Leadership in 20 Quotes

In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are." - Max De Pree

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision." - Peter Drucker

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd." -Max Lucado

A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit." - John Maxwell

The challenge of leadership is to be strong but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly." - Jim Rohn

I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men." - Lao Tzu

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." -Peter Drucker

Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another." - John Maxwell

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." - John F. Kennedy

He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.”
― Aristotle

In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.” ― Sheryl Sandberg

You have to be burning with "an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right." If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out.” ― Steve Jobs

The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.” ― Ken Blanchard

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision." - John Maxwell

A leader is a dealer in hope." - Napoleon Bonaparte

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

Successful leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity.”- Reed Markham

The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” -Theodore Roosevelt

Will Trevor is the Founder and Training Consultant at Windsor Training. Please click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from Will in the future. Feel free to also connect via his Linkedin page, or via Twitter and Facebook or email: will.trevor@windsortraining.net

Other recent and popular posts by Will:

Is a Good Leader a Servant or a Master?

So you can lead, but can you follow?

10 Reasons Why Psychologists Believe You Make Bad Decisions

Is It Time to Ditch the Elevator Pitch?

The 5 Qualities of Collaborative Leaders

The 3D Printing Revolution in 7 Industries

Here are seven industry sectors where I think that 3D printing is bringing about, or has the potential to bring, a revolution in the way in which we manufacture and distribute 3-dimensional physical objects:

#1: Automobiles

If the arrival of the Strati, the world's first 3D printed car, is anything to go by, there could come a day when you just walk into the car dealer’s showroom and have the make and model that you want printed there and then for you. At least that is the vision of Jay Rogers the CEO of Local Motors the company that designed and built the Strati. With just 49 parts, including the 3D printed body shell, this represents a considerable saving on the circa 5,000 parts needed to build the average family car.

#2: Construction

In China the construction company Winsun recently produced 10 3D printed houses in a single day and for a cost of $5,000 per unit and at USC California a team is working on a large 3D printer that will fabricate a house in one go: walls, electrics and plumbing. These changes may bring cheaper and more affordable houses for the masses and the potential for disruption is huge.

#3: Pharmaceuticals

The potential here is vast and it has the long term potential to disrupt the multi-billion Dollar pharmaceuticals industry by allowing customers to print their drugs and medicine at the point of need. Not only would it make simple over-the-counter medicines, like Ibuprofen, cheaper to produce, but also drugs where there is low demand could be printed cost-effectively for the patient, because economies of scale would not make producing small batches prohibitive.

#4: Aerospace

Disruption is already being felt within the aerospace industry, with GE’s new LEAPand GE9x engines using 3D printed fuel nozzles and turbines that add to the durability of the part, but also reduce fuel consumption. The potential is for airlines to print the part they need, wherever in the world the aircraft happens to be, whether that is at some remote airport, or even for an airforce jet onboard an aircraft carrier.

#5: Healthcare and Prosthetics

In this sector strides are already being made in terms of prosthetics and diagnosis is being assisted by physicians able to see a 3D printed model of a heart from a scan, to enable them to examine its structure and propose an appropriate treatment. There is even progress being made in the field of bioprinters that could make everything from ears to vital organs.

#6: Manufacturing

It is conceivable that when you place an order via the Amazon website that the item is then produced at the large sheds that were once their vast distribution centers and now become their distribution and manufacturing centers and delivered by drone, of course. The ability to produce anywhere and in any volume may well disrupt the comparative economic advantage that low-cost manufacturing nations, such as China, have enjoyed over the developed world. This is somewhat different from onshoring, because you will not see the same numbers of people employed in vast factories being repatriated, instead there may be scope for small specialist printers for items that cannot be fabricated instore or in the home.

#7: Food

Who needs Raymond Blanc when your 3D printer can rustle up a gourmet meal without the need to travel to the nearest fine dining restaurant? All I do is download the file and the printer does the rest and with no messy pots and pans to wash up after the meal! There are a number of 3D food printers already on the market, such as Foodini, Candy and Chefjets and they are working with confectionary, pasta and chocolate. NASA has even funded research to produce 3D printed food for deep space missions.

