Last week, the VP of Engineering in a large company was aggravated with the slow pace in his engineering organizations’ implementation of their innovation training. Over the last year and a half, they had invested in Innovation Engineering training and he was seeing little of their learning come through in their actual day to day work and performance results. Their communication and interactions were showing the same old narrow thinking and outdated (5 Why) problem solving. Two-Day, two-week or two-month long training events that add tools to our tool belts are awesome. The problem is that the vast majority of.

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Working with some of the largest companies in Energy, Manufacturing and Technology brings the opportunity to work with a great many leaders who served in the military. As you would expect, they bring tremendous skills and experience in mental toughness, driving for results, and high accountability and ownership. Their military education is a strong foundation for their leadership. At times though, I’ll work with an individual so intent on proving he’s the world’s greatest leader, that he has forgotten how to follow. An essential part of that military education and the ability to perform at an elite level with your.

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In 1657, Blaise Pascal apologized for the extravagant length of a four page letter, “Please excuse the length of this letter. I had not the time to make it one page.” Pascal was famous for comprising much in few words and his note was quite memorable, making it into several books and other people’s messages. Where are you using too many words? Do you see how it could be working against you? In a recent team session: “What’s your 2 Word Check-in today?” Joe asked, kicking off the team call. “Well, it’s been a crazy morning. I had a customer.

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When we are holding those around us accountable, why is it that we are so often afraid that we’re seen as the a$$hole? I mean, let’s break this down and actually think about it. Scenario:
 An individual on your team is demonstrating career limiting behavior—let’s just call him Leave Early Larry. Larry likes to stop working early and get paid for a full day. He does this more days than not. He’s a pretty good guy, you rationalize. He’s got good sense and works pretty hard most of the time. Besides, I don’t want to be a jerk and make.

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Sadly, many of us have learned to bubble-wrap our opinions/thoughts/ideas/feedback for a number of reasons: The first manager you ever had taught you that bubble-wrapping worked because he is uncomfortable with conflict, so he avoided it. And so did you. (Heck, what did you know? You were fresh out of college and just wanted to do well at your first job!) Your employee who bursts into tears every time she’s given feedback has taught you to avoid the situation altogether. (Understandable!) So you avert your eyes, keep a healthy distance and bubble-wrap the hell out of everything you say to.

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Sitting in my Wednesday 7:30 a.m. meeting, I was reminded of Brittany, when she was 8 years old, trying sneak some extra play time on her handheld game at bed time. Lying in bed as John went to tuck her in, she thought no one would notice. “Whatch’ya doing, kiddo?” John asked, chuckling. “Nothin,” she said with wide-eyed innocence, only her head peeping out of the Hannah Montana blanket. “Do you realize that the light on your game is showing through Hannah’s guitar?” She was busted. Now, as I listened to our speaker, I watched five colleagues strain their necks.

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In our previous post, I shared that my Shao-lin Kung Fu and Tai Chi classes continue to reinforce the life leadership tools I share with my clients and use in my own life. In our slow motion sparring, three life leadership lessons emerge: Partnering Neutralizing Cultivating 2-way Growth In sparring, when I saw my partner chambering for a kick, my immediate response was to back away. Far away! I was afraid, I admit, and definitely not confident in my abilities. Thankfully, after I did this several times, my partner (an instructor) stopped and pointed out what I was doing. He.

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In Shaolin class , we’re partnered to practice two self defense techniques for breaking a bear hug. My partner, Tom, a big teddy bear at 6’ pushing 260 lbs at least, has me in a bear hug. I turn to drive my elbows into his forearms for the first part of the technique and he immediately lets go of me. Maybe he’s uncomfortable working with a female. Maybe my deodorant isn’t working. I figure he’s just getting comfortable, so we go into two more tries. And he lets go right away again! Now I’m getting frustrated. How in the heck.

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My Shao-lin Kung Fu and Tai Chi classes at The Peaceful Dragon continue to reinforce the life leadership tools I share with my clients and use in my own life. Last week we had a very cool exercise—slow motion sparring. This practice provides many benefits including helping us to combine our single techniques for practical application, and more importantly to increase our self awareness. Three life leadership lessons emerged at once: Partnering Neutralizing Cultivating 2-way Growth I’ll expand on Partnering today. In sparring, instead of calling the other student “opponent,” we call one another “partner.” As we partner with different.

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