Where does leadership come from?

Are leaders born or created? We've all seen the spark of natural leadership in someone. Looking at those people we think that they have it easy. The fact of the matter is, leadership is just like football, ballroom dancing, or acting. The people who have the natural talent can sometimes fall behind those with less talent but more commitment to old-fashioned hard work. True leaders combine natural talent with personal reflection, continued study, and practice.

Over the past year, I began the process of studying leadership. My path is just beginning but I'm hoping you'll come with me. I'll be looking at some of the current books and theories in the marketplace. I would love to hear your suggestions and your stories of places you've seen great leadership in action - remember to keep them anonymous. Thank you for joining me on this journey!

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What an Extraverted Intuitive Needs to be Productive

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is based on the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung. Jung observed that people have inborn preferences for gathering information and making decisions and that these preferences guide an individual’s behavior. The mother/daughter team of Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers expanded on Jung’s theories and created an assessment to make the combined work accessible to all individuals. Today, the assessment is used by most Fortune 100 companies and over two million people worldwide, annually. The assessment identifies an individual’s inborn preferences on four dichotomous scales: where you focus your energy, how you prefer to take in information, how you make decisions, and how you deal with the outer world. Type is best used to understand other people, improve communication, and develop individual skills. The first dichotomy is Extraversion (gets energy from other people) and Introversion (gets energy from reflection). The second is

What is True Self Awareness and Why is Important for Personal/Professional Development?

You know my opinion that when it comes to professional development , you get out of a program what you put into it. So now you get my opinion on the single most important element of personal/professional development.  SELF AWARENESS   What is it? Self awareness is knowing your strengths and how to maximize them, knowing your weaknesses and how to buffer them, knowing that you have blind spots and being open to feedback about them, and being willing to do the necessary reflection and work to constantly improve yourself. I have observed so many people in leadership development programs (1 hour to 18 month) listen to an amazing instructor describe an action, reaction, or career derailer and immediately speak up and identify someone else who has that quality. You would not believe how often, that person has the same quality. However, they often even follow up with because of my experience working with that person I make a point to not do this. Awkward... Honestly, this perso

Vacations

I know, you don't have time to take a vacation, you can't be away from the office, people who take vacations are looked down upon by senior management, etc. Throw your excuses away! I just came back from a ten day trip with my 14-month old Thomas-the-Train addicted toddler. We took a 26-hour Amtrak trip each way and spent eight days with my parents. Before I left I mentioned my hesitancy to a friend, "I will miss the office because I sincerely love my job" and received the best advice ever. He told me he and his wife had a deal that he was more fun on vacation if he was plugged in. He would spend a small amount of time each day tending to business and then focus entirely on family the rest of the day. So I tried that. It was hard the first couple of days to turn my brain off in between, I will admit it. But I got to the point where I could leave my blackberry and only check it twice a day, respond to e-mails and ask if I could respond when I returned from vac

Strategic Serendipity

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