When you hear that someone is a “natural leader”, don’t take the statement at face value. Watch them. They work hard at making it look easy. Years of experiences, successes, failures and learnings have molded the leader. Someone may have good leadership instincts but...
Mike’s #BeIntentional — 12
“I made a mistake. I understand how it impacted you. I apologize. This is what I commit to do differently going forward. Please hold me accountable to honor my commitment.” As leaders, we sometimes tend to dismiss our errors, or trivialize their impact, or blame them...
Mike’s #BeIntentional — 11
“You can’t get there from here.” This was the response I would occasionally hear when asking for directions in Appalachia. It was sometimes difficult to get from one location to another due to mountains, rivers and rough terrain. But, if getting to some place was...
Mike’s #BeIntentional — 10
The greatest source of organizational strength is not the leader, but the people they lead. A leader's greatest contribution is their ability to unleash the individual and collective power of their people. If we as leaders lose sight of that reality, then we are...
Mike’s #BeIntentional — 9
As a leader of managers, you should be evaluating your managers on the quality of their decisions...not on how effectively they execute your decisions. Managers should not be asking you to solve their problems. Instead, you should encourage them to share the nature...
Mike’s #BeIntentional –8
Two of the greatest challenges a President or CEO must overcome are isolation and lack of unfiltered feedback. They often lack professional colleagues to engage in open, constructive dialogue. Also missing is the objective feedback needed to understand the impact of...
Mike’s #BeIntentional — 7
Why did this happen to me? Throughout our lives, we all must deal with losses and setbacks. You can't prevent them from occurring, but you can control how you respond to unfortunate events. How we deal with losses and hardships says much more about us as leaders...
Mike’s #BeIntentional — 6
Culture is not defined by the five “big things” a leader does from time to time. It’s the 100 “little things” we consistently do every day that create our company’s “fabric” and “way of being”. The five big things establish directional accuracy. The 100 little things...
Mike’s #BeIntentional — 5
Should executives lead from the front or from behind? My experiences suggest that great leaders do both. When things are going well, they step back, set direction and allow their people to take the lead. They support, guide and mentor their employees thus allowing...
Mike’s #BeIntentional — 4
Sometimes we lose our way as leaders. Trusting our instincts leads to a bad outcome. An unfortunate event shakes our confidence. Our genuineness and authenticity is impacted by trying to be someone we are not. We may not know we have gone off course, and even if...