Category: Leadership

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The Leaders Playbook: Focus on Strengths

People spend a lot of time and money working to improve skills they are only marginally good at or can only improve so much.

It makes zero sense. 

What if we encouraged our employees and teammates to focus on what they are actually good at?

A good leader helps her/his teammates improve on the things they are good at – play to their strengths.

Encourage your teammates to use “Strength Finders” or another tool to gain clarity on what they are good at… then as leaders let’s help them play to those skills.

The Author is currently serving as an active-duty military officer. Any comments or recommendations on this post or on this site are my personal views. They do not represent the position of any branch of the United States Government, the Department of Defense, or the Department of the Air Force.

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The Leaders Playbook: Take a Lap

Years ago I read a biography about Apple Founder Steve Jobs. There were a lot of lessons in this book – some good, some not so good.

One of the best lessons was how often Jobs did his thinking while outside on a walk.  It seemed to be a daily practice of his.

After reading the Jobs biography while at one of our start ups, my teammates and I adopted this approach.  Daily we would “take a lap” around our airplane hangars. We got an incredible amount of work done and each lap helped provide clarity and focus on the essential.  It also helped to get away from the turbulence inside our offices and find some stillness and quiet to think.

I’ve since used it in every job and it is a fantastic way to meet new teammates or solve tough problems.  A bonus is hitting your step goal each day.

Get out today and “take a lap”. It will be worth it. I hope you get out

The Author is currently serving as an active-duty military officer. Any comments or recommendations on this post or on this site are solely and expressly my personal views and do not represent the position of any branch of the United States Government, the Department of Defense, or the Department of the Air Force.