Being an authentic leader in the workplace is living true to your values and using your gifts. It feels good and produces extraordinary results. When you are authentic, you find the courage to speak up and to make sure you’re not passed over.
Of my many lessons in vulnerability, none is more important than this: Vulnerability requires self-acceptance.
Inaction in the face of harassment and intimidation is unthinkable when we all have the power to speak up and demand change in the workplace.
In the Next Generation of Government Training Summit session, “Courageous Followership and Intelligent Disobedience: What the Best Leaders Expect from their Teams,” Ira Chaleff used three fun examples: dancing, more dancing (the tango), and guide dogs, to illustrate the concepts of his two books, “The Courageous Follower” and “Intelligent Disobedience.” To explain “followership,” Ira openedRead… Read more »
Leadership is a skill that takes a lifetime to master. It changes with each environment and with each new group of people. Leadership used during a search and rescue operation or a mass casualty is much different than leadership used in an office setting or in a restaurant. Tactics change. What’s considered positive and negativeRead… Read more »
With the start of the New Year I find myself in a reflective mood. Being an effective leader in government, with all the challenges of these tumultuous times, demands a deeper sense of courage and personal integrity. Leaders will be challenged to authentically stay true to our core beliefs and values. Certainly the dynamics ofRead… Read more »
Today someone called the Community Manager (that’s me) to request that a comment posted by their employee be removed from the intranet site that all 30,000 employees have access to. The comment is in response to a corporately-supported article about supervisors, which invited people to share their thoughts online. The comment that incited the phoneRead… Read more »
Part I of this two-part essay focused on my format for illustrating the concept of “Letting Go” during a 20-minute after dinner keynote for the career transition/support group, Forty Plus. [Email [email protected] for this essay.] I reviewed both the dynamics and dangers of not being able to “let go”: “if you have invested so muchRead… Read more »
Over lunch, my agent posed a provocative challenge: “Write an article on chutzpah.” He believes the timing is right. In this difficult economy and uncertain times it’s certainly tempting to withdraw into a shell. But a better strategy might be a contrary one, throwing off the shell and putting yourself out there. One “chutzpah” sourceRead… Read more »
In the coming months, I’ll be posting a series of columns about public sector leadership that are from my web site GovLeaders.org. This first one, by Ray Blunt, is about combatting the culture of fear that exists in too many workplace. Your comments are most welcome! – Don By Ray Blunt Before Mel Gibson caughtRead… Read more »