Category: Thought Leaders

Attention spans seem shorter than ever. Droning on is one of the surest ways to lose our audience(s).

The best communicators I know engage some very intentional strategies when they have opportunity to speak. They leverage:

• Connections — Folks listen best when we are discussing something important to them.
• Future Focus — Speak to a better future we can craft together.
• Specificity — Ambiguity and mush are………….ambiguity and mush.
• Inquiry — Let powerful questions drive the conversations toward solutions.
• Brevity — Less is more, especially when garnering attention/interest is our goal.
• Inclusivity — WE is always a more powerful attractor than me.

Most people think of their job as continuous work. Folks who are committed to excellence, however, think of their work as continuous improvement.

ONLY when our work is that of service — making the world a better place — does that continuous march toward excellence yield the best versions of ourselves. Continuous improvement, constant betterment, and the pursuit of excellence can be undertaken regardless of job title.

Getting better. Every day. On purpose.

Yes, we can. And LEARNING is the vehicle that gets us there.

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.

Ever work in an organization that felt like it was “stuck?”

Some of the best leaders I know interdict this state of stuckedness by engaging in the following strategic moves:

• Make perfectly clear to all stakeholders — internal and external — WHY the organization exists and what it’s noble pursuits are.
• Clearly define the roles of those in the organization. Everyone knows how they can, and are expected to, contribute.
• Listen daily to team members up and down the food chain, to get their take on how those pursuits are going.
• Model and insist upon continuous growth and improvement from everyone in the organization, beginning with the head honchos.

Most of us have a license to drive vehicles. Virtually ALL vehicles have a transmission.

What is a transmission (in simple terms)? It’s the part of the vehicle that takes the power generated from the engine and transfers that power to the wheels. Only then does movement take place.

The best leaders I know serve as the “transmissions” of their organization: They take the power of the Vision and transmit it to the folks who can move that Vision toward reality.

Power on!

*If you’d like read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

The best leaders I know pull a “switch” on the usual and customary conceptions of how leaders normally approach their work. They shift their behavior in some interesting “contradictory” ways:

• They seek to serve more than to be served.
• They purposefully listen more than they talk.
• They consistently turn the spotlight toward others.
• They ALWAYS exhibit kindness and respectfulness.
• They genuinely care, and take the time to express it.
• They stay focused on the long-term goals as opposed to short-term gains.

It is difficult to read an article these days that does not quote an “expert” or state something along the lines of “experts say.”

Experts have never been in short supply, and they have always disagreed. Always will. As one of my favorite mentors says, “Everyone has an opinion; I prefer the informed ones.”

Worth remembering is that we, and our team, are the experts within our unique contexts. To position our team to make the best possible decisions in a world/fog of confusing and conflicting data, and myriad mitigating variables, consider the following:

• Add the smartest people we can find to be on our team.
• Give everyone at the table voice in the conversations around the complex problems, and expect them to use those voices (banish quickly the “hiders” and “dodgers”).
• Refuse to do nothing. Inertia and complacency are diseases to be eradicated.
• Demand, embed, and incentivize betterment measures, every day.
• Insist that continual LEARNING is an expected daily discipline.

Life seems to have never moved so quickly. Our attention spans seem shorter, the news cycles are quicker, the information portals to which we have access spin like tops, our work tools appear to be on steroids. Good or bad or both, this warp-speed life is the reality with which we live.

With that life-pace in mind, we are wise to continue (or revive) a commitment to begin anew each day. Regardless of the “speediness” of life, it does not and cannot add a single minute to the day.

Some good reflective questions:

Am I doing what I am supposed to be doing, to make the world a better place?

Am I letting go of things that do not move me toward my higher purpose?

Are my thoughts, words, and actions promoting love and acceptance to/for others?

If the answer to any of these is “no,” perhaps we should tap the brakes…

Today (and every day) is a good day to re-begin-again.

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.