Recovering Leader

Monday’s LeaderTip: Curiosity

Insatiable curiosity is a key to great leadership. In contrast, the leader who presents himself as the perpetual expert shuts people up, and shuts them down. Curiosity requires us to dispense with any notion that a leader’s job is to have all the answers, and instead, be confident enough to ask your people simple questions and open your mind to... Read more →

Columbia University Sends Us All Back To School

There was an important lesson about leadership yesterday when Columbia University presented the inflammatory Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. You can practically feel the crackle of solid integrity in the air when it's put to the test. When an institution, or a leader, for that matter, goes toe to toe with the forces of "play it safe" and "political correctness," and... Read more →

Monday’s LeaderTip: Balanced Solutions

A strategic partnership or professional relationship can, at times, become imbalanced or unproductive. It can be tempting either to put your self-interest first, or to place the needs of the other party ahead of your own, in order to find a quick fix. Both are equally unlikely to produce sustainably favorable results. Ask instead: What solutions will honor the aims... Read more →

“I am responsible...”

What does ”The Buck Stops Here” look like these days? Being in the leadership development field, it was hard not to notice that when President Bush delegated to General David Petraeus the task of reporting the status of the Iraq War surge, and then addressed the nation himself, every declarative statement the president made about the progress and future of... Read more →

Monday’s LeaderTip: Anger

Leaders inspire others by being emotionally honest and authentic. So when your temper flares at someone, it's important to find a skillful response to your anger. Whether you bury it or unleash it inappropriately, a misdirected temper can undermine key relationships or team efforts. Instead, exercise restraint of word and action: Take a step back—which, depending on the situation, may... Read more →

Monday’s LeaderTip: Detach from Outcomes

Leadership often means riding a curveball—so it helps immensely to be flexible about the exact form your desired vision or goal will take. Indeed, leaders who are overly rigid about precise outcomes create their own difficulty when dealing with turbulence or change. A certain degree of detachment from outcomes allows you to be awake to change in real time, and... Read more →

Monday’s LeaderTip: Achieving

What it means "to achieve" is unique to each leader. It’s healthy to reflect on this from time to time, and consciously choose what it means to you. Otherwise, you can find yourself heading for goals that lack deeper meaning, as if by default, or on autopilot. Take a fresh and honest look at how you define success today—without judging... Read more →