5 Ways to get Information Power Working for You
In one of the Austin Powers movies, Dr. Evil devises one nefarious plot after another, only to have his side-kick tell him that his plans won’t work because he lacked some critical piece of information. In frustration, he laments, “OK, people, you have to tell me these things, all right? …Throw me a bone here. […]
Expert Power and What to do if you Don’t Have it
As a leader, chances are that there are people on your team who know a lot more than you about what your group does. They have Expert power, yet you are supposed to be in charge. Want to know how to work with these people? Here are five things you need to know about expert […]
Legitimate Power: 6 Things You Need to Know
Legitimate Power is the first and most commonly recognized source of power that people think of when they think about where a leader’s power comes from. But if your leadership is based solely on the fact that you wear a special patch or there’s a certain job title on your office door, you will quickly […]
Six Power Sources for Leaders: Which ones do You Have?
One of the keys to effective leadership is understanding where your power to lead comes from. Merely occupying a position with “leader” in the title doesn’t make people want to follow you. But if you know what does get people’s attention, you will have a much better chance of leading your team to success. By […]
Book Notes: Turn the Ship Around!
Recently while researching leadership topics, I came upon an interesting video on YouTube. In it, author L. David Marquet, a retired U.S. Navy Captain, relates how he turned the Navy’s conventional leadership paradigm on its head, and in doing so ended up not only becoming a better leader himself, but leaving a powerful legacy of better leaders […]
Eight Ways to use Reward Power that Don’t Require Cash
Reward Power is one of the best ways for leaders to influence people to move in the direction they want. Most people tend to think of this power of reward in terms of money, and money can be a good tool. But often there isn’t much to give, and surprisingly, it is often not the […]
Leadership Movie Recommendations
Movies are a great way to see leadership in action. Whether they are depicting real events or following an original story line, watching how leaders form teams, overcome obstacles, and ultimately forge groups of people who are able to work together to accomplish great things can be both entertaining and inspiring for any leader. [In the […]
How to Make Big Gains with Small Efforts
Short on time, money, resources? Here’s a way to tackle this perpetual problem. Something leaders have to deal with all the time is limited resources – there’s never enough people, time, money, or other things you need to get done everything you want to do. The best leaders are the ones that can figure out […]
SMART Goals: How to be SMART about Goal-Setting
“What’s so smart about SMART Goals?” Would you play a football game without any end zones? I’m not even sure what the field would look like…round? Where would you line up? Where would you try to go? Like the endzones in a game of football, good goals give structure to what you are doing […]
Agendas: Why Should I Care?
Agendas are an important leadership tool you can use to help your team prepare for a meeting, keep everybody on track, and prevent you from forgetting anything important. Watch this video for more tips about how to use an agenda effectively.
Positive Feedback – Catch them Doing Something Right
Giving feedback to your people is critical to getting the job done, but a typical mistake many new (and not so new) leaders make is to focus on the negative, to catch people doing something wrong, and then correcting them. In this post, we’ll take a look at the power of giving frequent, positive feedback and […]
Problem Solving 5: That’s Not What I Was Expecting…
You’ve implemented your solution. Are you done? Not yet. This video takes a look at step 5 of the Problem Solving process: Evaluate and Assess. When a group of friends discover they have to clear the driveway from several feet of snow, their unusual solution seems to solve the problem, but they learn a thing […]
