Developing your self-awareness has long been thought of as a key to improving your leadership capability. Self-awareness is valuable because if you understand yourself extremely well then you can choose the appropriate effective behaviors to fit the situations you find yourself in. Without understanding yourself, you act on your natural “tendencies” which might not always … [Read more...] about Developing Your Self-Awareness
Managing “C” Players
You’d like to ignore them or just resign yourself to the idea that there is nothing much you can do, but one of your important responsibilities as a leader/manager is to address the “C” players you have on your team. If you don’t, you risk alienating your “A” players who want to be on a high performing team and tempting your “B” players to underperform. A recent article in … [Read more...] about Managing “C” Players
What Donors Want
Major donors want a collaborative relationship and appreciation of their philanthropic goals. This has been a major theme that we have heard this semester from numerous philanthropists and foundation executives visiting the graduate level Nonprofit Fundraising course that my colleague Dr. Bob Grimm and I are co-teaching at the University of Maryland this semester. The head … [Read more...] about What Donors Want
Execution Beats Strategy?
While I preach and preach about the importance of having an excellent, coherent strategy I cannot deny the overwhelming importance of great execution. In recent weeks I have worked with two top leaders (both women incidentally)who are fantastic at execution - which has driven this home. The importance of being able to GSD (Get Stuff Done) is always vital, as two friends of … [Read more...] about Execution Beats Strategy?
Happiness Traps
Can too much of a good thing be bad for you? Yes – suggests Annie McKee, author of How to Be Happy at Work*. She identifies three “traps” that successful people often fall into at work – success strategies that go too far. *The Ambition Trap. A laser focus on success – especially when combined with competitiveness to be the best - can actually be a trap for the high … [Read more...] about Happiness Traps