Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Inspirational leadership wisdom came awhile back from Bahram Akradi, the CEO of Life Time Fitness.
From that health club's monthly fitness magazine, Experience Life, Akradi says: Once we get comfortable in our habitual patterns, we may fail to notice when they have outworn their useful purpose, or when new alternatives might serve us better.Once you've encountered a second way of seeing things, you're more likely to entertain the possibility of a third and fourth way, too.Do something that makes you just a little bit uncomfortable--and that renders you a little more awake.Thanks Akradi for encouraging us to break out from predictability.

Seeing this book (circled in the above picture) in the bookstore this week reminded me of my blog post about the book and the author from 2014. Realizing the book is as relevant today as it was five years ago, here is my post from 2014:

Want to be a leader who is tough? Cool under fire? Able to sense danger before it's too late? In The Way of the SEAL: Think Like an Elite Warrior to Lead and Succeed, ex-Navy SEAL Commander Mark Divine reveals exercises, meditations, and focusing techniques to train your mind for mental toughness, emotional resilience, and uncanny intuition.

Along the way, Divine teaches you how to reaffirm your ultimate purpose, define your most important goals, and take concrete steps to make them happen.

A native of Oneida County, New York, Markserved in the U.S. Navy SEALs for 20 years, retiring as a commander, and holds an MBA from New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Having coached thousands of Navy SEAL and other Special Operations ca…

According to entrepreneur and authorMargaret Hefferman, as reported a few years ago in Inc. magazine, the secrets of the most productive people are that they do these three things:
They take breaks. Breaks refresh the mind and allow you to see new situations. They aregreat collaborators. They have lives outside work. In fact, the most successful have rich private lives that include interests that hone different skills and that let them think in different ways

"Truly accountable leadership is the only way to build an organization that can survive and thrive in our increasingly complicated world," says Vince Molinaro, author of his revised and updated bestseller, The Leadership Contract.

More specifically, Molinaro believes that a new set of leadership expectations is redefining how each of us will need to lead in the future. He explains that as a leader you will need to take accountability to:
Align and engageTake an enterprise-wide perspectiveBuild relationshipsMaster uncertaintyDevelop other leadersModel the values And, to be a truly accountable leader, Molinaro says that you must serve the five core obligations of leadership: YourselfYour customersYour organizationYour employeesYour communities One of my favorite parts of the book are the Gut Checks for Leaders at the end of each chapter. The Gut Checks list critical questions to ask yourself, such as: Do you lead every day with a sense of clarity regarding your obligations?What …

When I read business books, I turn the corner of every page that has something I really like, want to remember and easily reference in the future.

Halfway into the 300-page book, Leadership Conversations, I had turned the corners of nearly every fifth pages. So, you can see why I believe this is such a good book. There is so much to learn from Leadership Conversations.  It's a must read for today's business leaders. Leaders who are leading multi-generational workforces. And, leaders who want the skills to get promoted and move up the corporate ladder.

Authors Alan S. Berson and Richard G. Stieglitz wrote the book because they believe that a leader's most powerful skill is the ability to hold effective conversations.

So, in their book, they detail the four types of conversations every leader must effectively master.  Conversations that: Build relationshipsDevelop othersMake decisionsTake action And, they provide real-world examples and tactical guidance for each of those convers…

Take a look at the list below. How many of these 27 management challenges are you facing right now? And, how many do you believe you'll face this year?
Going from peer to leaderComing from the outside to take over leadership of an existing teamBringing together an entirely new teamWelcoming a new member to your existing teamHelping an employee who has a hard time managing timeAssisting an employee who needs help with interpersonal communicationGetting an employee more organizedHelping an employee who needs to get better at problem solvingWorking with an employee who needs to increase productivityHelping an employee who needs to improve qualityManaging an employee who knows more about the work than you doShowing an employee how to start "going the extra mile"Working with an employee who does "creative work"Helping an employee make an attitude adjustmentManaging conflict between and among individuals on your teamDealing with an employee who has personal issues at…