Thoughts on leadership (audio)

From the collection of thoughts around the Ides of March, to St Patrick's Day, to March Madness, a summary of some thoughts on leadership...




The coaching article can be found here
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fancy-stats/wp/2016/03/16/ncaa-2016-tournament-coaches-you-can-and-cant-count-on-in-march/

daffodils starting to blossom

Simon Sinek - good video and audio links

Simon Sinek made it to the full TED conference this year. You may be familiar with his TedX video. He has continued to explore and learn and share.

Spend 12 minutes with this video of his talk.





For more Simon, you can also listen to his interview with John Wall on the Marketing Over Coffee podcast.
http://www.marketingovercoffee.com/2014/04/08/sinek-leadership/

Stanley McChrystal: Listen, learn ... then lead

Stanley McChrystal's TED Talk is insightful and memorable.



What would you take away from this?


BTW - the full text of the Ranger Creed can be found here

Tom Peters: "leadership is a sacred trust"

Tom Peters on the "leadership is a sacred trust"



Thanks to David Zinger for the pointer to this video clip.

Well worth the three short minutes to view!

doer or talker?

The system is set up to reward those who have mastered the art of the exclamation point. It's easy for raises to go to those who ask for them, and for credit to go to those who repeat their accomplishments over and over. There's nothing wrong with this per se, if the talkers are deserving. But how can we make sure we're rewarding those who quietly produce results as well? What do you do to pull out the hidden gems in your organization and make sure they see the light of day? Must everyone be taught how to "talk"?

Read the full post here

Are you a "doer" or a "talker"?

The things that will destroy us

The things that will destroy us:
politics without principle;
pleasure without conscience;
wealth without work;
knowledge without character;
business without morality;
science without humanity; and
worship without sacrifice.

- Mahatma Gandhi

Thanks to Kirk Weisler for this T4D sharing this quote.

persuasive leaders

Persuasive leaders are those who use conviction and reason to guide others to adopt an idea, attitude, or action. They make their pleas personal and tangible, ensuring there is a high degree of authenticity when communicating their wants and needs to others. They understand that a problem well defined and grounded in experience will gain higher acceptance and greater cooperation from others. Therefore, they relate their experience and understanding of the problem before explaining or exploring the solution.

From the Randy Emelo's Masterful Mentoring newsletter.

Five for Friday

Friday provides the 5th day of the week and here are five things found during the week that was:

1 - Life Expectancy Calculator

2 - Dwayne has a good note on Mozy which is running a coupon special for December. I am using Mozy (the free version) and it has been doing very well performing the backups regularly and in a non-intrusive manner.

3 - Tim Milburn has updated his free ebook on student leadership. You can download the new version here.

4 - The Very Short List, an ultra-version of my own Hitchhikers Guide. The quality of what they share in the first week I have subscribed is incredible. I think you'll enjoy this.

5 - And for the lady runner that you know and want to treat, here is a new selection of clothing that seems quite good, Oiselle.

Where is leadership when you need it?

"The beauty of the military is every commander has to make decisions about what to prosecute and how," Markley said. "Every commander out there is deciding, 'Is this the highest priority for my attention?' "

Even now, he said, he has not been asked by his superiors to take action to safeguard the tests.

"Nobody has come to me and said, 'Solve this problem,' " he said.

The quote above are from Colonel James C. Markley, the senior officer in charge of the testing center.

If the Army knew of cheating going on, if the cheating contributes to personnel being improperly trained and readied for operations, why should this continue?

Markley, by his own statement, does not see this in his scope of responsibility. That might be part of the problem.

What do you think?


Read the full Boston Globe report, the result of five months of investigation here.

Franklin: Signs, Signs, Signs

The controversy over some candidates placing their signs up a day early gives us insight into the actions and beliefs of some of our 'leaders'.

I see the story as follows:

A bylaw is a law to be enforced.

Just because the town attorney renders an opinion that the bylaw is probably unconstitutional, unless the bylaw is challenged, and until the court renders it's opinion, it is still a law to be enforced.

Internal communication amongst some folks in government does not count as 'official notice', especially if it leaves some folks out of the loop. There is something called inside information.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Given that the real issue facing the town is "the budget, the budget, the budget", this is trivial and silly but at the same time insightful.

If your leaders would choose to seek this kind of advantage, are they worthy enough to be your leaders?

Your get a chance to make your choice on November 6th, Franklin!


In case you missed the sign affair, Michael Morton has this and this in the Milford Daily News.

Confusion and sorting it out

The Wamponoag Indian tribe fought long and hard for recognition as a tribe so they could benefit from the advantages of running a casino. They leveraged these advantages to work a deal with Middleborough to pour bunches of money into Middleborough in return for establishing a casino.

"Free" money is hard to turn down when the economy is such that town and school budgets are struggling to keep current with unfunded state and Federal mandates. There is only so much room that Prop 2 1/2 provides. Enough has already been talked of on both sides of that story.

The point of this is now that the Wampanoag leader, Glenn Marshall, has apparently falsified his background claiming he was a war vet with medals (when he was in high school at the time), when he did not admit of a previous conviction of rape, what does this do for the deal that the tribe and Middleborough reached?

Money is the root of all evil.

Casino's don't bring gold for "free".

Advertising dollars are similar to casino dollars. The giver looses something in the transaction. If there was something "like a free lunch", that would be a different story. If it sounds too good to be true it usually is.

Where are true leaders these days? Glenn is less than what he claimed to be. Our current president is prone to re-inventing history. The papers are littered with stories of how the mighty have fallen.

It is time for the individual to return to the ethical basics.

Time for parents to show good examples for this children.

Time for respectful dialog.

Time for learning and growing.

If we fail in this, I fear we will really fail!