Are you familiar with this quote: “Attitude reflects leadership?”
I saw it written on someone’s whiteboard yesterday. I knew I had heard it before, and assumed it was a timeless quote uttered by a leadership guru of decades ago, or maybe a coach like Lombardi or Landry. Regardless, I couldn’t shake it all day, so I looked it up last night. Best I can tell, it came from this scene from the movie Remember the Titans in 2000:
I’ve spent the last two days meeting with the global marketing partners for my company. We operate in 17 countries, so this annual meeting is always a jam-packed but productive time where we can share ideas, frustrations and collaborate.
And as you can probably imagine, it’s also filled with plenty of presentations given with sub-par English.
One country’s group included their general manager and two managers from its marketing department. The general manager speaks excellent English, while the other two speak very broken English. I probably speak for the rest of the room when I say we all assumed the GM would be giving the presentation.
But he didn’t.
He let one of his managers do the job. And let me tell you: it was rough. Yeah, we all made it through it, but it was an effort to really understand what the guy was saying, unfortunately.
I found myself frustratingly wondering, “Why doesn’t the GM hop up and take over this presentation?!?” I mean, their presentation was essentially being hijacked by a communication breakdown of epic proportions. I stared at him as he just sat and smiled, trying my best to use the Force to get him to stand up and step in.
But he didn’t. He just kept smiling.
Admit that you’re wrong. Even if you’re not.
If resolving the conflict truly is priority number one, then admit to screwing up, say you’re sorry and move on. This is what everyone else is waiting for someone to do, and yet no one has the balls to actually do it.
Sure, there are times you need to stick to your guns. But probably not as often as you think. Most of the time, just resolving the conflict would make everything better.
You big enough to do it?
It’s that time of year again.
I was walking around a park near my house just the other day. I noticed a couple, probably in their 40s, or 50s, walking briskly behind me as I began. They were focused, and clearly getting a head start on their New Year’s Resolutions.
I then heard their footsteps quicken behind me. The husband passed me, then looked back and saying “C’mon, baby.” The wife quickly snipped back with “I can’t.” The husband then doubled back to encourage her, and she managed to run a few more steps, only to further confirm her sentiment with a strong “I can’t do anymore!” The husband backed off.
I know exactly what the husband was thinking at this point. He was thinking, “Oh, you don’t even know how to push yourself.” I could see it in his eyes, his posture, everything. He was a relatively fit guy, and I’d be willing to bet he’s spent plenty of his youth on sports teams, at two-a-day football practices or the like, pushing himself with 50 other guys that we men eventually, somehow, consider the greatest days of our lives.
What I’m saying is he recognized that the whole point of this running thing was to push yourself into p
Something pretty cool happened this past Tuesday night. Steve Woodruff and Lisa Petrilli launched #LeadershipChat on Twitter. I must admit, between putting a little boy to bed and watching the Rangers win their first-ever playoff series, I was only able to get in on about the last 10 minutes. But it was quite an impressionable period of time.
As you glance through the transcript and read some of the recaps (this one at Wright Creativity is excellent), you may have a similar reaction as I did: how many stinkin’ definitions and/or traits of leadership can we come up with? Those offered included …
“Smoking killed far more people than terrorists ever did. It’s just not as dramatic.”
You can thank Seth Godin for that loaded byte. His post on the power of slow change makes a great point: single events don’t crush anything; series of events over time do.
On the one hand, you’ve got something to be happy about: no individual act is make or break for you. So stop treating it that way.
… is to make consensus your goal. An individual person has amazing ideas. But people only know how to dilute ideas. A person is bold and adventurous. People are just scared and boring. A person can easily follow his gut. People depend on a vote. A person can get something done by tomorrow. People can’t [...]
This leadership lesson from a dancing guy and Derek Sivers captures so many principles it’s ridiculous.
Need some perspective? Let Jeff Healey give you some perspective.
Looking for a New Years’ Prediction List? Too bad – they are a waste of time. Stop predicting and starting preparing for the unpredictable.
