By Bill Auxier, Ph.D. No one likes a cheater. Poker players in the Wild West were shot and killed if they were caught cheating. In school, if you get caught cheating you can get sent to the principal’s office, fail the course or get expelled from school. If the IRS catches you cheating on your taxes, you could end up … Read More
Leadership & Happiness
By Bill Auxier, Ph.D. You can subscribe to this weekly update by going to www.BillAuxier.com. I run anywhere from 20 to 30 miles each week. Now some people might not call it running (I go kind of slow), but in my mind, I see an Olympic athlete sprinting in front of a stadium packed full of spectators going crazy and cheering … Read More
Leadership: Excuses, Excuses
The buck stops here. President Harry S. Truman had a sign on his desk making this statement famous. “The buck stops here” is slang for passing responsibility on to someone else. The expression’s origin comes from the game of poker, where a marker indicated whose turn it was to deal. Back in the old days, a marker was usually a … Read More
Leadership & the Misinterpreted Email
Effective leaders take pride in their communication skill. Show me a great leader and I’ll show you a great communicator. Show me a poor leader and I’ll show you a poor communicator. Okay, I know I’ve said that before, but I will keep saying it because it is so true! Every leader can improve his or her leadership skill set, … Read More
Leadership and Being Right
I have a good friend who seems to be consumed with being right. When we’re talking about something and we disagree on a fact, I’ve learned that his silence means he has his smart phone out searching the internet to see who’s right. If I’m right, the silence continues until one of us picks up the conversation again. If he’s … Read More
Leadership and Creativity
Leaders who come up with a novel solution to a problem are often considered great thinkers and therefore great leaders. Our society admires those who provide a fresh idea, an innovative product or service or a unique way of viewing things. Steve Jobs comes to mind as a great innovator and a great leader. Jobs was able to use his … Read More
Leadership and Slowing Things Down
Change is an inevitable part of life, an inevitable component of leadership. We all have an intellectual understanding of this concept, but often go out of our way to prevent change from happening. One of my favorite expressions is, “Everybody wants things to get better, but no one wants things to change.” Inside our brain we know that nothing stays … Read More
Leadership & Reading People
Mention leadership and most of us think of leaders who are excellent communicators. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, show me a good leader and I’ll show you a good communicator. Show me a poor leader and I’ll show you a poor communicator. When we think of the words “communicator” or “communication” we usually think of verbal … Read More
Leadership and Living in the Present
Effective leaders live in the present, plan for the future and learn from the past. That concept sounds simple, but allocating the time in one’s mind to accomplish this is easier said than done. Human nature is being anywhere but in the present. Too many people find themselves stuck in the past dwelling on bad stuff that happened to them … Read More
Leadership and Optimism
If you think about it, the mere mention of the concept of leadership insinuates optimism. Can you even imagine following a leader who was not optimistic? For you Winnie-the-Pooh fans, can you imagine following Eeyore? If you have no idea what I’m talking about, Eeyore is a character in Winnie-the-Pooh, an old gray stuffed donkey with a gloomy outlook who … Read More
Effective Leaders are Effective Givers
Several years ago my wife and I were in Grand Rapids, MI, attending a conference with numerous great speakers: Olympic Medalist Dan Jansen, sales gurus Zig Ziglar and Tom Hopkins, President Gerald Ford, Former First Lady Barbara Bush and others. President Ford was 84 years old, and just like my wife, an alumnus of the University of Michigan. Somehow we … Read More