Leading on Shifting Sand

October 20th, 2011

Traditional leadership models focus on action, performance, and results. Leaders scrutinize and streamline critical external resources and activities to get results in ways that are better, faster, and smarter. While these essential objectives will always be relevant to business, a new leadership paradigm is emerging for the 21st century and beyond. While leadership models of the past did not fully address the human side of leaders, we now know it to be the most critical element in creating the ultimate, sustainable success for an organization. In business, the threat is no longer just the competitive “jungle out there” but also the lack of clarity within the leader. With longevity and legacy on their minds, CEOs are now adopting holistic models where thriving replaces surviving, where values of inclusion and collaboration replace the old school of exclusion and competition. In the wise words of Steve Green, a CEO from Savannah, Georgia, “Leadership is not about being the smartest person in the room but getting the smartest people in the room.” Read more »

Four Memorable Quotes from Real-Time Leaders

July 8th, 2011

I’ve had the delightful experience of being able to interview inspirational CEOs and business leaders over the past months as I prepare for my upcoming book. I continue to be amazed and inspired by their stories, their competence, and generosity. I leave every interview feeling energized and inspired and I want to “be better” just by hearing their story.

Below are a few of the quotes that have been memorable:

“Leadership does not accrue to those with longest seniority-but to those who earn it every day.” — Eric Norwood, CEO, Dekalb Medical Center, Decatur, GA

“Leadership is not about being the smartest person in the room, but getting the smartest people in the room.” — Steve Green, CEO and President of Stephen Green Properties, Savannah, GA

Read more »

Reasons Why Poor Employee Performance May be YOUR Fault (Part I)

May 26th, 2011

I have recently met with three different companies who are interested in Executive Brilliance’s services and they ALL had almost identical needs and challenges. Top executives at each of these companies expressed the need for assistance in closing the gap between what management expected and how employees were performing. They need their people to step up their game and be more proactive in business development or for their managers to develop employees within their departments. This is especially important as the economy is beginning to improve.

This challenge of aligning expectations and achieving results is so common and pervasive; I thought it might be beneficial to discuss them as YOU are probably experiencing them as well. What we find at Executive Brilliance is most organizations make the same mistakes over and over again and are unaware of what they are doing – they simply know they are not achieving the business results they desire. I’ll start with one common mistake today (along with the solution) and address two more next week. Read more »

Your Body Talks – Do You Know What It’s Saying?

May 12th, 2011

Recently my husband and I saw the Blue Man Group in Las Vegas. The show was absolutely fascinating and totally entertaining from beginning to end! It was hard for me to watch the show while wondering what all that blue ‘stuff’ was on their heads, how they thought up the different activities they do, wondering if we were going to get splattered with paint, and trying to figure out how they come off stage and walk on the chairs of the audience. I was totally enamored with the entire performance.

What was most fascinating to me was how they communicated so clearly without ever saying a word. There were sounds from the different instruments and their drums but not a single word was spoken for two hours! They did, however, speak clearly with their expressions and movements. Not only did they communicate with each other but when they invited a woman from the audience to come up and participate she knew what to do without ANY verbal words being spoken.

”What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

This was tangible evidence of how our bodies, eyes, facial expressions and movements speak volumes about us. A study at UCLA revealed 93% Read more »

Four Leadership Lessons I Learned from a Colonoscopy

April 8th, 2011

doctor holding clipboardYou may find it hard to make the connection between any medical procedure and leadership, let alone a colonoscopy! I know I would have never put the two together until my recent experience.

I heard most of my life how awful a colonoscopy could be.  The prep is difficult, the drink you have to take is horrendous, and…it’s a colonoscopy! Guess what? I found it wasn’t so bad after all.  Was it the most fun experience I’ve ever had? No. Was the drink I had to drink delicious? Of course not…but it wasn’t that bad either.

The day before you can only have fluids to ‘clear your system’.  I actually enjoyed drinking the fluids and enjoyed the broth I ate.  I felt energized rather than depleted by the process.

When I arrived for the procedure – the process was seamless. I was seen within 15 minutes of arrival and greeted by the staff who were organized, pleasant and competent. The drugs were as wonderful as I had heard and I awakened in a totally alert state with no grogginess at all.

My husband played taxi cab driver for me and stayed with me all day to ‘be sure I was ok’, A friend called in the afternoon to check on me to see how it went.

As I went through this experience I found some parallel’s to effective leadership today.  Call me weird, but here are the four leadership lessons I learned from a colonoscopy: Read more »