Posts

The Value of Living in the Present Moment

living in the momentAre you living in the present moment? Many of us would like to think we are but unfortunately are weighed down by the past or anxious about the future.

We may have regrets or guilt over our past and we need to let these go because they are circumstances that we may not be able to change.

We may also be anxious about the future and what will happen to our families, our businesses or us.

When we are able to let go of the past and realize that most of what we are anxious about will never happen we can begin to just focus on where we are now: The present moment.

Here are some reasons why we need to let go of the past, not worry about the future, and practice living in the present moment. Read more

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

CreditHarry Truman once said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish, if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

And while there’s a lot of truth in that statement, the reality is, most people like to be recognized for the hard work they do.

We’ve all faced experiences at one point or another in our careers where someone else took credit for our work. Perhaps your manager got the public recognition for a project you did 75 percent of the leg work on. Or, you were part of team effort to accomplish a major task, and somehow, one team member ended up being congratulated just a little more heartily than the rest.

When employees are regularly over-looked, and not given credit where it is due, eventually they’ll stop working as hard. They will have learned that giving 110 percent isn’t really worth the effort. At best you’ll end up with sub-standard output. At worst, you will lose good employees as they look elsewhere to be rewarded for their knowledge and experience.

And you don’t want either of those thing happening in your organization.

Sachin H. Jain wrote about this issue in a recent post for Harvard Business Review. He has led teams in in government, academia, clinical medicine, and the private sector, and as such has devised his own set of rules to help manage ‘giving credit where credit is due’.

Here are his top three: Read more

What People Look for in Great Leaders

great leadersLeadership is a popular topic of discussion and analysis in business books, and at seminars, and conferences. As a business owner, focusing on improving your leadership style and delivery is important, but it’s helpful to look first at what people are actually looking for in great leaders.

In a recent post on LinkedInToday, Marillyn Hewson, chairman and CEO at Lockheed Martin, does just that, looking at the leadership classroom of the U.S. Military to see what characteristics of leadership they find most important, especially during times of change and uncertainty.

Quoting Tom Rath and Barry Conchie’s 2008 book “Strengths Based Leadership,” Hewson calls out four things that individuals expect from great leaders: Stability, trust, compassion, and hope. Read more

Four Traits of Great Leaders

Great leadersWhat are the traits that all great leaders possess?

Robert Mann has spent the past 43 years developing leadership evaluation tools to help any leader identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Mann, the author of The Measure of a Leader, shares his thoughts on leadership traits in a recent interview with Inc. magazine contributor Minda Zeltin.

Read more