Search Results for: collaboration

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What’s your litmus test for people: Honesty or skill?

When do you fold ‘em, walk away or run?

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Once upon a time I worked for a charismatic leader with a serious set of skills. Someone I learned from constantly and deeply admired …

  • Until I caught him in a lie.
  • And then a second one.
  • A third one.
  • A fourth one.
  • And finally a fifth one.

The crazy part was – I wasn’t hunting for lies. I literally kept tripping into them – all five in a very short amount of time after years of working together.

When I confronted for the last time. He said, “I don’t know how you keep finding these things out.” No denial. No excuses. No apology.

A short time later – I “fired him” by turning in my notice.

Titled leaders and employees can all be tempted to overlook honesty because of skill.

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Becoming a part of the solution, after Orlando

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As the news about Orlando, and yet another hate crime swirls around us….

What are you seeing? What are you hearing? What are you pondering? What are you praying for?

Typically after events like this I invest major amounts of energy reading the news and contemplating the opinions and the blame game that follows.

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What if… YOU disagree with someone?

Do you lob word grenades, judge and flee, or engage and learn?

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Everyone comes from a different life experience and has witnessed, researched, or considered things you haven’t.  -REALLY!

But far too often we are too busy, proud, judgmental, and afraid to dive in and try to discover what those things are.

This morning I watched this unfold on a friend’s Facebook feed:

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Learn to Win Well with Intelligence, Integrity and Fun!

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Have you ever worked for someone that could drive a number but didn’t care what it took to make that happen?

  • Lying
  • Bullying
  • Dividing

People, processes and rules were not important. Winning AT ALL COSTS was.

When titled leaders are under pressure for results, it can be tempting to focus only on the win and to forget about:

  • The lives of the employees
  • The loyalty of the customers
  • The perception of the public
  • Or the future of the company
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Benefits of Learning from Those That Think Differently

Real Growth - No Pixie Dust! -Really!

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In 1999 I read Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for the first time.  One of the stories in that book that captured my attention was about David Lilienthal, a man that was commissioned to head the new Atomic Energy Commission.

He brought together a very diverse bunch of influential individuals. And although they had a huge agenda and the press was pushing them for results he believed that efficiency was not the first priority – synergy was. So he wisely invested time facilitating relationship building, causing them to deeply understand each other’s history, goals, passions, and perspectives and transforming a group of individuals into a passionate team.

This is how Stephen Covey describes the result: “The respect among the members of the commission was so high that if there was disagreement, instead of opposition and defense, there was a genuine effort to understand.  The attitude was, “If a person of your intelligence and competence and commitment disagrees with me, then there must be something to your disagreement that I don’t understand, and I need to understand it.  You have a perspective, a frame of reference I need to look at.”