These are just a few areas where the initial ripples of disruption are starting to be felt from 3D printing, but this revolution is not going to be overnight, and my list is by no means meant to be exhaustive, I could quite easily have mentioned the advances being made in other applications, such as entertainment, art, fashion, and jewellery, etc. And if you think the price of replacing your laser print cartridges is exorbitant, just you wait until you are paying for the 3D replacements for your desktop 3D printer!

Will Trevor is the Founder and Training Consultant at Windsor Training. Please click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from Will in the future. Feel free to also connect via his Linkedin page, or via Twitter and Facebook or email: will.trevor@windsortraining.net

Other recent and popular posts by Will:

Steve Wozniak: Apple's Other Steve

"The Next Big Thing": The Top 10 Emerging Technologies

Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? Who Will we Remember in 50 Years?

Are You a Boring Boss?

Picture Credits: Strati - https://flic.kr/p/pimdVt (Creative Commons); 3D house -https://flic.kr/p/d9FgL (creative commons); Pharmacy - https://flic.kr/p/2AVNw6(creative commons); Jet - https://flic.kr/p/cE1usy (creative commons); Heart -https://flic.kr/p/p16pWh (creative commons); Amazon Distribution Center -https://flic.kr/p/K8XwN (creative commons)

One Small Thing You Can do Today to Start a Conversation with Anyone

By Adam Jones Adam63 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Every conversation needs to start somehow, but how can we do it in the most effective, simple, and natural way possible?

For some people it is effortless and they just seem to be able to spark a conversation with anyone, upon any occasion, and in any circumstances - if you are one of these people, then you might like to stop at this point and go off and read something else instead. But for the vast majority of us, however, whether at networking events, socially, or during various business occasions, it can be fraught with awkwardness and lead into a minefield of unintended offence or misunderstanding.

Variety is the spice of life, but being able to judge both the occasion and the audience is often the best approach to starting a conversation. Many articles and blog posts are written providing a whole repertoire of useful 'ice breakers' and conversation starters ("10 Ice Breakers" or "20 Conversation Starters"), but you still need to exercise some judgement in terms of delivering them to the right person, at the right time, and in the right place and you also need to remember which to use and when.

The most common conversation starter, by far, is the old favourite: What do you do? In the vast majority of cases this is perfectly acceptable and a natural conversation can be started from this simple question. But, what if the person doesn't like what they do? What if they are embarrassed by what they do? What if they'd rather you hadn't asked that, because now they have to explain it to you and they're not good at doing that? What if they are a home maker and they are worried that you will lose interest, because you'll think that they don't do anything? This seemingly simple question can lead to unease or get the conversation off to a wrong start from the very beginning and close off the chance of a dialogue even developing.

As the title of this post suggests, however, there is one small thing that you can do today to help start a conversation, which is less likely to cause offence, unease or discomfort. And that is to ask someone: Where are you from? Everyone is from somewhere and this is such a broad open conversation starter that they could tell you about their home town, or their company, or where they used to live and where they live now. How they love it here and they may even reciprocate and straight away come back by asking: And where are you from?

So if you want to change one small thing today and start to see a difference in how you spark a conversation in any situation, then start asking people where they are from, rather than what they do, and you may be amazed by the results. It doesn't entirely absolve you from exercising some judgement in how or when to use it, but I find it works more often than not and it's far easier than trying to remember when to use one of those twenty ice breakers you read about.

So, let's get this conversation started ... where are you from?

Will Trevor is the Founder and Training Consultant at Windsor Training. Please click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from Will in the future. Feel free to also connect via his Linkedin page, or via Twitter and Facebook or email: will.trevor@windsortraining.net

Other recent and popular posts by Will:

4 Ways to Give Effective Criticism at Work

Job Interviews: Don't Take it Personally

10 Reasons Why Psychologists Believe You Make Bad Decisions

Is It Time to Ditch the Elevator Pitch?

