Box of delight

My parents have told me my entire life that I shouldn’t care about what people think. When, during my K-12 school years, some of my classmates laughed at my nerdiness, my style, my accent, or anything else, my parents often told me that those individuals didn’t buy my clothes or feed me, so I should just ignore them. Although it’s easier said than done, their advice has stayed with me over the years.

In our world, we see so much around us through different media that we often become immune to messages and sometimes even cynical.

This video touched me so deeply that it brought tears to my eyes!!!!!

More and more companies want to lessen gender bias in the workplace, but I contend they may be overlooking one of the most obvious, everyday breeding grounds for sexism: meetings.  In my just-released TEDx talk, I offer 3 ways that men and women can reduce gender bias through better meeting culture.

Similar images of the ‘Iceberg of Ignorance‘ have been around for decades. Today they are spreading like wildfire on social media, rapidly becoming one of the most shared legends of popular management culture.

It all originated (so it is said) in 1989 when consultant Sidney Yoshida produced his study called ‘The Iceberg of Ignorance‘. (Unfortunately, we couldn’t get our hands on the original.) Allegedly, Yoshida revealed what he saw in the work and leadership habits of Japanese car manufacturer, Calsonic.

Over the years, great leaders have risen to the forefront of our daily news and history books and made their mark in the world. But when you take a step back and observe, you’ll realize that most of these heroic figures share many of the same leadership qualities; in essence, they had figured out the formula for leadership success.

Every team needs a fearless leader to help them grow and to push them to be the best that they can be. But starting a business and leading a group of people require very different skills. Being a leader in your company means everything from keeping your employees happy, to making sure that everyone is doing their part, to sometimes having to deal with difficult situations. Become an effective business leader and inspire your team with these tops tips from Instant Offices.

Are you like many leaders, or aspiring leaders, and ask yourself, What kind of leader am I? Or do you wonder about the type of leader you want to be? If so, you most likely have consulted many of the published websites, books, and models that exist to answer these essential questions.  In this search, you have probably reviewed Bass and Avolio’s full range of leadership model. The full range of leadership model compares transactional to transformational leadership styles based on the types of behaviors leaders exhibit (Bass & Avolio, 1994). The model argues transformational leadership is what we should aspire to practice as leaders.

You do not need to manage a team of 100 people, in order to start working on your leadership style. No matter if your team is huge or incredibly small, you will always get the best performance and achieve highest results if you ensure that your substance, style, and service as a boss is helping you to lead an autonomous and empowered group of successful people doing a successful job. In the frenetic natural tendency to overcome the so-called "impostor syndrome" while getting to achieve greater power and glory, managers often envision their team solely as a supportive pillar necessary to help them to scale up their results. Too rarely, they realize that the people they manage can be a powerful ecosystem with independent life and potential to be unleashed. Empowered and autonomous ecosystems could bring it much further than expected in the business plan.

Do you ever suffer from self-doubt?  I hope so!  If I met a Head who told me they never doubted themselves, then… Put it this way: I wouldn’t want my children at their school!

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same…” is a line inscribed above the entrance to Wimbledon’s Centre Court, for players see before they battle of the most coveted and prestigious tennis cup.

Advantexe presents 5 critical skills needed to develop to trust yourself to be able to lead and measure the success of virtual teams.