December 2011: Do you listen to your body?
“This job is killing me.” You might be right. A Tufts Medical School study found that 40 percent of Fortune 500 executives are obese, while three-fourths live a sedentary lifestyle, putting themselves at risk for diabetes, heart disease and a host of other life threatening conditions.
November 2011: How rich are you?
The end of the iconic holiday film It’s a Wonderful Life finds beleaguered businessman George Bailey joyously surrounded by his loving family and friends, basking in the new-found sense of gratitude he has gained with help from Clarence, his whimsical guardian angel. Harry Bailey, a hero just home from the war, raises his glass and proudly proclaims: “A toast to my big brother George…The richest man in town!”
October 2011: Who are you afraid of?
Leadership is personal. Your capacity to inspire, energize and influence others stems largely from who you are. Yet many leaders are afraid to show their true selves at work.
September 2011: Are you civil?
Arriving late for a meeting. Abruptly dismissing someone’s idea. Reading your texts or emails during a conversation. Ignoring a colleague’s request for information … incivility can be subtle, but it is everywhere. 96% of employees say they have experienced incivility at work. Half say they’re subject to uncivil treatment at least once a week.
July 2011: Are you celebrating what’s right?
“The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so,” observed Ralph Waldo Emerson, “but we ask the reason of all evil, or pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people.” It may be human nature to see what is wrong while overlooking all that is right. But as a leader, you want to avoid getting stuck in scrutinizing mode. Take time to celebrate what is right.
June 2011: What legacy will you create today?
Every day you make a difference. Will it be large or small? Lasting or fleeting? The truth is, you shape your own leadership legacy. And you do it right now.
May 2011: Are you being heard?
“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention,” said Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert Simon. The more information receive, the more selectively they allocate their attention. These days, your people receive a lot of information, which raises a very important question: How much of their attention is allocated to you?
April 2011: Do you cast darkness or light?
When a massive cave-in trapped 33 Chilean miners 2,300 feet underground last August, the prospects for rescue were nil. The foreman in charge, 54-year-old Luis Urzua, shared his men’s mortal predicament, yet he managed to calm them. Urzua steadfastly maintained they would all survive (amazingly enough, they did) and rigorously organized the crew to get through an ordeal that lasted 70 days. One tactic: Shine mining truck headlights at regular intervals to simulate day and night.
March 2011: Is your mind falling behind?
The world today is disturbingly volatile. Numbingly complex. Utterly unpredictable. Everything, it seems, is getting harder. To keep pace, you must do more than adjust your methods. You must become an inherently more adaptive person.
February 2011: How hard do you push?
Each time you sit with your team, you face a core leadership dilemma … Should you tell your people what they must achieve? Or help them shape their own goals?
January 2011: Who’s Running Your Life?
2010 was a year filled with angst and turmoil. Were you able to focus on what is truly important? Or were you mostly just reacting to the relentless stream of problems and demands?
