Positive Leadership: Building Trust as a New Leader

Too many new leaders believe they’re expected to know answers without input or guidance, but many of the best insights on how to fix a company lie with employees further down the org chart. 

Creating a trusting, honest dialogue with these key personnel should be every new leader’s top priority. Meet with as many individual contributors as you can, as soon as you can. Ask simple but effective open-ended questions: “If you were put into my role tomorrow, what are the first three things you’d do and why?” “What are the three biggest barriers to our success, and what are our three biggest opportunities?” Listen intently and take notes. 

Really great ideas can emerge from these meetings — along with some really mediocre ones — and your intent listening will show your employees that you respect their expertise.

For more, see: http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/12/the-best-way-for-new-leaders-to-build-trust/

Positive Leadership: Building Trust as a New Leader

Positive Leadership: Staying in Love

"When anyone asks me what I would recommend to anyone to whom they were writing to or speaking with on how to develop themselves as better leaders for the future question, I tell them I have the secret to success in life. 

The secret to success is to stay in love. 

Staying in love gives you the fire to really ignite other people, to see inside other people, to have a greater desire to get things done in other people. A person who is not in love doesn't really feel the kind of excitement that helps them to get ahead and to lead others and to achieve. I don't know any other fire, and other thing in life that is more exhilarating and is more positive a feeling than love is." 

- Major General John Stanford

Positive Leadership: Staying in Love

Positive Leadership: The Importance of Rest and Recovery

World-class competitors, from athletes to pianists, limit the arduous part of their practice routine to a maximum of about four hours each day. 

Rest is an equally important part of their training regimen, to restore their physical and mental energy. 

Without rest, our brains grow more depleted, often signified by distractedness, irritability, and fatigue. At work, all too often we try to “push through it,” even though there is no magical energy reserve waiting for us. 

To recharge, take a break; a short rest at midday reboots the brain for the rest of the day. If you can’t take a nap, try mindfulness meditation, which can serve as the mental equivalent of a weightlifting rep. 

Attention is a mental muscle—strengthen it with the right practice. 

For more, see: http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/11/to-strengthen-your-attention-span-stop-overtaxing-it/

Positive Leadership: The Importance of Rest and Recovery

Positive Leadership: Leading Through The Generations

Regardless of the hashtag used to mark our generation, most of us need:

• Focus and direction
• Meaningful work, and the freedom to pursue it
• Clear, helpful feedback
• Appreciation
• A leader who cares about us and has our best interest at heart.

Positive Leadership: Leading Through The Generations

Positive Leadership: Scaling Up Excellence

In Scaling Up Excellence, Stanford faculty Robert Sutton and Hayagreeva "Huggy" Rao tackle a challenge that determines every organisation's success: scaling up farther, faster, and more effectively as a programme or an organisation creates a larger footprint. 

Sutton and Rao have devoted much of the last decade to uncovering what it takes to build and uncover pockets of exemplary performance, to help spread them, and to keep recharging organisations with ever better work practices. 

Drawing on inside accounts and case studies and academic research from a wealth of industries -- including start-ups, pharmaceuticals, airlines, retail, financial services, high-tech, education, non-profits, government, and healthcare -- Sutton and Rao identify the key scaling challenges that confront every organisation.

They reveal how the best leaders and teams develop, spread, and instil the right mindsets in their people -- rather than ruining or watering down the very things that have fuelled successful growth in the past. They unpack the principles that help to cascade excellence throughout an organisation, as well as show how to eliminate destructive beliefs and behaviours that will hold them back.

Robert Sutton is professor of management science and engineering in the Stanford Engineering School. His previous books include Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to be the Best...and Learn from the Worst, and The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilised Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't. Huggy Rao is professor of organisational behaviour at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the author of Market Rebels: How Activists Make or Break Radical Innovations.

Positive Leadership: Scaling Up Excellence

Positive Leadership: No Regrets!

Positive Leadership: No Regrets!

Positive Leadership: Making Mistakes

"Next time someone complains that you have made a mistake, tell him that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist." - Stephen Hawking

Positive Leadership: Making Mistakes

Positive Leadership: Luck

Positive Leadership: Luck

Happy New Year from Positive Leadership!

Happy New Year from Positive Leadership!

Merry Christmas from Positive Leadership!

Merry Christmas from Positive Leadership!

Positive Leadership: Congratulations @sallywatsongolf

Apologies for the absence of posts recently but the Positive Leadership team has been on location in Turkey and Morocco helping Sally Watson gain her Ladies European Tour card for 2014 at the LET Tour School.

Congratulations Sally on putting the Values of Positive Leadership to the test so successfully!

