Musings on Leadership

This week's leadership lesson is inspired by the move, " We Were Soldiers ", starring Mel Gibson. The movie is based on a real life battle during the Viet Nam War. Mel played Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 7th Calvary. On November 14, 1965, Lt. Col. Moore, and 450 of his men, were dropped by helicopter into the la Drang valley. They were immediately surrounded by around 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Thus began the first full-fledged battle between U.S. and North Vietnamese soldiers. Over the next two days U.S. soldiers were killed but they inflicted around 1,200 casualties and forced the Communist forces to withdraw. The movie, and the battle on which it was based teaches us 10 leadership lessons:(You can read General Moore’s  book .) Be head strong. when the setbacks come (and they will), a leader picks themselves up and keeps moving forward. There's always a way. Either you find one, or you make one. If you think you might fail in a giv

This week's tip comes from the book " The Mousetrap Way " by Manoj Vasudevan. I was lucky enough to sit in on the session at the Toastmasters International Convention in Vancouver in 2017 (I believe) that was inspired by his book. I'm going to abbreviate it some to make for a shorter read. Once upon a time there was a poor farmer who lived with his wife in a small house. One day the poor farmer bought a mouse trap because his wife had complained about the mouse in the house. The mouse panicked and ran out into the yard where he saw the hen, the pig, and the cow. He ran up to the hen and said, “ There’s a mousetrap in the house! ” The hen clucked, “ Mr. Mouse, I understand that this is a grave concern to you but it is not my problem. ” The pig grunted, “ I’m very sorry Mr. Mouse. There’s nothing I can do. Be assured you’re in my prayers. ” The cow said, “ I’m so sorry for you Mr. Mouse but have you ever heard of a cow getting caught in a mousetrap? It’s not my problem.

This week's post is  inspired by a quote from legendary basketball coach John Wooden. During a 12-year period as the head coach of the UCLA Bruins' basketball team, Coach Wooden led them to ten NCAA national championships, including a record seven in a row. During this stretch his teams won a NCAA record 88 consecutive games. I think it's fair to say that coach Wooden knew a thing or two about leadership. Coach Wooden said, " Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. " Focus on what you can control As leaders we’re often faced with problems. When we try to brainstorm solutions, either in our mind or with our fellow club officers, we fall into the trap of finding problems with every proposed solution, why we CAN’T do what’s being suggested. Focusing on what we can’t do makes the problem seem even more difficult to solve. After a while you begin to think that it’s unsolvable. But what if we change the dialogue just a little? What if we ask, and f

This week's post comes from the blog of Jesse Lyn Stoner of the Seapoint Center for Collaborative Leadership: Congratulations! They’ve made you a manager of other people. Now what? Maybe you’ve had bad managers in the past and think that this is your chance to do it right. The jump from being an individual contributor to first-time manager is a dramatic and challenging one. It requires you completely change the way you see your role and how you produce results. You may have been a fantastic worker at your job. Does that mean you’ll be a fantastic manager? Not necessarily. Hopefully these tips will get you off on the right foot. Approach your new role with humility While you might THINK you know what a good manager should do, it’s really not as easy as it might look. Understand that you’re going to make mistakes. You’ll earn the respect of your team when you own up to your mistakes and ask for help now and then. Change your focus. You might have been a superstar as an individual co