Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Monday, March 24, 2014
Friday, March 21, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Friday, March 14, 2014
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Monday, March 10, 2014
Thursday, March 06, 2014
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
Positive Leadership: Thanks!
Monday, March 03, 2014
Positive Leadership: Preparing for Big Moments
1. Practice under pressure. Practice makes
perfect, but not if you're practicing under circumstances that differ from the
ones you'll experience when it matters.
2. Promote self-worth. You don't have to
use positive affirmations to reaffirm and promote self-worth. Calling to mind
your many interests and experiences can boost your level of confidence and, as
a result, your performance when the going gets tough.
3. Change your perception. What can feel
like the most important moment of your life, the center of the universe, and
focal point of everyone in attendance, is merely a blip in the grand scheme of
life. Pressures are perceived; reframing the situation provides context that
can greatly improve performance.
4. Divert stress. Fixating on an upcoming
performance can invite stress and worry which ultimately distracts you from the
task at hand. Combat it by employing a few easy exercises beforehand. Counting
backward or singing a song will prevent you from succumbing to stress, freeing
up the brainpower needed to nail it.
5. Take a breath. Taking a deep breath and
clearing your mind is a productive alternative to stumbling through a
presentation or problem you're working on. Pausing not only allows you to
absorb the information needed to succeed, it also replenishes your brain's
supply of glucose, which aids in performance.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Positive Leadership: Essential Aspects of Leadership
"Talent alone doesn't make a great team. You need faith in your colleagues and alignment behind a common goal," shared McChrystal.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Positive Leadership: Managing Change
Most
companies wait until a crisis point to launch a transformational initiative.
However, in today’s environment, companies need to embrace pre-emptive
transformation.
Four types of companies succeed at pre-emptive transformation:
Continuous
adapters
These
companies continuously evolve their business models by making small changes.
McDonald’s, which rode the 1960s baby boom by drawing teenagers into the
workforce and harnessed globalisation in the 1970s and 1980s to expand
globally, is an example.
Ambidextrous
players
A company of
this type maintains a balance between exploitation of existing strengths and
exploration, even after finding a successful model. For example,
digital-technology and chip company Qualcomm uses returns from past successes
(e.g. WCDMA) to fuel future ones (e.g. LTE).
Industry
shakers
These
companies seek to drive industry-level change rather than become victims of it.
Amazon, for example, generates razor-thin profits because it continually
reinvests in its future, and even in self-disruption (as with the Kindle in
2007).
Portfolio
shifters
These
companies run a portfolio of businesses and actively adjust their emphasis over
time. 3M, for example, has more than 35 business units divided among 6
reporting segments, and its strategic acquisitions and divestments reflect the
evolving demand landscape.
Successful
pre-emptive transformers share several key traits:
External
orientation
Long-term
perspective
Ambidexterity
Adaptiveness
A
disruptive mentality
Healthy
paranoia
Resource
fluidity
Constant
focus on simplicity
Leaders
today need to engage in continuous pre-emptive renewal. They need to look
beyond short-term financial performance, watch for potential disruptions and
shifts and then pre-emptively address them.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Positive Leadership: Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Moving beyond our comfort zone is how we can best learn and
grow.
To develop the courage to take a leap, and the skill and ability
to actually pull it off:
Understand what’s in it for you to motivate yourself. Brainstorm how working on this tough behaviour — networking,
perhaps, or public speaking — can advance your career or help you reach other
goals.
Then, customise a plan to take control of a situation instead of
being overwhelmed by it. If, for example, you’re an introvert who
dreads networking events, instead of feeling pressured to meet everyone, focus
on a few people and actually try to get to know them, or aim to make initial
contacts with the goal of following up in a more comfortable setting.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Positive Leadership: Wholeheartedness
Brené Brown is a research professor at the
University of Houston Graduate
College of Social Work. She has spent the past ten years studying
vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame. She spent the first five years
of her decade-long study focusing on shame and empathy, and is now using that
work to explore a concept that she calls Wholeheartedness. She poses the
questions:
How do we learn to embrace our
vulnerabilities and imperfections so that we can engage in our lives from a
place of authenticity and worthiness? How do we cultivate the courage,
compassion, and connection that we need to recognise that we are enough – that
we are worthy of love, belonging, and joy?
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