Light on Leadership 2+2+2

Our goal for the Light on Leadership newsletter is to provide you with two questions and two thoughts in less than two minutes. We know you are busy leaders, so we hope this content is something you can use and share with others! Enjoy.

Two Questions

What is talent (and how do I find it)?

Every organization struggles with recruiting talented individuals and then providing training that improves performance. From a sports perspective, it really isn’t surprising when a team improves their talent and the next year the results improve. But, what about corporations, schools, and businesses where talent recruitment and development might not be as obvious as it is with a sports team? Skillful coaching with consistent and direct feedback is the key. The best teachers and coaches in the world understand this. In order to improve the skills of our team we must first make it a priority to spend time observing and providing direct feedback.

Nature versus nurture. As a leader how do you do both for your organization? Create a list of the top performers within your organization. Next, determine what it is they do differently than everyone else.

Do I have to fail to improve?

Practice makes perfect. Or, a more appropriate statement might be, “focused and consistent practice makes everyone better.” When thinking about learning to play an instrument, hitting a golf ball, or driving a car it is easy to see how deep practice improves these skills. However, this doesn’t seem to be applicable to leadership development when physical skill development isn’t the key to improvement. While growing and improving as a leader might be a slightly different process than improving as a golfer the core principles remain the same. Practice makes us better, a focused and intentional approach is better than just going through the motions, failure is part of growth, and receiving quality and continuous feedback is important. Yes, failure is part of growth – we know this, but do we create an environment that supports this?

How do you help others in your organization improve? Continuous criticism and negative feedback is not the answer. Approach improvement the same way a coach or teacher would – short, intense practice sessions, with consistent feedback.

Two Thoughts

Don’t Worry…Be Happy.

What you can learn from a pencil…

One Post from the Light on Leadership App  

Go to your app store today and download the Light on Leadership App (for free). Three days per week you will find new passages like the one below. Our mission is simple!

We are committed to providing frequent leadership passages throughout the week to busy leaders. More than a quote – our mission is to develop multiple paragraphs of impactful leadership readings to give individuals and teams the motivation, knowledge, and passion to positively impact the lives of others each day.