Positive Leadership: Congratulations @sallywatsongolf

Positive Leadership: Never Give Up On A Dream

Positive Leadership: Never Give Up On A Dream

Positive Leadership: Reaching for the Top

Positive Leadership: Reaching for the Top

Positive Leadership: What is Talent?

Talent is a set of personal characteristics that enhance one’s ability to achieve expertise in an accelerated manner.  

These traits allow one to improve at quicker rates than others in their field that are at the same level of expertise/fitness/skill, etc.  This is because talent is one’s ability to adapt to training and develop skills in their specialized field.  

Talent exists when strong genetics and a desire to practice come together to create superior ability for a specific activity.  It can only exist along with a deliberate interest.  Because of this, talent will often only become apparent after a moderate amount of practice as this is when one’s ability to adapt and improve is more clearly visible.  

Positive Leadership: What is Talent?

Positive Leadership: Staying in the Present

Not many people can say their office is a mountain. Then again, not many people can say they're a two-time Olympian alpine skier, either.

Kaylin Richardson can say both of those things, and attributes her success to a simple principle: staying present. "If you're not present people can tell," she says. "You might not realise it but if your mind is somewhere else when you're talking with someone they'll know--you're not connecting with them." 

Of course, living in the moment doesn't just apply to racing down a mountain face at blistering speeds: taking a zen-like approach in business can pay dividends. "In this day and age we're bombarded with stimulus all the time--being present is something that resonates and people respond to that."

 

Positive Leadership: Staying in the Present

Positive Leadership: Motivate Yourself By Visualising Your Goals

Motivation expert Jon Gordon visits TODAY to offer some tips on motivating yourself to organize yourself, stay connected to friends and family, and achieve a healthier life.




 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Positive Leadership: Motivate Yourself By Visualising Your Goals

Positive Leadership: Excellence

"If you want to achieve Excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less than Excellent work. The first 99.9% of getting from here to there is the determination to do it and not to compromise, no matter what set of road blocks those around you erect.” 

Tom Peters

Positive Leadership: Excellence

Positive Leadership: Teaching Young People to be Entrepreneurs

An entrepreneur since childhood, Cameron Herold wants parents and teachers to recognise -- and foster -- entrepreneurial talent in kids.

For 20 years, Cameron Herold has been coaching entrepreneurs on five continents, helping them build their companies. He started BackPocket COO to coach and mentor young, fun companies -- and help them make their dreams happen. Herold was a leading force behind one of the most successful new business ventures of the last decade, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?. He was Chief Operating Officer for nearly seven years. Prior to that, he was VP of Corporate Development at Ubarter.com.

Positive Leadership: Teaching Young People to be Entrepreneurs

Positive Leadership: Let Ideas Flow

Business innovator Nilofer Merchant (Twitter @nilofer) thinks deeply about the frameworks, strategies and cultural values of companies. She has been helping to grow businesses -- from Fortune 500s to web startups -- for 20 years. Today she serves on boards for both public and private companies, and writes books about collaboration. 

In this TED talk, she suggests a small idea that just might have a big impact on your life and health: next time you have a one-on-one meeting, make it into a "walking meeting" -- and let ideas flow while you walk and talk.  

For more, see: http://nilofermerchant.com/

And here is an interesting and challenging (for many reasons) comment on the above talk from Korea!

'Enjoyed the video. Great idea! I am a high school student in Korea, and we have to stay more than 11 hours a day sitting. Much exceeding the sleeping hours, 6 hours maximum. I really do want to adopt your idea to my usual life, because girls here are experiencing the serious effects of sitting all day; we are getting rounder and rounder every day. However, I cannot really think of a way. Any good advise?? :('

Positive Leadership: Let Ideas Flow

Positive Leadership: Dedication

Positive Leadership: Dedication

Positive Leadership: Service

Positive Leadership: Service

Positive Leadership: 10 Questions for Condoleezza Rice

 Professor Condoleezza Rice was the 66th US Secretary of State.

Positive Leadership: 10 Questions for Condoleezza Rice

Positive Leadership: Mentors

Mentors: 

Elevate your game.

Believe in your potential and talent.

Challenge limitations.

Protect from danger.

Build character.

Enhance opportunities.

Share their life with candour and transparency.

Solve “with” not “for.”

Exemplify qualities you want to develop.

Connect you with others.

Positive Leadership: Mentors

Positive Leadership: Entrepreneurial Advice

Business advice from Sheldon Adelson, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Charlie Munger, Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, Jim Pattison, Charles Koch and Sunil Mittal

Positive Leadership: Entrepreneurial Advice