5 Things I have Learned from Being a Mentor

The 5 Qualities of Collaborative Leaders

monesBy Adam Jones Adam63 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Adam63 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Is a Good Leader a Servant or a Master?

Nobody could dispute that Gandhi was a good leader who inspired a loyal following through his own self-sacrifice and in the service of a cause. Servant Leadership, as it is known, has its roots in ancient philosophy, but it is also increasingly seen as relevant to leadership within today's modern organizations.

Whilst those roots can be traced to the writings of a philosopher and poet of ancient China, an increasing number of modern leadership and management thinkers have embraced the ideas of Servant Leadership and both its relevance and popularity are growing as a result.

Prominent amongst those writers are the late Stephen Covey, the author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, and Ken Blanchard, the management expert and author of the best-selling book, “The One Minute Manager”. Emphasizing the importance of Servant Leadership, Blanchard is quoted as saying:

I truly believe that Servant Leadership has never been more applicable to the world of leadership than it is today. Not only are people looking for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet the challenges of today’s changing world; they are also looking for principles and philosophies that actually work. Servant leadership works. Servant leadership is about getting people to a higher level by leading people at a higher level.

But what is Servant Leadership?

The 5th century Chinese poet and philosopher, Lao-Tzu, wrote about leadership and suggested that, “the highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely aware.” The modern interpretation of what Servant Leadership is, however, comes from the writings of Robert Greenleaf, who coined the phrase “Servant Leadership” in a 1970 essay entitled, “The Servant as Leader”. He sums up Servant Leadership in the following passage:

The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.

To put it simply, Servant Leadership is a philosophy and practice of leadership that inverts the traditional pyramid of the leader at the apex, who exercises and builds power. Instead the servant-leader strives to share power and help the development and performance of their team.

So how do I use Servant Leadership within the workplace?

Greenleaf outlined 10 principles of Servant Leadership:

1. Listening – The servant-leader is a skilful listener, who listens to both what is being said, and what is not said, and sums up the will of the team.
2. Empathy - Even if the performance is below par, you might reject the behaviour and performance of your team, without rejecting them as people.
3. Healing - The servant-leader is able to bring the team together in the wake of times of conflict or change, whether that is from outside or from within.
4. Awareness - Of themselves, others, and what is going on around them and the team.
5. Persuasion - Seeking to persuade by convincing others of the merits of a course of action, rather than coercing through the exercise of authority.
6. Foresight - Using the intuition of lessons learnt from yesterday to the problems of today and those yet to arise tomorrow.
7. Conceptualization - Balancing the need to be focused on what is happening today, with the ability to provide a sense of mission and vision for tomorrow.
8. Stewardship - Recognising a sense of responsibility for the team, the organization, and also to the wider society.
9. Commitment to the growth of people - A focus on developing people in terms of their personal and professional development and acknowledging the potential for their future growth.
10. Building Community - Bringing together and developing a sense of belonging and common purpose within organizations, both large and small.

But does Servant Leadership actually work in practice?

Edward D. Hess, a professor of business administration at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, says that years of careful research have indicated that many of the leaders in today's most successful organizations don't conform to the stereotype of charismatic and commanding individuals. Instead they are servant-leaders, who lead by example through their daily behaviour. Servant Leadership delivers high performance in organizations as diverse as: Best Buy, UPS, Ritz Carlton, Room & Board, Whole Foods, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Levy Restaurants, the San Antonio Spurs and TSYS. Commenting on the power of Servant Leadership, Hess says:

The behavior of leaders, coupled with attitudes and beliefs, either enables or inhibits high performance. Good intentions and words are not enough. The best leaders understand that daily behaviors count. And leadership is hard work because it takes discipline. Servant leaders are vigilant in fighting elitism, arrogance, complacency and hubris daily.

Do you already see yourself as a Servant Leader? How could you employ the principles of Servant Leadership into your organization?

