For a manager to be perceived as a positive manager, they need a four to one positive to negative contact ratio.Collection: Positive
One of the topics I'm most passionate about is servant leadership - the greatest leaders recognize that they're here to serve, not to be served.Collection: Leadership
Leadership is not about you; it's about investing in the growth of others.Collection: Leadership
People will resist change when it's done to them, not with them.Collection: Change
Growing, for leaders, is like oxygen to a deep sea diver. Without learning and growing, leaders die in terms of their effectiveness.Collection: Learning
The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.Collection: Leadership
In the past a leader was a boss. Today's leaders must be partners with their people... they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.Collection: Power
Too many leaders act as if the sheep... their people... are there for the benefit of the shepherd, not that the shepherd has responsibility for the sheep.
I think a great leader is somebody who realizes it's not about them, it's about the people that they're serving, that they're really other-directed rather than self- directed.
'One Minute Mentoring' is written in the parable style Spencer Johnson and I popularized in 'The One Minute Manager.' It's an entertaining story about the mentorship between a young salesperson, Josh, and a seasoned executive named Diane. As the characters learn about mentoring, so does the reader.
At Southwest, they're on a mission to democratize air travel. When they first started, the only people who could fly were relatively wealthy businesspeople, and Herb Kelleher's vision was to offer everyone the chance to visit a friend or relative during a happy and a sad time. That's a vision employees can get excited about.
'Lead with LUV' is the first book I've ever done that's just a pure conversation between my coauthor and me.
I absolutely believe in the power of tithing and giving back. My own experience about all the blessings I've had in my life is that the more I give away, the more that comes back. That is the way life works, and that is the way energy works.
If people aren't clear on what business you're in, what you're trying to accomplish, your values, your goals, then shame on you. It doesn't mean you shouldn't involve them. It's just your responsibility to make sure that that's clear.
The biggest obstacle that stalls leaders' growth is the human ego. When leaders start to think they know it all, they stop growing.
As a leader, you absolutely must expend your energy engaging your frontline employees so that they will take care of customers, who will tell stories about how great your company is to other people, who will become new customers.
When you write a business fable, people get caught up in the story and don't get judgmental about what you're teaching them. If you're teaching a bunch of concepts, people get skeptical and say, 'Where'd you get that research?' But if you tell them a story, they get caught up in it while they learn.
The productivity of a work group seems to depend on how the group members see their own goals in relation to the goals of the organization.
Some people are really good at the visionary role. They're like third grade teachers who tell people the vision and values over and over and over until they get it right, right, right. But they're not implementers. If they're good leaders, they gather people around them who can take the implementation role and move it forward.
Too often in business, only financial data is gathered - and then it is distributed only to management. Other key indicators that relate to performance areas also need to be tracked. Information on performance has to be made available to those people who can best use it - those doing the work.
Values-based business behavior is no longer simply an interesting option - it's crucial to your survival. Once you understand your mission and values, you have a strong basis for evaluating your practices and aligning them accordingly.
Many companies claim they have core values, but typically what they're referring to are generic beliefs: having integrity, making a profit, responding to customers and so on. These values only have meaning when they're defined in terms of how people behave and are ranked to set priorities.
Managing by values - not by profits - is a powerful process that will set your business on the path to becoming what I call a 'Fortunate 500' company.
At my company, we have 300 employees spread across offices all over the world, and I send them all a voicemail each morning with a message from me about why our work is important and a reminder about one of our values. I call myself our company's 'chief spiritual officer.'
If your employees are disengaged, and they don't take care of your customers, it doesn't matter how good your strategy is - your customers will still go somewhere else.
There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when it's convenient. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses - only results.Collection: Success
Servant-leader ship is all about making the goals clear and then rolling your sleeves up and doing whatever it takes to help people win. In that situation, they don't work for you, you work for them.Collection: Winning
Start your day with good intentions and set yourself up for a good attitude. It's not what happens to you that matters but how you respond.Collection: Attitude
Leadership is not something you do to people. It's something you do with people.Collection: People
Learning is defined as a change in behavior. You haven't learned a thing until you take action and use it.Collection: Use
Humility does not mean you think less of yourself. It means you think of yourself less.Collection: Inspirational
Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity, and meaning in their job.Collection: Inspirational
Many people measure their success by wealth, recognition, power and status. There's nothing wrong with those, but if that's all you're focused on, you're missing the boat...if you focus on significance -using your time and talent to serve others -that's when truly meaningful success can come your way.Collection: Meaningful
Your role as a leader is even more important than you might imagine. You have the power to help people become winners.Collection: Teacher
Vision is knowing who you are, where you're going, and what will guide your journey.Collection: Journey
Empowering means helping teams develop their skills and knowledge and supporting them to use their talents.Collection: Team
When you stop learning you stop growing.Collection: Growing
What we give our attention to, grows.Collection: Giving
As a manager the important thing is not what happens when you are there, but what happens when you are not thereCollection: Business
Effective team leaders adjust their style to provide what the group can't provide for itself.Collection: Team