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Leadership development

Yes, Your Mind Can Grow

Yes, Your Mind Can Grow

by amiel · Sep 30, 2014

I want to invite you to take on a new project in your life. It’s challenging, but has big payoffs. It’s weird, but will help you get along with a wider range of people with less stress. It takes effort, but will resolve many problems you are submerged in today.

The project? Grow your mind.

I’m going to wager that growing your mind doesn’t appear on any action lists, on your calendar, or even in your life design (if you have one). In fact, I’m going to double down and bet that this is one of the first times you’ve been invited to grow your mind. Unless, of course, you read this teaser.

There’s a reason why this is a foreign concept. Until recently, people believed that growing up ends at adulthood. As soon as you hit your full height, you might get slimmer, and you might get fatter, but otherwise you are done. The way you are at age 20 is essentially the way you’ll be at 40 and 80.

Buterfly

Or so the theory goes.

And, if you think about it, the theory works really well for people who aren’t open to developing. If you don’t like how I lead my team, the way I communicate, or how I handle conflict, tough luck. That’s how I roll.  ENTJ, thank you very much. Sure, I may change a few behaviors, but on the inside, what you see is what you get. I yam what I yam, and that’s all that I yam. Popeye said it in 1929, and many of us believe it today. [Read more…] about Yes, Your Mind Can Grow

Filed Under: Books, Complexity, Leadership development Tagged With: complexity, grow your mind, Leadership, meditation, neuroscience

Regaining Center After The Bull Strikes

Regaining Center After The Bull Strikes

by amiel · Sep 26, 2014

He came after me like a bull charging a matador.

“What’s your success rate? I need numbers. What percentage of your clients get promotions?”

These were fair questions for a prospective client interview, and I’d heard them before. But this man, an up-and-coming executive, delivered them with an intensity and ferocity that was surprising. He was testing not only my experience, but also my fortitude.

“I’m not sure,” I stammered, suddenly feeling like a six-year-old boy facing the class bully in a far corner of the playground. “I, um, haven’t tracked that too closely.”

Six-year-olds don’t make good matadors. This bull tasted blood.

“Then what are you going to do for me? What…are…you…going…to…do…for…me?” [Read more…] about Regaining Center After The Bull Strikes

Filed Under: Body posture, Deliberate practice, Emotions, Leadership development, Physical energy Tagged With: body posture, deliberate practice, emotions, Leadership, physical energy

My Interview on Hispanic MPR

by amiel · Sep 11, 2014

Hispanic MPR has posted an interview they did with me about my book, Practice Greatness.

This is my second interview about the book, and I am pleased by how well it went. Although I stumbled a bit early on, after about five minutes, I picked up my stride. We dug into some meaty questions, and I think he interviewer, Elena del Valle, did a really nice job.

To listen online or download the iTunes podcast, go to this web page

And please tell me what you think!

Filed Under: Deliberate practice, Emotions, Engagement, Leadership development Tagged With: hispanic, interview, MPR, practice greatness

Make life bigger than “Yes” versus “No”

Make life bigger than “Yes” versus “No”

by amiel · Aug 20, 2014

Many people want you to stop saying “Yes” to everything. It’s overloading your life, sapping your energy, and keeping you from doing the meaningful stuff. Jeff Goins calls this “the small but soul-crushing word you use every day.”

Their solution? Say “No.”

This recommendation isn’t wrong, just incomplete. What it leaves out are two other legitimate responses to requests. By incorporating these into your repertoire, you not only free yourself from overscheduling. You also live a bigger life.

Yes vs No

But first…

The virtues of saying “No”

Let’s give “No” its due. If you’re the kind of person who agrees to everything, making more frequent use of “No” helps you: [Read more…] about Make life bigger than “Yes” versus “No”

Filed Under: Accountability, Leadership development, Promises, Words that work Tagged With: Accountability, Leadership development, life, life lessons, Promises, Words that work

Luck matters

Luck matters

by amiel · Jul 25, 2014

Luck matters. We hate to admit it, but it does.

Let’s start with DNA. Your genes are responsible for 50 percent of your happiness. It’s called the “genetic set point.” Don’t buy this? Talk with twins who’ve been apart for forty years. Or take a look at the research. The conclusion is clear: half of your happiness is determined at your birth. You can pick your jeans but not your genes.
Green hat
Now consider demographics. How much wealth you are born into. The color of your skin. The place where you grow up. You don’t control these either.
Luck matters.
Yet we convince ourselves it does not.

[Read more…] about Luck matters

Filed Under: Leadership development Tagged With: Leadership development, luck, luck matters

The Race of Our Lives

The Race of Our Lives

by amiel · Jun 23, 2014

The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervenor.
—Bill O’Brien, former CEO of Hanover Insurance Company

We’re in the race of our lives. It’s not between the “good guys” and “bad guys” but between the complexity of our world and the capacity of our minds to manage this complexity—and the amount of energy we have to fuel us.

leader

We know from Jim Collins’s survey of 1400 companies that transforming from “good to great” requires Level 5 leadership: a paradoxical blend of professional ambition and personal humility. We also know from longitudinal research of small- and mid-sized organizations that organizations’ capacity to transform is directly related to top executives’ ability to integrate different perspectives, use a broad repertoire of power approaches, and self-correct.

That’s where leadership comes in.

[Read more…] about The Race of Our Lives

Filed Under: Complexity, Leadership development Tagged With: Leadership development, life, life lessons, race

On-the-Job Experience Plus Deliberate Practice

by amiel · Jun 17, 2014

It’s rare for major business journals to talk about experience-based leadership development. So I was pleasantly surprised to see an interview with Cynthia McCauley of the Center for Creative Leadership in Strategy + Business. McCauley describes why on-the-job experience, rather than formal training, is important to developing leadership:

Leaders who step into new situations face challenges that call for untested abilities. They continue to develop their capacities and successfully take on higher levels of leadership responsibility. That’s consistent with what we know about adult learning and development, too: People learn how to do things when they’re put in situations where they have to do them and practice doing them.

This may sound obvious, but few organizations build leadership development around on-the-job experience. Instead, they offer formal training and possibly mentoring or coaching. Therefore, there is a great opportunity to improve leadership quality by matching leaders who are good at learning with experiences that teach them what they need to learn. [Read more…] about On-the-Job Experience Plus Deliberate Practice

Filed Under: Deliberate practice, Leadership development Tagged With: deliberate practice, interview, Leadership, Leadership development, ojt, on-the-job-experience, practice

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