Will Trevor is the Founder and Training Consultant at Windsor Training. Please click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from Will in the future. Feel free to also connect via his Linkedin page, or via Twitter and Facebook or email: will.trevor@windsortraining.net

Other recent and popular posts by Will:

10 Reasons Why Psychologists Believe You Make Bad Decisions

Is It Time to Ditch the Elevator Pitch?

The 5 Qualities of Collaborative Leaders

10 Reasons Why Psychologists Believe You Make Bad Decisions

We all like to think that we are capable of making good decisions and that we weigh up the alternatives and choose the best solution ... right? But the truth is we are all fairly lousy at making decisions and our judgement is often unconsciously influenced by what psychologists call, 'cognitive biases'. Biases are a tendency to think in a particular way, which can impair your ability to exercise good judgement and act rationally and this can be a problem in business.

Here are 10 biases that can influence your judgement and rational decision making, with an example for each that you may be familiar with:

#1 - Attentional Bias

You may be about to make a crucial decision, but rather than weigh up all of the options you concentrate upon a few and ignore the others. For example, you might believe that all product failures are down to poor marketing and so you overly concentrate upon those factors and ignore the product quality issues that were the real cause.

#2 - Bandwagon Effect

Everybody else is doing it, so I should be doing it too, even if I don't believe it. For example, the boss just made a decision which sucks, but everyone else around the table is agreeing with him, so I'll just jump on the bandwagon and agree, even though I know from my own experience that it is doomed to fail.

#3 - Confirmation Bias

Rather than trying to weigh up the evidence and then make a decision, instead you make up your mind beforehand and then go and get the evidence to fit that pre-existing judgement. For example, I've been asked to provide evidence to support the sales forecast for my pet project, so I ignore all of the contradictory information and I only give the boss the data that upholds my figures.

#4 - Curse of Knowledge

A tendency for the smart people on the team to fail to understand the perspective of those less educated than they are. For example, the new PhD on the sales team dismissed the idea of using a shopping channel, just because he wouldn't buy from it himself.

#5 - Decoy Effect

Making an option seem better, by presenting the decision-maker with another unfavourable option that puts the original in a more favourable light. For example, the sales agent wanted to influence us to buy the house, so they showed us another property that was in the same price bracket, but it was in such a bad neighbourhood that it made the first one look much better.

#6 - Functional Fixedness

Thinking that something can only be used in a specific way, just because that is how it has always been done, thereby missing the potential for alternative uses. For example, Product A had only ever been sold into the home improvement market since the company began, so the marketing team didn't spot the opportunity to sell into the gift market, which had been picked up by one of our competitors.

#7 - Gambler's Fallacy

A belief that future events are influenced by the past, where the reality is that the probability of the outcome remains unaltered. For example, the sales team had won all five of the previous pitches, but their lax attitude to the sixth resulted in failure, despite their assurance that it was a certainty because of the previous successes.

#8 - Hindsight Bias

Believing that something was inevitable, after it had happened. For example, Jeff announced to the team that he had never believed all along that the merger would ever happen, despite everyone remembering him as being its most staunch advocate in the beginning.

#9 - IKEA Effect

The tendency to place a greater value on things that you have been involved in creating, regardless of the quality of the resulting item. For example, Jane was reluctant to agree to the discontinuation of the product, despite the overwhelming evidence that sales had tanked, because she had headed up the original team that brought it to market.

#10 - Loss Aversion

A tendency to view the avoidance of losses as more powerful than realising gains. For example, the board was reluctant to sell the loss-making factory, despite forecasts which suggested we would return to profit in a couple of years.

Do you see yourself as having ever been influenced by any of these biases?

Will Trevor is the Founder and Training Consultant at Windsor Training. Please click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from Will in the future. Feel free to also connect via his Linkedin page, or via Twitter and Facebook or email: will.trevor@windsortraining.net

Other recent and popular posts by Will:

Job Interviews: Don't take it personally

Mentoring: 5 Things I Have Learned From Being A Mentor

So you can lead, but can you follow?