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Don’t get treed by a Chihuahua: How to Separate Urgent Tasks from Important Ones

Leaders are often bogged down by an overwhelming “In-Box” because they focus on urgent tasks, rather than what they should be concentrating on: important tasks. This article explains the difference and helps leaders recognize and focus on what is truly important.

Effective leaders can separate the urgent from the important. I have not always been successful at doing that. About 25 years ago, I was working in the hardest job I had ever had (at least up to that point). I was burning both ends of the candle and never seemed to be able to get everything done…

Time management, Prioritization, Leadership practices, Task management, Urgent vs. important tasks, Eisenhower matrix, Personal development, Work-life balance, Self-care, Professional development

Go to Puerto Rico and Fix It: The importance of Framing the Problem Before You Try to Solve it

When most leaders get a new mission, especially in a crisis, they tend to attack what they see as the core problem and try to solve it. They then frequently stumble because they don’t understand the actual problem they are trying to solve. Take the time to frame and understand the problem first and you will excel.

Have you ever received (or issued) an order too late? Have you ever been stuck having to make a real-time decision—maybe even one that could affect the lives of your team or the life of your company…

Define the Problem Before You Try to Solve It: Crisis Leadership, Problem Framing, Decision Making, Military Decision Making Process, Feedback, Leadership, Management, Personnel Development, Active Listening, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Training, Ethical Leadership, Leadership Challenges, Leadership Styles, Leadership Art and Science.

Feedback is a Gift: Easy steps to Master the Art of Giving and Receiving Meaningful Feedback

Many leaders are uncomfortable giving quality feedback to others, and as a result, employees don’t reach their potential and organizational performance suffers. Learn how to give and receive meaningful feedback and help your team thrive.

Far too many leaders waste the opportunity to help others by offering meaningful feed- back. Instead they say things meant to offer encouragement or express disappoint- ment, but steer away from concrete examples that one can use to actually change things.…

Feedback, Leadership, Management, Personnel Development, Active Listening, Employee Engagement, Decision Making, Employee Retention, Training, Ethical Leadership, Leadership Challenges, Leadership Styles, Leadership Art and Science.

The Criticality of Character in Talent Management

Most leaders do a fine job of assessing skills when evaluating a potential new hire or making a decision between two candidates for a promotion. They typically pay scant attention to an assessment of character, and the results are sometimes catastrophic.

As leaders, we are constantly making decisions about people: who to recruit and hire, who to send for extra education, who do we promote, and who to let go are just some examples. There’s a tendency to focus on skills rather than character and that leads to problems…

Recruitment decisions, Hiring practices, Character vs. skills, Personnel assessment, Personality tests in recruitment, Predicting job performance, Importance of character, Leadership in recruitment, Employee development, Firing decisions, Promotions based on character, Training for character, Employee retention, Personnel selection, Personality assessment in hiring, Ethical considerations in recruitment.

The Key Difference Between Leadership and Management

In its simplest terms, management is about making things happen. Leadership, in contrast, is influencing people to make things happen. People are the key component of any leadership equation. Effective leaders understand the importance of people and relationships and leverage both to enhance influence.

I ask this question as an “ice-breaker” whenever I am teaching a class on leadership to grad school students. I use the question to get the students engaged and (hopefully) get their creative juices flowing. My question is not anecdotal—I call on at least five students every class…

Leadership, Management, Personnel Development, Character vs. Skills, Team Building, Communication, Influence, Decision Making, Employee Engagement, Recruitment, Hiring Practices, Employee Retention, Firing Decisions, Promotions, Training, Ethical Leadership, Leadership Challenges, Leadership Styles, Leadership Art and Science.

Growth Through Crisis: How to Build a Resilient Workforce

Given time, every organization will experience a crisis. If you train your workforce to handle such an eventuality and build a culture strong enough to withstand the shock, your entire team can grow through adversity rather than be crushed by it.

“We have an active shooter!” Do you expect to hear that at your place of work? Maybe
not, but it certainly could happen. How about this one: “I just heard that our warehouse
is on fire!” Or “It looks like a cat 5 hurricane is headed our way…

Crisis Leadership, Resilience, Adversity, Human Development, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Management, Personnel Development, Active Listening, Decision Making, Employee Retention, Training, Ethical Leadership, Leadership Challenges, Leadership Styles, Leadership Art and Science.