Confronting Toxicity

IMG_6696 copyDan has some great thoughts on toxic leadership and organizational environments. He connects the dots between two of the Leader Impact themes:  leading courageously and loving deeply. Dan Rockwell, a.k.a. Leadership Freak, writes on practical leadership in 300 words or less. Enjoy the read!

Leadership Freak

Average leaders get things done. Exceptional leaders build environments where others get things done.

Average leaders fix. Exceptional leaders build.

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You begin thinking leadership is all about results, but come to learn it’s about the way we treat each other. Results matter, but how you achieve results matters more.

“Results only” is the formula for toxicity.

Great places to work are about the way things get done.

When all that matters are the numbers, eventually, people don’t matter.

How:

Exceptional leaders embrace the power of how.

  1. How are we connecting?
  2. How do we support each other?
  3. How does the team feel?
  4. How is respect expressed?

Exceptional leaders define “the way” things get done.

Courageous leaders challenge back-stabbing and office politics, for example. They say, “That’s not the way we do things around here.”

Evaluate:

Organizations that neglect how things get done become lousy places to work. Frankly, soft-skills are hard…

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The Secret of Teams

I recently received an email from Dan Rockwell, A.K.A. Leadership Freak (his blog) regarding a great resource. Free download of Chapter 1 of "The Secret of Teams" by Mark Miller: Here is the link: http://bit.ly/1342KN1 (No registration required) This is a classic read for anyone working with teams! Amazon has this review where you can order the entire book:... Continue Reading →

What Makes a Marriage Last?

Andrea Buczynski shares a wonderful story of times with Howard and Jeanne Hendricks. I took a couple classes with him many years ago. Dr. Hendricks, endearingly known as “Prof” by the thousands of students whose lives he touched through his teaching and example, recently passed away. Andrea writes a wonderful tribute to him. Loving deeply requires working as a team in marriage: communicating, commitment and resolving conflict. Enjoy the post and be sure to watch the video: What Makes a Marriage Last?

AB Reflections

I was mentally pinching myself.  Seated around the dinner table were my team-mates and Howard and Jeanne Hendricks. He had been a conference speaker for our organization many times.  He was notoriously funny and to the point.  The consummate teacher, he could turn a phrase into a long term memory.

What an amazing evening!  As we feasted on barbecue, they shared many of their stories and their wisdom. We laughed; we cried. We asked questions- tons of questions.  They were so gracious to invest the time with us.

What impressed me the most was Dr. Hendricks’ deliberate invitation to draw  Jeanne into the conversation.  One of us would ask him a question, and he would look across the table at Jeanne and say, “Jeanne can tell you more about that than I can.”  While he could have regaled us with many stories of his own, he chose to make it…

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