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Category Archives: Leadership
Minimize Negativity
Negativity has been with mankind forever. From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, we are all descendants of humans who scanned the horizon for negative (and dangerous) factors, acted to avoid these negative factors, survived, and reproduced. In today’s world, we … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Happiness, Negativity, Positivity, Winning Teamwork
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Keep Eyes on the Business
100 years ago, Henry Ford said: “The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all but goes on making his own business better all the time.” To be successful leaders, we need to be that … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Leadership, Perform / Execution
Tagged Do the Right Thing, Focus
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6 Simple Expressions of a Good Leader
To be a good leader, we need to master and put into practice the basics. The basics of good leadership start and end with how we communicate and interact with our teams and our customers. I offer my list of … Continue reading
Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
In his book, Hidden Potential, Adam Grant offers insight into how we can realize our hidden potential and achieve greater things. This advice is relevant to us, as individuals, and as leaders of teams and companies. To give a flavor … Continue reading
Complexity and Problem Solving
I recently listened to a course titled Understanding Complexity. A key takeaway from the course is that the tools we use for regular problem solving do not fully work with complex problems. In regular problem solving, we determine the root … Continue reading
Build a Great (and Good) Company
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Lord Acton This well-known quote from the 1800’s rings true. As countless observers continue to remark, great historical leaders (in business, politics, and the … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Team / People
Tagged Business Leadership, Ethical Leadership, Good to Great
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Reject Equality… Embrace Fairness
In a previous blog, I wrote about Ideological Necrophilia, the continued love of ideas that have been tried repeatedly and proved (again and again) not to work. One failed idea that I wrote about is that we need to treat … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Equality, Ethical Leadership, Fairness
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Team Building
Winning teamwork is fundamental to the success of any organization. Winning teamwork requires trust, openness, communication, and respect among the members of the team. The purpose of a team building event is to deepen the bonds within the team and … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Team Building, Teamwork, Winning Teamwork
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The Team is More Important than the Individual
At the height of the Great Recession, the CEO was focusing the company on production efficiencies to reduce costs. One regional president, by contrast, was driving forward to grow sales. This president’s region outperformed all the other regions. But the … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Leadership, Teamwork, Winning Teamwork
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Be Kind
One of our team asked their supervisor (a valued senior manager in our company) whether the supervisor had read an E-Mail that was sent. In front of a group of ten people, the supervisor responded: “I have seen that you … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Courtesy, Kindness, Leadership
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Skin in the Game
In a previous job, I had around 100 salespeople who reported either directly or indirectly to me. As a group, they were strong in sales. But they lagged in paperwork, especially sales reporting and expense reports, and in doing any … Continue reading
6 Simple Expressions of a Good Leader
To be a good leader, we need to master and put into practice the basics. The basics of good leadership start and end with how we communicate and interact with our teams and our customers. I offer my list of … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Leadership Success, Simple Expressions
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The Challenge of Being Ethical
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Groucho Marx “There’s one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him. If he says, ‘Yes’, you know … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Do the Right Thing, Ethical Leadership, Ethics
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14 Basics to Master
Leadership training focuses intently on high level leadership skills – strategic planning, negotiation, managing stakeholders, projecting charisma, developing and communicating a vision. These are certainly vital skills. But, to be an effective leader first requires that we master basic productivity … Continue reading
Field Centric
As leaders, we can get wrapped up in so many different activities and meetings – meeting with the finance, human resources or marketing department; talking to investors, banks and insurance companies; strategic planning; looking at acquisition candidates or joint venture … Continue reading
Make Molehills
“Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.” Unfortunately, too many leaders ignore this wise advice. Instead, every minor issue becomes a major problem that needs to be addressed and resolved now. Why? Leaders make mountains out of molehills for … Continue reading
The Four Stupidities of the Smart Leader
To be a good leader, we have to be intelligent: intellectually, socially and emotionally intelligent. In a previous blog post, I even gave some advice on 8 Ways to Be As Smart As We Can Be. Being smart, however, does … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Personal Success
Tagged Business Leadership, Communication
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Patience
The regular readers of my blog are aware of my focus on Decisiveness and Getting Things Done. But, as in all things in leadership, balance is required. Good leaders balance this decisiveness with a healthy dose of patience. There are … Continue reading
Don’t Get Angry
The Ancients knew a thing or two about anger: “Whom the Gods want to destroy, they first make angry.” Ancient Greek Proverb “Great anger is more destructive than the sword.” Indian Proverb “The angry man will defeat himself in battle … Continue reading
A Good Leader is a Good Storyteller
If only I could never open my mouth…until the abstract idea had reached its highest point – and had become a story! Zorba the Greek Since joining my current company, I have been emphasizing several concepts, such as “trust but … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Leadership, Sales and Marketing
Tagged Communication, Leadership, Storytelling
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David M. Shedd - Move Your Company Forward 