How To Have Your Customers Help You Write Your Strategic Plan

In General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Management, Strategic Planning on September 29, 2011 at 8:23 pm

Mike Brown, the founder of the Kansas City, MO company called, The Brainzooming Group, encourages business leaders to solicit feedback from their customers when creating a strategic plan.

Brown once wrote in Smart Companies Thinking Bigger magazine, that you should “ask a group of current, former and potential customers the following questions:”

  • If you’re a current or former customer, why did you start using us?
  • What have we done in the past to make your biggest challenges more difficult?
  • If you still use us, why do you continue to do so?
  • If you don’t use us currently, what are some of the reasons why you don’t?

“These questions are designed to allow your customers to share their perspectives and opinions openly, not rate performance on a numerical scale,” explained Brown.

He explained that the answers to the questions will provide you valuable insight into:

  • Your current strengths and weaknesses
  • Opportunities to more successfully help your customers
  • Potential challenges from not fully meeting customer expectations

Mike Brown is the author of the ebook, Taking the NO Out of InNOvation, a guide to breaking through personal challenges to living a more creative and innovation-oriented life.


Are You A Leader Who Can Say You’re Sorry?

In Effective Communications, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Management on August 13, 2011 at 8:44 am

One of the most difficult words for anyone, leaders included, to say is, “sorry.”

Yet, the time will likely come when that’s the word you need to say.  Research shows that apologizing in a heartfelt way can help you reduce stress and alleviate guilt.

In the position of needing to apologize?  Do this:

  • Apologize immediately.  Say you are sorry.
  • Take responsibility for the situation.
  • Acknowledge the offense.
  • Ask forgiveness with a promise that it won’t happen again.
  • Offer restitution whenever possible.

And, should your apology go unaccepted, most experts say forgive yourself and move on.

Note:  Thanks to St. Joseph Medical Center in Kansas City, MO for this sound advice.


What Employees Say Managers Don’t Do

In Effective Communications, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Listening Skills, Management on June 30, 2011 at 7:51 pm

According to David Grossman, author of the new book, You Can’t Not Communicate -2, here are eight things employees say managers don’t do:

  1. Don’t keep employees informed.
  2. Don’t explain the “why” behind decisions.
  3. Don’t communicate frequently enough and in a timely way.
  4. Don’t update employees on changes happening in the business.
  5. Don’t share regular business updates and how the team is performing.
  6. Don’t ask for feedback.
  7. Don’t ask for or listen to concerns.
  8. Don’t act on feedback (or at least close the loop as to why feedback wasn’t incorporated into a decision)

This is a great reminder for leaders of what not to do.

And, perhaps number 8 on the list is the one where most managers fall short — not explaining why they didn’t incorporate feedback into their final decision.


Be A Conductor

In Leadership, Leadership Skills, Management on June 10, 2011 at 7:59 am

Today, just a short, but powerful quote and advice for leaders:

“The great leaders are like the best conductors. They reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players.” — Blaine Lee

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