Leadership Archives - Page 56 of 56

My next leadership seminar: June 4 and 5 at the New School (jointly with Columbia Business School)

(Some details TBD, but mark your calendars. The room is beautiful and centrally located. Please contact me with any questions. I'll update details as they are determined.) LEADERSHIP THROUGH SELF-AWARENESS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE At a time when businesses and business schools seek to learn from designers and design schools seek to prepare "students to be leaders in their professions and society", cross-pollination between communities over common interests is as valuable as ever. Personal leadership skills, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence have emerged as common and fundamental to both communities. In a weekend, learn how to develop these skills using recent advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology in group including the communities of the world's premier business and design schools. Schedule: Day…

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May 10, 2011

Awareness / Freedom / Leadership / Nonjudgment

On vengeance

A few thoughts from when I heard last night that U.S. soldiers killed Osama bin Laden. This passage of the Tao Te Ching resonated most with me: Weapons are the tools of violence; all decent men detest them. Weapons are the tools of fear; a decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity and, if compelled, will use them only with the utmost restraint. Peace is his highest value. If the peace has been shattered, how can he be content? His enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself. He doesn't wish them personal harm. Nor does he rejoice in victory. How could he rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men? He enters a battle gravely, with sorrow and…

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May 2, 2011

Awareness / Blog / Leadership / Tips

When you want to feel fake

Why would anyone want to feel fake? When do you want to feel fake? Developing leadership skills or other types of personal development aren't like learning typical how-to skills. When you develop leadership skills or develop personally, you change how everyone sees you and how you see everyone. You change as a person, in other words. You used to be person A and expect to become person B. As person A you knew what environments, beliefs, and behaviors brought you reward. You knew how to enjoy life. As the person B you will become you expect to know what environments, beliefs, and behaviors will bring you reward so you expect to know how to enjoy life. In between, you don't know how much of A…

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April 18, 2011

Awareness / Blog / Leadership / Tips

How to find strengths in your weaknesses

Do you have weaknesses you just can't seem to lose? Maybe you interrupt too much? Or solve problems when you should be building relationships? This perspective may help. When clients tell me about their weaknesses, I generally ask them for examples of how the skills in question worked or didn't work. A common pattern emerges, though it's not universal. One example is my student/client with great listening skills who interrupted a lot. Anyone conversing with him could tell his comprehension and recall were excellent, so he wasn't weak in that area. Yet he got poor reviews. Why? Because he interrupted. But he didn't interrupt to annoy, though he achieved that outcome. He interrupted to be efficient and save time. Efficiency and saving time are hardly…

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April 17, 2011

Blog / Creativity / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Perfection in leadership and how to improve

Leadership does not require perfection -- far from it. Effective leaders don't have to be strong in many leadership skills at all. Effective leadership emerges more from knowing your strengths and weaknesses than on having many strengths. Speed and strength are valuable to any position in football, but a quarterback doesn't need strength like a lineman. And a lineman doesn't need to be as fast as a running back. A quarterback trying to be as strong as a lineman is wasting his time and hurting his team. Using Columbia Business School's breakdown of leadership skills into the six categories, for example, Decision making Negotiation and conflict resolution Perceiving others Influence and persuasion Motivation Groups and teams Most people will be stronger in some and weaker…

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April 16, 2011

Awareness / Blog / Leadership

Why learn leadership (even if you don’t want to be a leader)

"What's so important about leadership? Why learn to be a leader? What if I don't want to be one?" I get these questions a lot in my seminars and in conversation, often preceded by "What is it with you Americans?" I often let others in the audience answer the question. Developing leadership skills reveals their value, whether you use them to lead people or not, so a few people answering usually effectively addresses the questions. I answer with a few perspectives. First, people like to interact with people with solid leadership skills -- that is, they are attractive -- and life tends to be better when you are attractive, whether socially, in business, or in any other situation involving others. Mastery makes you all the…

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April 14, 2011