This series may upset you. Don’t read it unless you want to be challenged to be better, and to embrace self-improvement in both your personal and professional worlds. Part of you is not going to like this one bit. In the United States, there is probably more complaining about politicians than ever before. On one…
If you haven’t noticed, the entire Own It series has been about taking a long look in the mirror and claiming ownership of your faults. Good, bad, or indifferent. Business leadership, personal relationships, and all. I know, it’s cliché, but here’s yet another: “There are two kinds of people in the world.” Over-responsible people and…
Up to this point in the Own It series, we’ve discussed the importance of responsibility and the employee-manager dynamic. Now we look at business systems and where they fit into this great big business machine. The fundamental misinterpretation of systemization is that “systems are the solution.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Systems are…
In the previous part of the Own It series, we discussed the employee-manager relationship and how the balance of power between the two is crucial for a functional dynamic. Now, let’s go a bit further. There is a lot of talk about “empowerment” in the business world without a deep understanding of what it really…
In the first part of the Own It series, we discussed how your business is a reflection of you and the choices that you make. We also talked about how hiring employees with challenges similar to your own can create a conflict. This leads to a very important concept about the manager-employee relationship. The agreement…
This is the first part in a five-part series called Own It: Creating a Culture of Responsibility and Why It Matters. Quite the mouthful, right? That’s why we are just going to simply use the name Own It and move on to what’s really important—facing your decisions and how they play a role in your…
What are the most important positive leadership qualities? Keep reading. Up to this point, we have talked about the importance of being a benevolent dictator and how becoming overwhelmed at work is a symptom of our choices. Now, we are going to take this a step further by remembering again that a business is not…
If you’re feeling overwhelmed at work, at home, and in your position as a leader, it is time to dig a little deeper into the topic of being a benevolent dictator. Last week we talked about how a business is not a democracy and that being a benevolent dictator in a position of power takes…
Looking for a lesson in management? Here’s one takeaway to consider—a business is not a democracy. It is a dictatorship, though this is seldom appreciated. Dictatorships have a very bad reputation in our world’s history. As Lord Acton is so often quoted, “Power tends to corrupt. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.” But look at this…
Do any of these statements sound familiar? You think you have an idea of your problem, but can’t ever seem to find a clear solution that gets down to the root of the issue. You feel as though your relationships and interactions with staff, co-workers, and loved ones are missing something, but you can’t figure…