Should you “fake it until you make it”?
u like confidence. In fact, most of us have such a bias toward confidence we prefer it over actual expertise. Speaking first, speaking confidently and speaking often make you sound like a leader and the people who do that usually end up as the leader -- even if they don't know what they're talking about: Via The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us: As you’ve probably anticipated, in the actual experiment, the group leaders proved to be no more competent than anyone…
3 minutes
Effective Executive: 5 insights from the #1 management book
te Drucker's book The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done is one of my most frequent recommendations. Everyone can get something from it because it's not about the minutiae of business, it's about organizing your life so you can accomplish the things that are important. Drucker is probably the most influential writer on the subject of management. Why? One of the reasons is that he understood that the most important part of management is knowing yourself. What are the book's…
6 minutes
Checklist: Are you doing these 5 things to be more charismatic?
arisma makes a difference. It doesn't just make us like people more, charismatic leaders bring out our best and make us do better work. Via The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism: Research shows that those following charismatic leaders perform better, experience their work as more meaningful, and have more trust in their leaders than those following effective but noncharismatic leaders. As Wharton School business professor Robert House notes, charismatic leaders “cause followers to…
4 minutes
Interview – 5 lessons from a Ranger/Special Ops soldier about leadership and persistence
bsp; Ranger School has been called the "toughest combat course in the world." My friend Joe (2nd from the left above) graduated class 495 in Ranger School and was Special Operations for seven years. I interviewed him about leadership, attitude and what it takes to make it through such a punishing ordeal. He also reminded me what "Ranger Candy" is. The full interview was almost 90 minutes long, so for brevity’s sake I’m only going to post highlights here. Subscribers to my free weekly…
7 minutes
6 Secrets Of Top Performing Work Teams
n't just throw the best people together. How members get along is far more important than their capacities as individuals. What makes for smart teams? It’s not average IQ. It’s social skills. From MIT: A new study published in Science found that three factors were significantly correlated with a group’s collective intelligence — in other words, its ability to perform a variety of tasks collectively, from solving puzzles to negotiating. The three factors are: the average social sensitivity of the members of the group, the extent to which…
5 minutes
This Body Language Makes You Look Like A Leader
's important to balance the appearance of power and warmth. Via The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help–or Hurt–How You Lead: When first introduced to a leader, we immediately and unconsciously assess him or her for warmth and authority. Obviously the most appealing leaders are seen to encompass both qualities, and the least effective leaders are those we regard as cold and inept. But as Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile described in an aptly titled article, “Brilliant but…
2 minutes
Here’s The Secret To Efficient, Fast Teamwork
might be to forget about trying to be fast at all and to just focus on being smooth. A Formula One pit crew -- a group that depends on efficient, fast teamwork -- found that they weren't at top speed when they concentrated on speed. It was when they emphasized functioning smoothly as a group that they made their best times. Via Oliver Burkeman's wonderful The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking: Bosses are more frequently persuaded,…
1 min read
3 Things The Greatest Generals Of History Can Teach You About Strategy
Don't do what your enemy is prepared for. Frontal assaults against prepared defenses are stupid. Via How Great Generals Win: From the beginning of organized warfare, frontal attacks against prepared defenses have usually failed, a fact written large in military history for all generals to see... great generals strike where they are least expected against opposition that is weak and disorganized. Almost all successful attacks have hit enemies from the rear, from the flank, or anywhere it is not…
3 minutes
