Leadership Inspirations – One Must Be Willing to Fail in Order to Succeed

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Some of life’s greatest lessons come through failure… and greatness is often born in the rising from the ashes.

Everyone experiences personal and professional disappointments and setbacks. Those taking the time to critically and objectively examine and learn from their mistakes, applying those learnings to future endeavors, will inevitably be more successful. This truth is embodied by those from all walks of life who in their respective fields have achieved great success.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

Albert Einstein

Awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, named Time’s Man of the Century in 1999, and best known for his conception of the theories of special and general relativity

“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

Wayne Gretzky

National Hockey League Hall of Famer and winner of:

  • four Stanley Cup Championships
  • nine Hart Trophies as the most valuable player
  • ten Art Ross Trophies for most points in a season
  • five Lady Byng Trophies for sportsmanship and performance
  • five Lester B. Pearson Awards and
  • and two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP

Michael Jordan

National Basketball Association Hall of Famer, winner of:

  • 6 NBA Championships
  • Rookie of the Year
  • 5 NBA MVP Awards
  • 6 NBA Finals MVP Awards
  • 10 All-NBA First Team
  • 9 NBA All-Defensive First Team
  • Defensive Player of the Year
  • 14 NBA All-Star Awards
  • 3 NBA All-Star MVP Awards
  • 50th Anniversary All-Time Team
  • 10 scoring titles — an NBA record and seven consecutive matching Wilt Chamberlain
  • Retired with the NBA’s highest scoring average of 30.1ppg

    • and

  • whose NBA website biography reads: “By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.“

StrategyDriven would like to extend a special thank you to Kelly Sonora, who introduced us to Online College’s (www.OnlineCollege.org) article 100 Incredibly Inspiring Videos for Leaders from which we found the above Michael Jordan video by Nike.

Five Problem-Solving Success Tips

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The ability to solve complicated problems quickly is more important than ever in today’s competitive world.

From the time we’re little kids, we’re taught to solve problems by trial and error. That’s fine if the problem is as simple as a burned out light bulb. When the problem is a muddle of business, technical and political problems, we need something that helps us untangle the mess. Unless you’re Harry Potter, treating a mess like a burned out light bulb is as effective as wishing for magic.

Fortunately, there are alternatives to magic. Many key concepts in problem solving seem obvious but are often overlooked, causing delays and frustration in getting important problems solved. Here are some tips and reminders that will help you solve messy problems quickly and easily.

** Define the problem first.
Explain what the problem is – what went wrong, what are the symptoms, what is the impact on your business. Write it down. Everyone who reads it should understand what the problem is and why it’s important. Caution: describe the problem, not what you will do to fix it.

** Use your time for problems that are truly important.
Just because a problem is there doesn’t mean you have to solve it. If you ask, “what will happen if I don’t solve this problem?” and the answer is, “not much,” then turn your attention to something more important.

** Test your assumptions about everything.
Check the facts first. Be sure that you and your team understand the problem the same way, and that you have data to confirm that the problem is important. Test the assumptions about proposed solutions to improve the chances your solution will actually solve the problem.

** Measure.
The key question to answer is, “How will you know when the problem is solved?” If you don’t measure, you won’t know for sure. Use measurements to learn and portray the truth-the real truth, not what you wish were true.

** Measure the right things.
A common measurement trap is to measure something because it’s “interesting.” If knowing a measurement won’t change anything (e.g., help you make a decision, verify an assumption or prove the problem is solved), then don’t waste your time measuring it.

Copyright 2007. Jeanne Sawyer. All Rights Reserved.

Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://crisis-management.bestmanagementarticles.com

About the Author:

Jeanne Sawyer helps her clients solve expensive, chronic problems, such as those that cause operational disruptions and cause customers to take their business elsewhere. These tips are excerpted from her book, When Stuff Happens: A Practical Guide to Solving Problems Permanently. Now also an ebook, find out about it and get more free information on problem solving at her web site: http://www.sawyerpartnership.com/.

Congratulations Jamie Cardenas, Lee’s Make History Winner

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“The look in her eyes suggests a sense of urgency and of sadness.”

Jamie Cardenas
Lead Photographer
StrategyDriven

and

Lee’s Make History Winner for
American Girl

The StrategyDriven family congratulates our lead photographer, Jamie Cardenas, for being selected for the first edition of Lee’s Make History photo book publication. Of the 16,109 photo submissions from 90 countries, Jamie’s American Girl was one of only 101 images selected to receive this honor. In addition to being featured in the first edition of Make History, American Girl was placed on display in Milan, Italy and is now on tour throughout Europe.

To learn more about Lee’s Make History photo contest, click here.

One Change at a Time

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An organization's performance and the environment in which it operates change dynamically. Subsequently, most measures reflecting these performance variables are also dynamic; challenging analysts to interpret historical and predict future movement.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 15 – An Interview with Susan Bloch and Philip Whiteley, authors of How to Manage in a Flat World

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 15 – An Interview with Susan Bloch and Philip Whiteley, authors of How to Manage in a Flat World explores the challenges and solutions to effectively managing multinational teams. During our discussion, Susan Bloch and Philip Whiteley, authors of How to Manage in a Flat World: 10 Strategies to Get Connected to Your Team Wherever They Are share their insights with us regarding:

  • overcoming communications challenges associated with geographic separation, time-zone differences, and cultural dissimilarities
  • leveraging cultural diversity to benefit the team and improve its outcomes
  • efficiently transitioning the team through its forming, storming, norming, and performing phases of development
  • providing feedback and performance reviews

Additional Information

Susan and Philip’s book, How to Manage in a Flat World, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Authors

Susan Bloch, co-author of How to Manage in a Flat World, has coached top teams in many of the FTSE100 and Fortune 500 companies across the globe over the past 20 years. A truly global citizen, she has lived and worked in five countries; South Africa, North America, Israel, the United Kingdom and India. She is currently Chief Learning Officer at the Aditya Birla Group. Prior to that she worked at Reliance Industries in the Retail Division, as Chief Culture Officer. Before coming to India she was Partner and Head of Thought Leadership at Whitehead Mann in London where she was operating as an executive coach, working with executive teams and conducting board effectiveness reviews. Previously she was global head of executive coaching for the Hay Group. A Chartered Psychologist, Susan has co-authored, How to Manage in a Flat World, Employability, and Complete Leadership (translated into Mandarin, Vietnamese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Greek) and has produced a number of research publications.

Philip Whiteley, co-author of How to Manage in a Flat World, is an author and journalist, specializing in management, particularly the areas of leadership, motivation, and strategic people management. He has written numerous articles for The Times, Personnel Today and Coaching at Work among other titles, and has appeared on BBC Newsnight discussing the portrayal of the workplace in the media. He is author of People Express, Motivation, Unshrink the People and Complete Leadership and his books have been translated into six languages. Now based in the UK, Philip has previously worked in Latin America.

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