Recent Articles From EvanCarmichael.com http://www.evancarmichael.com/ http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Its-Never-Too-Late-To-Start.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Its-Never-Too-Late-To-Start.html If you are an entrepreneur, you are investing most if not all of your waking hours into building your company. If you are also lucky enough to have a family on top of that, you join the many men and women who have struggled to balance work, parenting, and being a decent spouse. And after all the effort and time invested for years - maybe even decades, what do you discover? http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Are-You-Listening.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Are-You-Listening.html The act of listening is probably the most powerful tool you have as a leader. The act of listening is carefully paying attention to sounds, not just to words. It doesn’t take much to practice this. If you start now, in a few weeks you will be a more skilled listener than the majority of people on the planet. Keep practicing and people will notice. Soon you will be a more effective leader. Are you listening? http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Book-Review--A-Whole-New-Mind-by-Dan-Pink.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Book-Review--A-Whole-New-Mind-by-Dan-Pink.html This is a great book for leaders to read, digest, and start working on with their teams. Left brain prowess is no longer enough - you need to also sharpen your right brain! http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Building-a-Leadership-Team--Part-3.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Building-a-Leadership-Team--Part-3.html Talent is necessary for building a winning leadership team, but talent is not sufficient. You can recruit the very best in every functional area of responsibility in your organization, but unless they work well together, you will fail to create sustainable value. And in a competitive environment, you will lose to teams with far less talent if they work well together but you don’t. There is a tongue in cheek axiom that comes as a corollary to this – “I’d rather be lucky than good.” If you believe in blind luck, go with God and stop reading. If you believe we make our own luck, I’d like to share three principles for creating a great leadership team and some practical insights into each: agreement on the mission, clear communication, and balance. Part 3 = Balance http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Building-a-Leadership-Team--Part-2.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Building-a-Leadership-Team--Part-2.html Talent is necessary for building a winning leadership team, but talent is not sufficient. You can recruit the very best in every functional area of responsibility in your organization, but unless they work well together, you will fail to create sustainable value. And in a competitive environment, you will lose to teams with far less talent if they work well together but you don’t. There is a tongue in cheek axiom that comes as a corollary to this – “I’d rather be lucky than good.” If you believe in blind luck, go with God and stop reading. If you believe we make our own luck, I’d like to share three principles for creating a great leadership team and some practical insights into each: agreement on the mission, clear communication, and balance. Part 2 = Clear Communication http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Building-a-Leadership-Team--Part-1.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Building-a-Leadership-Team--Part-1.html Talent is necessary for building a winning leadership team, but talent is not sufficient. You can recruit the very best in every functional area of responsibility in your organization, but unless they work well together, you will fail to create sustainable value. And in a competitive environment, you will lose to teams with far less talent if they work well together but you don’t. There is a tongue in cheek axiom that comes as a corollary to this – “I’d rather be lucky than good.” If you believe in blind luck, go with God and stop reading. If you believe we make our own luck, I’d like to share three principles for creating a great leadership team and some practical insights into each: agreement on the mission, clear communication, and balance. Pat1 = Agreement on the mission. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Leadership-Coaching-Overview.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Leadership-Coaching-Overview.html What is leadership coaching? When do you hire a coach? How does it work? Some guidelines to consider when hiring a leadership coach. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Four-Critical-Skills.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Four-Critical-Skills.html There are four essential skills every leader must hone to become a brilliant leader. Listening. Storytelling. Acknowledging contribution. Negotiation. You cannot be good enough at these four skills - so every chance you get, practice! http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Empirical-Skepticism.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Empirical-Skepticism.html Empirical skepticism is a foundation for great leadership. We must deliberately suspend judgment and be willing to live in doubt for while, in order to allow assumptions to be sorted from facts and to keep irrelevant facts from clouding our judgment. This practice of empirical skepticism ensures that open and challenging questions help our teams anticipate opportunity and assess risk more accurately. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Courage-in-the-face-of-fear.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/1989/Courage-in-the-face-of-fear.html Great leaders often must stand their ground under fire. So how do you know when you are standing your ground for the right reasons and not just stubbornly waging an ego battle?