Leadership Attitude: The Stockdale Paradox
James B. Stockdale was one of the highly respected Vice admiral in the history of United States Navy. He set a remarkable example and won many awards for his high levels of spirit, courage and endurance. He was also Vice Presidential candidate in 1992.
The Leader as a Mentor and a Director
As a leader you must be many things to many people. We have discussed in previous posts the need for a leader to be a visionary because involving people in realizing a compelling vision provides a beacon for the future and a standard of excellence. We have also talked about the leader’s role as a coach. A leader as a coach reinforces the results they believe people are capable of achieving as winning depends on execution.
How to Do What Great Leaders Do
Successful managers and good leaders share certain practices that enable them to continue, day after day, to motivate others, grow companies and achieve personal as well as professional success. True leaders know that the qualities they need to succeed come from first knowing themselves, and then from learning all they can about the world around them. These are the skills they must practice constantly to remain focused and true to their commitments. These activities can be broken down into 5 basic steps:
Communicating Within a System: Appreciating and Respecting Individual Differences
Like it or not we all live and communicate within systems. A system being defined as a group of people with which we must interact on a regular basis. For most of us we all have to go to work, we all go home to our families, and many of us are involved in other systems such as Church, Teams, and School. That being said it is very important to learn to communicate effectively with the people within our systems. It is important to learn to appreciate and respect the different personality types, the different strengths that individuals offer within our system. Conversely it is important to recognize and respect the weaknesses of people within our system. We all have our behavioral strengths and weaknesses, respecting those differences creates healthy systems.
U.S. Military Code Talkers – The Navajo Unwritten Words
Words from the wise never had a cryptic meaning until the Navajo ‘Code Talkers,’ later romanticized by the movie Wind Talkers, became the saving secret code during World War II. Recently, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, were honored by a visit from four Navajo Code Talkers. Their native tongue foiled the Japanese attempts to further assault Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
