Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

According to author Micah Solomon, to ensure you have customer-facing employees, help them to: Display simple human kindness Sense what another person is feeling Have an inclination toward teamwork Be detail oriented, including having the ability and willingness to follow through to completion Bounce back and do not internalize challenges

After two years of research, forty focus groups and a national survey, author Sylvia Ann Hewlett contends the three pillars of Executive Presence are: How you act (gravitas)How you speak (communication)How you look (appearance)All three work together to help you telegraph (signal) to others that you have what it takes and that you're star material.  
"One thing to note at the start is that these pillars are not equally important--not by a long shot," explains Hewlett.  "Gravitas is the core characteristic."
And according to the senior leaders that Hewlett researched the top aspects of  gravitas are: Confidence and "grace under fire"Decisiveness and "showing teeth"Integrity and "speaking truth to power"Emotional intelligenceReputation and standing/"pedigree"Vision/charismaIn her book, Executive Presence, she teaches how to act, communicate and look your best while avoiding the most common blunders in each of these three catego…

Getting feedback is an important way to improve performance at work. But sometimes, it can be hard to seek out, and even harder to hear. 
“Feedback is all around you. Your job is to find it, both through asking directly and observing it,” says David L. Van Rooy, author of the book, Trajectory: 7 Career Strategies to Take You From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.
As today's guest post, Van Rooy offers these six tips for how to get the feedback you need to improve performance at work.
Guest Post By David L. Van Rooy
1.      Don’t forget to ask:  One of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming things are going perfectly (until they make a catastrophic mistake). By not asking, you’re missing out on opportunities for deep feedback: the difficult, critical feedback that gives you constructive ways to improve.
2.      Make sure you listen:  Remember, getting feedback is about improving your performance, not turning it into a “you versus them” mentality. Your reaction is critical. Do…

Early on in Eli Broad's book, The Art of Being Unresaonable, he reminds us of the power of a child's instinctive asking, "Why not?" Unfortunately, most adults lose that habit and Broad goes on to explain that it was his continuing to ask "Why not?" throughout his career that brought him success.

"The questions you're willing to ask when others think they have all the answers are doors todiscovery," says Broad.
Other words of wisdom from the book, and my favorite takeaways, include: Most successful businesses have to begin by bucking conventional wisdom.  Invention and innovation don't happen without it.Do your homework no matter how much time it takes.Big ideas don't happen in a moment.You can't do it all yourself, so ask questions and delegate.The trick to delegating is to make sure your employees share your priorities.Find the best people to whom you can delegate, and know their strengths and weaknesses. Younger employees simply hav…

Pictured above are two books to add to your list for reading this month.

Let The Story Do The Work explains that at the heart of leadership lies persuasion. And at the heart of persuasion likes storytelling. In her book, author Esther K. Choy teaches you how to:
Dispel any fears that you can't tell great stories.Connect with an audience by determining their point of view and speaking to their concerns.Tell stories with numbers.Turn complex material into engaging narratives.Enhance stories with simple visual elements.Tell your personal story in a way that builds credibility and forges relationships.Sense & Respond teaches you how to use that feedback loop to: Create two-way conversations.Focus on the outcomes.Embrace continuous processes.Create collaboration.Create a learning culture. It's a management playbook that enables organizations to engage in two-way communications with the market and to drive value from that conversation -- using technology and software that continuo…