Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

I recommend that all leaders every so often read the What Will Matter poem by Michael Josephson . It serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of unselfishly serving and leading with character. I've highlighted in bold and in color my favorite parts of the poem: Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end. It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. ...

Today, I feature a guest post by Garret Kramer:   The Problem-solving Fast Track By Garret Kramer Author of Stillpower: Excellence with Ease in Sports and Life In virtually every business, organization, or family in the world today, people are doing their best to solve problems. And that's admirable. Yet, in my opinion, they are working way harder than they should. Even me, at times. Yesterday, I absentmindedly scheduled two meetings for the same hour and didn't know what to do about it. I racked my brain searching for the solution, and, before I knew it, my head was spinning. So I resigned myself to the fact that at least one client was going to be upset, possibly two. Funny thing, though, the minute I did that my thinking slowed and the answer to my supposed dilemma appeared. Since both clients were members of the same organization, I offered a joint training where insights could be shared freely. It worked, and both clients thanked me for what they learn...

Alyssa Freas is a pioneer in the field of executive coaching . She is Founder and CEO of Executive Coaching Network® (EXCN) , a global company whose mission is to help organizations achieve results by improving the effectiveness of their executives and their teams. Recently, she answered for me the eight questions I hear the most about leadership, leaders and  executive coaching . Question :  What is the most common leadership challenge you see that executives face? Alyssa :  Executives are challenged by prioritization; that is, getting their work done and having enough time for reflection and rejuvenation. The vast majority of executives today have too many plates spinning and they feel imbalanced. The successful leader of the future will be one who understands how to prioritize in a framework of their company’s vision, values, and strategic objectives and financial results. Executives will always be challenged by the need to focus on building the busines...

When I think about excellent mentors in the business world, I think of Debbie Laskey , who has mentored many people during her career.  Debbie is passionate about mentoring.  So, she's an ideal person to answer the following five questions about mentoring: 1.  Why do you enjoy being a mentor? Since I have been in the workplace for nearly two decades, I have had the opportunity to learn from a number of individuals. Some were supervisors, some were executives, some were co-workers, and some were employees who reported to me. However, the mentorship relationship is different than those relationships. As a mentor, I have been able to share what I’ve learned with individuals (mentees) who are at the beginning stages of building a business. They have an insatiable appetite for suggestions and always appreciate ideas – even if they don’t apply them immediately. Mentees have no agenda and no time for unnecessary drama. While they may question suggestions, most of the ...

Two years ago, Lynn Flinn of EWF International in Tulsa, OK wrote the following in her business' newsletter. It's so powerful I wanted to bring it back again this year as 2012 comes to a close. So, here goes...Lynn's year-end advice for leaders: • Do something that you are afraid to do . Run through the fear rather than running away from it. • Take a personal risk . Tell someone something you've always wished you'd said to them. • Write a note to someone who inspires you but probably doesn't know it. • Pick one characteristic about yourself that you'd like to change and earnestly work on changing it . It is really hard to change a behavior, but it is possible if you are aware, patient and persistent in making a change. • Realize when you are not engaged and re-engage . Turn off the television, turn off the cell phone, and pay attention to the people around you. • Smile and talk to strangers that you meet . It is amazing how much shorter a...

Fortunately, most of my career I’ve worked in effective corporate cultures. If I put together the best of each, here is what made those environments effective: • Leaders led by example on a consistent basis and were willing to roll up their sleeves, particularly during tight deadlines or challenging times. • Employees clearly understood how what they did made a difference and how their contributions made the organization either more profitable or more effective. • The workforce included a blend of long-term employees with a rich company, product/service and customer history, employees who had been at the company for five to seven years, and then new hires with a fresh perspective and keen sense of new technologies and techniques. That blend worked best when the mix included virtually all A-players. • Top managers had a clear, realistic and strategic vision for how the company would grow and compete in the marketplace. • Employees were challenged and rewarded thr...

  Guest Post By: Kyle Lagunas   Old Habits Die Hard   It’s no secret that social and mobile technologies make HR leaders nervous. Many have earned a reputation for policing interoffice communications, but this old habit is counterproductive.   But while research shows these next generation tools have the potential to improve communication and collaboration across the enterprise, business leaders are left with one question: “Who takes ownership of these tools?”   Call me crazy, but... Why not HR? By teaming with IT, and driving the adoption of these next generation tools, HR could upgrade its role in Enterprise 2.0. There’s just one problem: HR must first shed its old-school role of communications cop.   “We hurt our corporate reputations when we attract candidates through contemporary use of social media, and then revert back to our old ways and block employees from using social tools to do their jobs,” says Cindy Lubitz, Foun...