Zig Ziglar (website) (@TomZiglar), known worldwide for his folksy and often anecdotal motivational talks on success through serving others, died today at a Plano, Texas, hospital of complications from pneumonia. He was 86. Baptist Press (@baptistpress) reports:
Ziglar's deep, soothing Mississippi drawl, and speeches and books often sprinkled with mentions of his Christian faith, endeared him to millions. Ziglar was arguably the best-known motivational speaker of his day, having conducted hundreds of corporate seminars and given motivational speeches to hundreds of thousands of people over a 42-year speaking career.
The above Infographic by Michigan State University (@michiganstateu) identifies leadership qualities to cultivate in 8 areas: preparation, character, principles, personality, performance, experience, expression, and influence.
Since we’re only human and we all make mistakes, it’s important to know when and how to effectively apologize. This practice is especially important for business leaders who seek to maintain positive public relations (reputation management) for their companies among their constituents.
Tom Peters (@tom_peters), author of In Search of Excellence, encourages business leaders to become students of apology. In this video he says, "Learning how to apologize effectively is the real essence of strategic strength."
We are frequently taught that leaders, especially aspiring leaders, should hide weaknesses and mistakes. This view is flawed. It is not only good to admit you are wrong when you are; but also it can also be a powerful tool for leaders—actually increasing legitimacy and, when practiced regularly, can help to build a culture that actually increases solidarity, innovation, openness to change and many other positive features of organizational life.
Questions of timing are critical. The longer it takes a business leader or a section manager, for example, to acknowledge his or her mistake, the more likely the undecided folks will turn against him or her. Business leaders need to understand that if, in the end, it is going to be disclosed that they have erred, it's better to own up as quickly as possible in order to have a hand in making repairs.
To acknowledge a mistake is to assert secure leadership; to take responsibility and prescribe a corrective course of action is wise management. Taking responsibility for an error earns the privilege of being forgiven, and thus granted a second chance.
On a related note, pastor and author Max Lucado (@MaxLucado) writes in the article Coming Clean for Leadership Journal (@Leadership_Jnl) (from personal experience of enjoying beer too much but not admitting it) on just how honest and open confession is the right thing to do.
Above is the time management chart known as The Eisenhower Matrix, named for President Dwight Eisenhower who used it in his own decision process. The visual comes from The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler (free online) (blog).
Notice how The Eisenhower Matrix places the most positive emphasis on Quadrant I. That differs from the chart above that the late Stephen Covey promoted in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, where he numbered the boxes differently and said Quadrant II is where you want to spend most of your time for effective time management. Either way, you want to invest most of your energy in doing what is important and not urgent. Better late than never. But never late is better.
In Fast Company (@FastCompany), leadership experts Ken Blanchard (@kenblanchard & @LeaderChat) (blog) and Scott Blanchardwrite, “There is a big difference between identifying the cause of a negative outcome and looking for someone to blame it on. Identifying the cause of a negative outcome is productive. You can use that information to avoid the situation in the future and also help people take responsibility for fixing it and moving on.”
Finding fault and assigning blame, on the other hand, creates a situation where people become stuck and paralyzed. It’s a negative approach that assumes neglect or malfeasance that requires punishment. This type of attitude produces a risk-averse organization where people play it safe instead of stepping out and trying new ideas.
Now your organization takes on a culture similar to the classic arcade game, Whac-A-Mole, where most employees keep their head down except for the unsuspecting novice who pops his head up only to have the oversized mallet pound him or her back down if their initiative fails. Once an organization develops that type of culture, it is very difficult for innovation to take hold.
Wired magazine’s (@wired) executive editor Thomas Goetz (@tgoetz) explains 7 rules to use when pinpointing trends that will help you prepare for tomorrow:
1. Look for cross-pollinators: the best ideas — the ones with the most impact and longevity — are transferable.
2. Surf the exponentials: catch the wave of smaller, cheaper, and faster; channel that steady improvement into business plans and research agendas.
3. Favor the liberators: look for ways to turn scarcity into plenty and turn static into flow, bringing motion where there was obstruction.
4. Give points for audacity: go beyond picayune problems and mere incremental solutions; get in over your head.
5. Bank on openness: forsake proprietary claims and avoid hierarchy; be agile, flexible, and poised to leap from opportunity to opportunity.
6. Demand deep design: good design is much more than a veneer; it’s essential and it intrinsically prioritizes; it’s irresistible.
7. Spend time with time wasters: culture is created where people are fiddling with tools, coining new lingo, swapping new techniques.
Russian publisher Lamartis (@lamartis) says it strives to combine all the elements that make books timeless, majestic, and beautiful. It positions its books for “sophisticated art connoisseurs and book collectors” and creates books for “the adornment of public, corporate, and home libraries.” The above video wonderfully captures the artistic craftsmanship of the Lamartis method.
In a guest post for Michael Hyatt’s (@MichaelHyatt) blog, Jeff Goins (@JeffGoins) says, “Great leaders are effective, not because they know all the answers, but because they have the tenacity to act. Leadership, as it turns out, is really the act of making intentional decisions and accepting responsibility for them.”
Many organizations have a decision-deficiency syndrome. We have leaders who hesitate. They waffle and wait, hoping for a better opportunity. Let’s be honest: you and I do this, as well. And it’s killing our leadership.
If you want to be a better leader, resolve to be a better decision-maker. It will revolutionize your organization, inspire your team, and liberate you from the constant worry of the possibility of a better opportunity coming along.
Here are 3 scenarios in which you should make a decision right now:
Remember to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard of more than 300 links and RSS feeds for publishing and marketing executives; especially its Leadership tab.
In The New York Times Media & Advertising section (@NYTimesAd), David Carr (@carr2n) says “the velocity of transformation is growing” in this digital publishing era.
Technology has altered the media business more than most, not in one big surge, but in a series of waves, each one shifting the ground that traditional businesses were built on.
He recounts how David Carey, the president of Hearst Magazines (@HearstCorp), had The Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) on his mind when he addressed a group of employees last week.
“I am telling them to beware of digital upstarts that don’t follow any of the rules of big companies like ours,” he said. “Huffington Post has gone down paths that others scoffed at and they have emerged with a string of very strong products.”
