Blind Spots.

In cars, we have blind spots where we can’t see what is going on right around us. The larger those blind spots are, the more dangerous we are.

We can have blind spots in our life as well – things and behaviours that we do that we don’t understand or appreciate the impact that they have on others and in ourselves. In her book, Fearless Leadership, Loretta Malandro, PhD., identifies 10 behavioural blind spots that can derail leaders.

Click here to find out what these 10 blind spots are and how you can spot them:

Understanding is the first step. Identifying our own blind spots is the harder part. One way you can do this is to ask a few trusted confidants to work closely with us and point out where they see our blind spots.

This is a hard exercise but one that is very beneficial. We don’t like to hear about our faults. Others don’t like to point them out. But if we are open to growing and learning, then by identifying our own weaknesses, we can start the process of improvement and become more effective leaders.

Captain James T. Kirk is one of the most famous Captains in the history of Starfleet. There’s a good reason for that. He saved the planet Earth several times, stopped the Doomsday Machine, helped negotiate peace with the Klingon Empire, kept the balance of power between the Federation and the Romulan Empire, and even managed to fight Nazis. On his five-year mission commanding the U.S.S. Enterprise, as well as subsequent commands, James T. Kirk was a quintessential leader, who led his crew into the unknown and continued to succeed time and time again.

Kirk’s success was no fluke, either. His style of command demonstrates a keen understanding of leadership and how to maintain a team that succeeds time and time again, regardless of the dangers faced.

Here are five of the key leadership lessons that you can take away from Captain Kirk as you pilot your own organisation into unknown futures.

Click here to read the Captains Log

5000 years ago, a set of books known as "The Pentateuch" called it "zeal." 2000 years ago, another set of books known as "The Bible" called it "faith." 70 years ago, clergyman Norman Vincent Peale called it "positive thinking." 20 years ago, psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman called it "learned optimism." 2 years ago, Professor Shawn Achor called it the "happiness advantage."

But when you do a Google search on these terms, most people seem to lump them together and simply refer to them as "attitude," "positive attitude," or "positive thinking." There seems to be a general feeling ... that whatever you call it ... these terms have a lot to do with success in life and success at work.

And they're absolutely right. As Achor writes, "Recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that ... when we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work."

Even the "Harvard Business Review," on the cover of their January-February 2012 issue, featured a yellow smiley face with dollar signs as crinkles at each end of the smile. Superimposed on the face is the title, "The Value of Happiness: How Employee Well-Being Drives Profits." Inside, the article proclaims: "Emerging research from neuroscience, psychology, and economics makes the link between a thriving workforce and better business performance absolutely clear."

Here are some amazing tools that make us better people and more valuable to our company."

Here's how its done...

Our bookshelves are lined with habits that successful people do on a daily basis. We read about them and implement them into our routines and practices. Quite often these practices improve our productivity and make our lives better as a result. But that’s not what this article is about. It’s not about what successful people do, but what they did.

Here’s a brief study of 10 things that these hungry and unstoppable people did to see the success they all eventually achieved.

Click Here To Read The 10 Things Successful People Live By Before They Make It

What’s the dumbest thing you’ve seen a leader do?”

In a recent Leadership class we got to talking about some of dumb things they've seen some leaders do.  In no time at all we had quite a comprehensive list.

Seems that behaving like a numpty might not be as rare as you think.

See which ones you recognise in others that tell you they're not as smart as they think they are.

You might also be able to add your own to the list.

Please email me with you suggestions.

Here they are:

I often come across pathetic managers who are so poor at noticing performance that their team simply tolerates them. In some cases these managers are threatened by the success of others. They are de-motivators.

Successful managers build morale, motivation and enthusiasm, by using low or no cost rewards that highlight performance.

Rewards let us know what we do matters.

Honouring high performance reinforces high performance.

Within limits, you get more of what you reward. In a world of tight budgets here’s how to reward performance without breaking the bank.

Click here to read more:

We have been asked on many occasions “is there a simple test that can quickly determine an executive’s leadership ability?” The short answer is yes, but keep in mind, simple and fast aren’t always the same thing as effective.

There are a plethora of diagnostic tests, profiles, evaluations, and assessments that offer insights into leadership ability, or a lack thereof. The problem with these efforts is they are overly analytical, very theoretical, and subject to bias. That said, they are fast, easy, and relatively inexpensive. The good news is, there is a better way. If you really want to determine someone’s leadership ability, give them some responsibility and see what they do with it. Leaders produce results. It’s not always pretty, especially in the case of inexperienced leaders, but good leaders will find a way to get the job done.

One of the primary responsibilities of leadership is to create more and better leaders. John Maxwell said, “There is no success without a successor.”

It’s important to realise that just because someone is in a leadership position, doesn’t necessarily mean they should be. Put another way, not all leaders are created equal. The problem many organisations are suffering from is a recognition problem – they can’t seem to recognise good leaders from bad ones. Here’s how to spot ineffective leaders pointing out a few things that should be obvious, but apparently aren’t:

Click here to download the article.

The saying, "A picture's worth 1,000 words" is an old one that's been around a long time. And there's a reason for that . . . . it's because it's true. Neuroscientists have known for over a century that the more visual a message is, the more memorable it becomes. This 'rule' even has its own name - PSE (Pictorial Superiority Effect).

Tests have shown that about 10% of oral presentations is remembered 72 hours later, but this figure rockets to 65% if you add pictures.

President Obama's campaign speeches may have been effective without slides (even if you're a political opponent of his you can't argue with that; he did win the election), but how much of what he said did you remember 3 days later? Your memory was probably more of an emotional state in which you felt moved and motivated with a 'Yes, we can!' kind of spirit. But you probably didn't remember much of the actual content.

Why is this? Click here to find out more...

The best leaders promote a culture where their people value themselves, each other, the company and the customers.

Everyone understands how their work makes a difference and this helps to build a commitment to higher standards where everybody is always looking to do things better.

An inspired and motivated workforce is essential for any business that hopes to stay ahead of the competition. But just how do you motivate people? What kind of leadership do people respond to? And how can you improve the quality of leadership in your business?

The stereotype of the inspirational leader as someone extrovert and charismatic is the exception rather than the rule. Looking at best practice across business, though some inspirational leaders certainly do fit this mould, a large number do not. Many are quiet, almost introverted.

Click here to find out what some of the most commonly observed characteristics of inspiring leaders are:

Are emails and computers destroying our ability to speak well?

Good verbal communication seems to have flown into cyberspace as inboxes fill up with emails and managers mumble their way through monotone PowerPoint presentations, reading aloud from over-packed slides and sending their audience into a stupor.

The skills required to analyse spreadsheets are a far cry from those needed to transform numbers into fascinating presentations.

But analyse this: UK businesses lose nearly £8bn each year because of dull presentations that force colleagues and clients to switch off and waste company time.

This is based on a manager earning an average £30,000 per annum and attending a one-hour meeting every week in which he or she does not listen.

With a justified reputation for being boring, it is perhaps unsurprising that British bosses dread public speaking more than any other part of their job.

However, “nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively” according to former US President Gerald Ford.

So here are some tips to transform your presentations into a performance that will make people sit up.