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If it happens, it must be possible
Anonymous (image by Vangel PL)
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Medals
Try to get all of your posthumous medals in advance.
Anonymous (image by squidonius )
Rewarding counts, also posthumous, but achieving rewards while “in the moment” is the best thing to have. So do not wait in praising your people if something good is done, because reinforces the behavior that generated the achievement.
New ideas
The human mind treats a new idea the way the body treats a strange protein: it rejects it.
P. Edawar (image by svilen001)
Honestly I do not know if proteins unknown to our body are rejected, but you can be 100% sure that normal reaction to a new idea and to change is rejection.
Reason is quite simple and deal with the fact that, at the end, changing something or adopting a new idea requires us to change something already easily achieved and at the very end this is stressing for everybody.
Is very important, if you want to be receptive to new ideas, to think that after the pain and difficulties of the beginning, you will soon be acquainted to new status and benefit from it.
Pillars
The four building blocks of the universe are fire, water, gravel and vinyl.
Dave Barry (image by Chemtec)
…and I should say a lot of vinyl
Precautions
The chief danger in life is that you may take too may precautions.
Alfred Adler (image by Onatos)
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Doing it for the first time
The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was.
Anonymous (image by MeHere)
If you do something for the first time, you start from a big advantage, but also from the weak point that no benchmark is set.
Seems a simple thing, but always take care of publicizing and informing people on he challenge you has, so that your effort will be valued.
Unwritten laws
The problem with any unwritten law is that you don’t know where to go to erase it. Glaser and Way (image by wilpersou)
10 Most Common Ways To Ruin Employee Evaluations
Jeff Haden at Ceo.com wrote an article on pitfalls in doing a year conversation with your employees.
The 10 points are: “[...]
- Discuss personality traits—especially negative ones.
- Asking employees to evaluate themselves
- Raise issues you can’t back up with examples.
- Focus primarily on the near-term.
- Overrate to “motivate.”
- Compare employees
- Ask throw-away questions
- Answer questions you can’t—or shouldn’t
- Make promises you can’t keep
- Ignore the previous review
[...].
All of them are absolutely correct, but the number 2 is absolutely critical.
Is fair to ask to your employee his/her perception on own performance, but absolutely awful to use this as the unique source for evaluation: in a second destroys any people care action you took in the past.
This post as a comment also here
(image by ros)
Past
The past always looks better than it was. It’s only pleasant because it isn’t here.
Finley Peter Dunne (Mr. Dooley) – (image by getwired)
5 Leadership Pitfalls To Avoid
John Bossong has wrote an article on some pitfalls to avoid in leadership.
John’s hints are:
“[...]
#1 – Failing to be vulnerable. When you are leading, you have to be willing to put yourself at risk. Be authentic. Real. This leads to vulnerability. Getting outside your comfort zone. Knowing you may fail but putting the better good of your people and organization first.
#2 – A lack of courage. Not a superhero type of courage but a courageous authenticity. The courage to actually be vulnerable. Putting yourself out there. Taking responsibility for failures and giving credit for success. Doing something you are not comfortable with knowing you may fail. The courage to embrace change and transitions as they happen. The courage to lead and start something.
#3 – Failure to embrace learning. Being a leader is not about being the smartest person in the orgainzation. You certainly need to be smart but it’s about embracing learning. Creating a learning organizational culture. You need to learn and grow by communicating with others. People smarter than you. People who know more than you. Have the courage and vulnerability to adapt and surround yourself in a learning environment. Leaders have to learn how to learn everyday.
#4 – Perfection. There is no perfect leader. Quit trying to be one. It’s an illusion or myth. Perfect is boring. What comes after perfect? Leaders come in all shapes and sizes, there’s no one size fits all. If you are looking for perfection as a leader, you will be looking a long time. Humility is the enemy of perfect. Humble leaders know they don’t know. Humility doesn’t care about titles or positions. Humility influences. Humility leads. Humility Matters. Stay away from the perfection illusion.
#5 – Failure to pick the right people. Choosing the right people is the key to leadership. The people you surround yourself with will determine your success or failure. It goes back to having the courage and humility to surround yourself with people smarter than you. Knowing you are not the smartest person in the organization. Putting people in place you trust. Earning the trust of your people. It’s not about you but the purpose and vision. When you pick the right people you can lead and make a meaningful contribution
[...]”
I think are all valid points, but the one I really think is key to be able to choose the right people for your team, and to retain them with you.
Having a team that trusts you and is capable of delivering at top is fundamental. Having a team that embeds also the challenge of being smarter than you are, is a tough challenge but gives you the plus to keep you mentally “alive” and stimulated, while granting the fire power to achieve excellence.
This post as a comment also here
(image by nellart)
Arguments
The number of arguments is unimportant unless some of them are correct.
Ralph Hartley (image by vrajesh)
Is not by adding wrong quantity of support that results arrive. One thing to always keep in mind is to check the arguments you bring and their cross consistency.
Standards
The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them tochoose from.
Andrew S. Tanenbaum (image by forwardcom)
Presidency
Scrubbing floors and emptying bedpans has as much dignity as the Presidency
Richard Nixon (image by bugdog)
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Handling perfectionism
Joshua Rivera at Lifehacker wrote an article on handling perfectionism called “If Your Fidelity to Perfectionism is Too High, You Never Do Anything”.
Is an animated interview worth listening (and seeing)!
Research
Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.
Wernher von Braun (image by buzzybee)
If you move outside your area of comfort you try something new which is the only way to learn and experiment something new.
Try to put yourself outside of the egg the most often you can and you will benefit a lot!
Inertia
If you think big enough, you’ll never have to do it.
Reisner (image by shadow)
Is true, but if you use the big aim as a target, there’ the chance you will achieve something near the big target…at the end is like linking two points: if you aim at the target point will be easier to get a straight line.
