I can always avoid one mistake, the mistake of inaction. Every choice matters. Failing to choose is choosing inaction. Often failing to choose is a choosing to fail.
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“Why?” can be a challenging question. Do you use it as an excuse for the past or as a reason for the future? Does the answer to your “Why?” hold you back or launch you?
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This is the 5th in a series of 6 articles on the attitude adjustments I had to make when I became a manager. With little management training and only a few managers to use for examples, my early management experiences were frustrating and demoralizing. I was drained, stressed and exhausted all the time. It seemed like everything was wrong.
Often in the workplace, a common solution to problems is to offer more training. Continue Reading…
My first management job felt like boot camp or pledge week for 2 years. Almost everything I did was wrong or hard, and I used to say “half of what I know and everything I didn’t know was bad.” It was a draining and trying time.
My life returned and my development as a leader progressed only when I started to embrace new (for me) ideas for leadership. I call those Attitude Adjustments. You can read about the others here. Today’s adjustment, the 4th in this series, is the idea that everyone leads.
This is the 3rd in a series of stories about my leadership journey. My first management position was less than successful. As I’ve moved beyond that job, I’ve learned about a few attitude adjustments necessary for leadership transformation.
The problems in my first management position stemmed from everyone having their own vision for the future. It occurred to me that, even though I was the boss, each team member was free to make their own choices. The scope of my leadership could never eclipse their power to choose. Everyone chooses the energy and the passion and the interest they bring to a job. We also may be free to chose the method. And for many even what they choose to do and the order they choose are up to them. Either your team chooses to do what was best for the organization or they didn’t. In the end, few people do things because they have to. They choose to do them because they believe the choices will get them where they want to go.
Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest on November 16 says, “The tendency is to look for the marvelous in our experience; we mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes.” Continue Reading…
Mike Henry Sr. 