Have you ever worked w/the Smartest Person In The Room (SPITR)?

Love this post via @DanVForbes founder of the LeadWithGiants community.   Here is one of my favorite sections:

How do you know if you are the SPITR?

Les McKeown writes,

“Simple. If you think you're the smartest person in the room, you're almost certainly The Smartest Person in the Room. And remember, if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.”

The older I get, the more I realize the less I know.

Executive coach and founder of the Lead With Giants movement, Dan Forbes, joined me on #HealthyLeadership to talk about how he leverages his values and strengths as he takes a GIANT LEAP in life to pursue his vision.  

During the interview Dan explained how he created and has grown #LeadWithGiants, a highly successful and engaging leadership community, by staying out of his "comfort zone". 

Checkout the interview on #HealthyLeadership. 

#Negativity will MESS U UP! Lead past it w/ @TheSmartChic  Cynthia Bazin on the #HealthyLeadership blogcast!

The gym is a perfect place to work on the quality of our leadership and negativity is a factor that can definitely affect us in the gym and prevent us from achieving our fitness goals.  

We have a great opportunity to lead ourselves past our negative tendencies by being intentional about believing in ourselves, leveraging our strengths and always reaching beyond our comfort zones. 

Time and time again, I see successful people at the gym being intentional about their belief in themselves, always playing to their strengths and going outside their comfort zones to improve on their weaknesses.  

This is great leadership advice for ANY situation, either at home, work or at the gym! 

Check it out at:

http://bit.ly/11hDUgJ 

Just saw this on a FB post and could not share it here fast enough.  

If this isn't one of the most profound examples of self-less leadership, I don't know what is...

Many of us talk about leadership in the context of doing the right think when NOONE is looking.  There are times when it is most difficult to do the right thing when EVERYONE is looking and doing the wrong thing!  

Here is my favorite quote:

"Someone had to step out of the pack and say, 'This isn't right'."

Access the full post at: http://www.news.com.au/world/why-black-teenager-keshia-thomas-saved-a-white-supremacist/story-fndir2ev-1226749697993

Another impactful post by Elizabeth Stincelli.  

Like many leadership principles, leading positive change through conflict is easy to talk about, yet extremely hard to accomplish.  

This section of the post deals with a specially difficult leadership challenge.  

The most successful approach to resolving conflict is open, two-way communication. In order to communicate effectively you must learn to listen without passing judgment.

Each party to the communication will apply their own definitions and meanings; therefore, you can’t just listen to the facts. You have to ask probing questions and come to a consensus on the definition and meaning of the facts.

Also, don’t just listen to others to figure out how you can get them to agree with your point of view. Listen to really understand and appreciate their reality so you can understand where they are coming from.

Check out the rest of the post at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140917225342-49605822-resolving-conflict-it-s-not-about-winning

While I am happy to be working with teachers and students to help develop #FutureLeaders, the findings of this Gallup report are alarming.

Here are a few facts that tell the tale of our poor student engagement in schools and its relationship to  our declining economy:

• Student engagement in school drops precipitously from fifth grade through 12th grade. About three quarters of elementary school kids (76%) are engaged in school, while only 44% of high school kids are engaged. The longer students stay in school, the less engaged they become. If we were doing this right, the trend would be going in the opposite direction.
   
• About four in 10 students in grades five through 12 (43%) say they plan to start their own business, yet only 7% currently have an internship or job in a real organization where they can apply that energy. News flash: Schools and colleges don't have jobs and internships -- employers do. If we don't get schools and businesses working together to give students these opportunities, everyone will lose.
   
• Only 14% of Americans say they are confident that college graduates are well-prepared for success in the workplace. And business leaders are even more skeptical, with only 11% saying that college graduates are well-prepared for success at work. Yet despite this, 96% of chief academic officers of colleges and universities are either somewhat or very confident that they are preparing college students for success in the workplace. It's hard to imagine a gap -- or moat -- bigger than that. 
   
• And if you think our schools and colleges will be able to test our way out of this mess, that's a big mistake too. Perhaps the most important education-related news story of the entire year was Google -- the world's most admired brand -- announcing that it found almost no correlation between the grades and test scores of its employees and their success on the job. So the company no longer asks all its applicants to provide these things. This is a canary in the coal mine. As goes Google, so goes the rest of the business world.

This week, #HealthyLeadership is all about how teachers can become leadership coaches for our younger set.  

Teacher and consultant, Lydia Dolch joined me to discuss a #Futureleaders session we conducted with her 5th grade class.  

During the interview we discussed how the students were able to apply leadership principles like conflict management, courage and forgiveness as they explored how to interact with others who see the world from a different perspective.  

Checkout the blogcast at: http://bit.ly/1r5nRhZ

Great #Tweetchat recap here via @KateNasser.   My favorite one is 

"Anything War Can Do, Peace Can Do Better"!!!

The business world is highly competitive and it appears that being prepared and skilled may not be enough.  Following a fitness routine is not only good for your health, but now we know that others may be more willing to follow your lead or give you leadership opportunities if they feel you are taking care of your health.

Great interview on physical AND Financial transformation!  

Check it out on #HealthyLeadership!  http://bit.ly/1CIk6As

Leadership and branding expert, Lisa Manyoky joined me on ‪#‎HealthyLeadership‬ to explore the Tyranny of Indirect Feedback and how to make the GIANT LEAP from diversity to inclusion by minimizing the use of this exclusionary model.

Of course, leadership starts with us, so we also talked about how we can all be open to feedback in order to welcome others to talk to us directly.

Check it out at: ‪#‎HealthyLeadership‬

Great share here via @DanForbes from a pdf on Leadership in Social Enterprises.  While the pdf focuses on Social Enterprises, a lot of the material is useful to all leadership positions.  

The pdf can be viewed here:  http://www.schwabfound.org/sites/default/files/file_uploads/leadership_in_social_enterprise_2014.pdf?utm_content=buffer4aed5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer%EF%BB%BF

Great post here via Debbie Dickerson @trifecta_coach.  

I do leadership development sessions in schools/colleges from the 5th grade through college and the lessons never stop.  

One that I would like to focus on this comment goes to Debbie's son question #2:

Can leaders be followers?  

When I work with students of all ages it is clear how the ones that follow the teacher's requests are Modeling the Way for others.  Those who don't model the way interrupt and prevent the rest from moving forward.

 This is one of the main connections I make to the work place.  Which question (s) resonate (s) with you?

https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140728152458-136958930-5-leadership-questions-from-a-14-year-old-boy