by Daria Steigman on September 21, 2010
Did you see what happened when Michael Vick came into the Eagles-Packers game in Week 1?
The team got excited.
Vick’s past character issues aside, this is a talented guy who can lead a team. As soon as he came into the game, the Eagles perked up. They had energy and a belief that they could succeed. And they played better (and almost won). The last time I saw this so vividly was when Rex Grossman came into a game late in the 2005 season.
How are you inspiring your team?
Photo by Matt Denton (Flickr).
Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!
Tagged as:
Green Bay Packers,
Leadership,
Michael Vick,
Philadelphia Eagles,
Rex Grossman
by Daria Steigman on June 2, 2010
Check out this terrific interview with Saks CEO Stephen Sadove in the New York Times. He talks about mentors, valuing people, focusing on processes, and what it takes to be a successful leader. For example:
“I grew up in a world of lots of interesting people, and you really valued learning from them and talking to them. I grew up valuing lots of different kinds of opinions and people of different backgrounds. I was relatively comfortable with adults because we always were entertaining. So you never worried about being uncomfortable in a setting like that, or shy.”
Or this gem:
It’s the people, the leadership, the culture and the ideas that are ultimately driving the numbers and the results… What I try to teach people is, don’t ask the first question in terms of numbers. Let’s talk about the people, let’s talk about the culture, let’s talk about the ideas and the innovation.”
There’s some good stuff here.
Photo by bigcityal (Flickr).
Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!
Tagged as:
Innovation,
Leadership,
Saks,
Stephen Sadove
by Daria Steigman on September 16, 2009
Each week I’m highlighting 3 or 4 posts, surveys, and other news that I have read and/or tweeted about that you may not have seen. As the name implies, I think they deserve a second look.
Here’s your second look for this week:
Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!
Tagged as:
Download Squad,
Health care,
Joint Commission,
Wall Street Journal,
WordPress,
WSJ health blog
by Daria Steigman on August 4, 2009
Being a baseball booster can be fraught with disappointment. Just ask Cubs fans: 101 years and counting. My team, the Washington Nationals, is on its way to getting the first overall pick in the draft for the second year in a row. This isn’t a good thing.
Last month, the Washington Nationals fired their manager after the team won only 23 games through June (losing 64 or so). While by all accounts Manny Acta is a good guy, he isn’t a leader. As the team floundered, he:
- Rarely held a team meeting. His successor holds a short meeting every day, win or lose.
- Didn’t talk much. While some players were fine with that, others reportedly needed a more high-touch approach.
- He rarely, if ever, talked about accountability.
Acta’s worst offense: he kept doing the same thing over and over again even when it wasn’t working. That’s bad management. It’s terrible leadership.
What are you doing to inspire your team today?
P.S. The team’s still got issues, but they’re definitely playing better and with more spark under interim manager Jim Riggleman.
Photo by cliff1066. Flickr Creative Commons license.
Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!
Tagged as:
baseball,
Manny Acta,
Washington Nationals
by Daria Steigman on June 25, 2009
Do you have what it takes to be a leader? And is this even the right question to ask?
John Ryan, president of the Center for Creative Leadership and a former superintentent of the U.S. Naval Academy, has a great column in Business Week that posits that leadership has as much to do with environment as it does with innate abilities. He writes:
If you live in a culture where your colleagues believe you can be a leader and help you develop the skills you need, you will enthusiastically embrace the mantle of leadership… [R]egardless of your occupation, you will view yourself as a leader at home, at work, and in your community. But if you live in a culture that assumes leadership is not for everyone, is dependent on whether you have innate leadership skills, and that leadership is defined by your job title rather than your actions, you will have an entirely different view.
With this concept in mind, Ryan then suggests that organizations need to look at how they manage employees and whether their corporate culture permits risktaking.
This is interesting stuff, not least because of its implications for entrepreneurship. If we applied Ryan’s model to the typical entrepreneur, would we find a similar mindset?
Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!
Tagged as:
Business Week,
Entrepreneurship,
John Ryan,
Leadership,
U.S. Naval Academy
