Influencing and Problem Solving for Leaders and Others Mike Lehr's Blog

Excessive Collaboration, “Let Me Do My Job!”

Posted on23 Jun 2014

Tagscollaboration, decision-making process, innovation, productivity, The Economist, University of California Berkeley, Morten Hansen, Jake Breeden, Duke Corporation Education

Comments1

At the outset, great ideas succeed because there is adherence to their fundamental concepts, processes and techniques. Over time though, commercial pressures take hold. More...

Leadership’s Influence on Goal Setting

Posted on19 Jun 2014

Tagschange, confidence, context, goal setting, Influence, interpersonal, leadership, relationships, emotional triggers, Priyesh Patel, affect

Comments1

Leadership’s influence on goal setting results in people believing and achieving more than they would with mediocre management. It’s where leadership’s affective essence meets reality...

Strategic Complimenting vs. Spontaneity

Posted on16 Jun 2014

Tagscompliments, confidence, follow up, Influence, management, management by walking around, Performance, relationship building techniques, spontaneous, Talent, Twitter, Strategic Complimenting Series

Comments0

When I advocated using compliments strategically, Diana asked: Why do you have to use compliments “strategically” and not be spontaneously? The short answer is the...

Secret to Creativity (Pt 2): Innovative Process and Taco Bell

Posted on12 Jun 2014

Tagsnegative, venture firms, waffle taco, Taco Bell, Venessa Wong, Secret to Creativity, Bloomberg Businessweek, Gold Mining Analogy, trial and error, negative thinking, innovation, fear, failure, diversity, creativity, conflict

Comments2

A venture firm presented their search process. It began with examining about a 1,000 companies. Of those, they analyzed business plans from about 300. Only...

Danger of Humbleness

Posted on09 Jun 2014

Tagsclarity, lying, perspective, Talent, truth, Twitter, humbleness, Michelle Held, analogy collection, Sun Doesn't Know Analogy

Comments1

Michelle Held (Twitter), an entrepreneur who helps businesses develop corporate pro-social presences and mentors nonprofit start-ups, prompted this post. She requested elaboration on how people...

Perfectionism, Overcoming the Perfect Problem

Posted on05 Jun 2014

Tagsaggressive, confidence, learn, mistakes, rationale, The Atlantic, training, trial and error, Twitter, gender differences, Farah Mash, Katty Kay, Claire Shipman, Five Factor Model, conscientiousness personality trait, perfectionism

Comments6

Perfectionism can be problematical, often preventing completion of projects as Farah Mash attests to in a tweet regarding Creators vs. Pruners: Personality Typing. As Katty...

At Disney, Scheduler or Extemporizer?

Posted on02 Jun 2014

Tagsfreedom-order duality, Bloomberg Businessweek, TED Talks, public speaking, Christopher Palmeri, Disney, big data

Comments0

Christopher Palmeri reports in “Disney Bets $1 Billion on Technology to Track Theme-Park Visitors” (BloombergBusinessweek, March 7, 2014) that Disney is leveraging big data to...

Breaking through Consensus

Posted on29 May 2014

Tagsconflict, creativity, decision-making process, dissent, Harvard Business Review, innovation, problem solving, emotional triggers, consensus, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Regina Dugan, Kaigham Gabriel, homogeneity

Comments8

Consensus retards dynamic solutions. For example, Regina Dugan and Kaigham Gabriel write in “‘Special Forces’ Innovation: How DARPA* Attacks Problems” (Harvard Business Review, October 2013...

Cost of Feeling Busy about Our Business

Posted on26 May 2014

Tagseffectiveness, bees, subconscious, self-interest, rationale, profitability, productivity, feelings, business

Comments0

A friend once pointed out that business is derived from the work “busy,” not from words such as “produce” or “profit.”. Since business is not...

Naturally Using Strengths to Overwhelm Weaknesses

Posted on22 May 2014

TagsStrengthsFinders 2.0, Tom Rath, analogy collection, Tree - Development Analogy, growth, blitzkrieg, Talent, training, trees, World War II

Comments0

One morning I joined a sales person on her sales calls. At lunch, she asked what I thought. I told her. She paused and then...

Personification’s Importance: Stephen Curry and NBA

Posted on19 May 2014

TagsU.S. Congress, U.S. Supreme Court, Ira Boudway, Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry, National Basketball Association, emotional recognition, Bloomberg Businessweek, personification

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Golden State Warriors’ guard, Stephen Curry, is a great case study of the recognized importance of personification, giving something a personality. As reported by Ira...

People Who Feel What Others Are Feeling

Posted on15 May 2014

Tagsemotions, team intelligence, team building, sensitive people, self-interest, Performance, feelings, empathy, organizational culture, cooperation, brain

Comments3

Sensitivity can produce performance challenges. It’s difficult for people to understand this sensitivity when coaching through these challenges. An especially challenging group involves people who...

Planning and Developing Employees’ Confidence

Posted on12 May 2014

Tagscoaching, compliments, confidence, education, employees, intangibles, management, Performance, perspective, Placebo Management Series, planning, skills, Top Gun, training

Comments0

In discussing his performance review me, a friend indicated his employer thought he needed confidence. So, I asked, “What are they going to do to...

Question to Avoid When Resolving Problems

Posted on08 May 2014

Tagsquestioning techniques, problem solving, management, innovation, employees, customer service, organizational culture, creativity, conflict management

Comments0

Once upon a time long ago, I was helping a department. Asking my questions as to how things got done, employees tended to tell me...

Self-Regulated Psychopath, Implications for Emotional Intelligence (Pt 2)

Posted on05 May 2014

Tagsconflict, organizational culture, Daniel Goleman, diversity, emotional intelligence, emotions, empathy, intelligence, psychopaths, sensitive people

Comments6

Previously, I recommended revisiting Emotional Intelligence (EI) as proposed by advocates of Daniel Goleman. That centered on empathy. This is on self-regulation, another of the...

Mike Lehr’s Blog

Excessive Collaboration, “Let Me Do My Job!”

Leadership’s Influence on Goal Setting

Strategic Complimenting vs. Spontaneity

Secret to Creativity (Pt 2): Innovative Process and Taco Bell

Danger of Humbleness

Perfectionism, Overcoming the Perfect Problem

At Disney, Scheduler or Extemporizer?

Breaking through Consensus

Cost of Feeling Busy about Our Business

Naturally Using Strengths to Overwhelm Weaknesses

Personification’s Importance: Stephen Curry and NBA

People Who Feel What Others Are Feeling

Planning and Developing Employees’ Confidence

Question to Avoid When Resolving Problems

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