Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights air jordan clearance outlet , the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. Peter Drucker
Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the seat belt sign. Please return to your seats and make sure your seatbelt is fastened tightly around you. We are encountering some unexpected turbulence. I have no idea what that turbulence will be, the source of it, the cause of it, or the cure for it. But I can guarantee it will come. And like the captain of a 747 air jordan clearance youth , your job as the boss, will be to make decisions that help all those on board with you navigate the sometimes unfriendly and uncharted skies of your particular industry. You will make decisions that affect you, but more importantly, you will make decisions that will affect many, possibly thousands of other people. That's what bosses do. They take charge in turbulent time.
Why would anyone want to be led by you? That's the question that needs to frame your journey to better leadership. If you have a hard time answering that one, try this one air jordan clearance womens , "Would you want you for a boss?" When someone answers with an awkward silence or a stare similar to a dog watching a ceiling fan, you can infer that the answer is "no." The next questions are, "What makes you think others want you for their boss?" and "What are you doing that you wouldn't want your boss to do?" As simple as the exercise is, it is eye opening in almost every case.
To score a leader's version of the rainbow's pot of gold, you'll need to rouse others with confidence in you and inspire them with assurance in themselves. Lou Holtz, famed Notre Dame football coach air jordan clearance mens , captured the essence of this daunting task in three questions that he speculated people always ask about their leaders:
Are you committed to excellence?
Can I trust you?
Do you care about me? There are many myths about great leadership and just as many pieces of advice to match them. But Lou Holtz's questions make it all very simple. Can your direct reports answer "yes" to all three?
Are You Committed To Excellence?
People want to play on a winning team, and most realize that hard work and sacrifice make a team win. Football players suit up to practice in the 100 degree temperatures of August not because they like it, but because they know it is part of attaining excellence. Your direct reports are no different. They expect you to demand what it takes to separate your company from the competition.
During his tenure on the speaking circuit, Lou Holtz told stories of inspiring his team by saying that he had called the coach at the University of Michigan to see if he would agree to easy practices for his players so that the Notre Dame players could take it easy that day. Their coach said he wouldn't agree, so he couldn't let them off easy either. As he explained, if the competition is doing it air jordan clearance sale , we have to do it if we are going to beat them in the opening game of the season.
From the time we are children, we understand that excellence requires hard work. People won't grouse about it if they think you are really striving for superiority. What is the essence of excellence? Leo Tolstoy wrote "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," an observation that is probably applicable to top performers too. Successful bosses are all alike in how they commit themselves to the pursuit of excellence by committing to their own improvement, an ongoing and never ending quest to attain new levels of achievement.
The single worst thing that can happen to cause you to cease being excellent is that you will exhaust your intellectual capital and reach your level of incompetence. Early in your career you dedicated yourself to learning, growing, and experiencing. Now air jordan shoes clearance , you are bogged down in the perpetual challenges of getting results. Stephen Covey talked about the successful wood cutter taking time to sharpen his saw. Trying to cut with a dull saw keeps you in motion and lets others know you are busy and dedicated, but it's not the smartest way to operate. You become so busy doing that you forget about learning, the intellectual equivalent to sharpening the saw. You need to learn faster now, so take the time to learn how to learn. It can pay enormous dividends.
The first step is to gather relevant information about yourself. You probably already know most of your strengths and weaknesses, but knowing what others think they are can be truly eye opening. One of the best ways to find out is to ask. That can take several forms, but probably one of the most effective is the multi-rater 360 instrument. A well-crafted survey will capture the opinions of direct reports air jordan clearance , peers, and your boss, if you have one. Once you understand what their perceptions are, you will be able to take steps to improve in ways that they think you should. The experience is usually both educational and beneficial. Once you know how your behavior affects your team's productivity, you will be equipped to make changes and to offer more coaching, all important first steps for building trust.