Tag Archives: Leadership

Old Man in Coveralls

Jist Do It Right

I once attended a party precinct meeting leading to a presidential primary in Texas. The chair was a young man in his early 20’s. He was obviously very full of himself and considered himself a political expert.

About half way through the meeting, he started to by-pass some of the time-consuming procedural steps.

Suddenly, someone yelled from the back of the room, “Jist do it right!”. Turning around, we see a grizzled old white-haired man with a five day growth of beard, wearing dirt-stained coveralls.

The startled young man said, “Well…alright.” and led the group through the correct steps.

Two weeks later, a court ordered a group of other precincts to re-meet to correct their procedural shortcuts.”

Moral: It is usually better and faster to “Jist do it right” the first time

How to Say Yes While Saying No

Many business gurus are touting the ability to say, “No” as a sign of a great leader. Just search the web or Amazon for “say no”. Warren Buffet says that saying, “No” to almost everything is a key to his success. Even I have proclaimed saying, “No” to be an important technique.

But there is a better way. Continue reading How to Say Yes While Saying No

Three Case Studies – Delegating to Teams

We introduced the concept of Completed Staff Work in a prior post. Wikipedia Completed Staff Work defines as:

…a principle of management which states that subordinates are responsible for submitting written recommendations to superiors in such a manner that the superior need do nothing further in the process than review the submitted document and indicate approval or disapproval.

Not only do they need to know what you want, but they must also know what you do not want; what will cause the recommendation to be rejected.

Case #1 Delegating to an Existing Team

Continue reading Three Case Studies – Delegating to Teams

Asking Questions – A Fundamental Leadership Skill

A common view of leadership involves an omniscient guru sitting at the top of a mountain, dispensing answers to the questions brought by admiring supplicants.

However, many leaders view their function to be asking questions instead of dispensing answers. Continue reading Asking Questions – A Fundamental Leadership Skill

John Boyd's OODA Loop

A Real-life OODA Loop Example

OODA loops are an aspect of decision-making that is brain-dead simple but has wide-spread daily implications.

OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. It’s called a loop because it is a recurring cycle.

The OODA loop was created by Col. John Boyd to describe the necessity for fighter pilots to execute the loop faster than the enemy. The slower one always dies.

Continue reading A Real-life OODA Loop Example

Understanding the 5 Types of Difficult People

“Be slow to attribute to malice or guile, that which can be explained by ignorance, incompetence, or muddling through.”
My modification of  from Heinlein’s Razor, stolen from Napoleon

Homeowner associations are unique among nonprofits.

In a homeowner association, everyone looks out for themselves.  And they don’t hesitate to break the rules and complain about others breaking the rules.

Rule-breakers and complainers are difficult people, falling into one of five categories. Continue reading Understanding the 5 Types of Difficult People

How to Hold Mindful Conversations – Part 2

In our last post, we discussed three ways to structure conversations, even everyday ad hoc conversations, to achieve your objectives. Every conversation is an opportunity to build relationships, to coordinate activities, to plan for the future, to sell your ideas, to get ideas, or to recap the past.

Today, we add another structured conversation, with a specific focus strategic planning

Continue reading How to Hold Mindful Conversations – Part 2

How to Hold Mindful Conversations – Part 1

Mindfulness is an important buzzword these days. Basically, Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.

We each hold dozens of conversations, mostly mindless conversations, every day. These are wasted opportunities to build relationships or coordinate activities or to plan for the future or recap the past. It is possible to focus a conversation so that it has a meaningful result by using some simple techniques. It is possible to plan your conversations. And after a smidgeon of practice, you can apply these techniques with little or no effort. Continue reading How to Hold Mindful Conversations – Part 1