Are You a Type A or Type B Leader?

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

My mother-in-law visited with family in Washington, DC over the weekend and when she came home she was sharing with me how everyone is doing. We ending up talking about her nephew who has worked for the Federal Government for quite a number of years and how she worries about his health due to his stress levels.

She talked about the other things he could do if he could just quit (really, it would be a retirement) that job. But I reminded her that even if he were to retire, he’s not the kind of [...]

How Are You At Self-Monitoring?

Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes

Effective leaders are really good at being able to read situations and accurately understand what is going on. They are also able to successfully adjust their behavior, based on the situation, to respond appropriately. One of the things that determines our ability to be able to accurately read situations and respond with the appropriate behavior is our level of self-monitoring.

The concept of self-monitoring was added to the psychology of personality back in the mid-1970’s when it was developed by Mark Snyder. According to Snyder, individuals fall along a continuum from Low Self-Monitoring to High Self-Monitoring. [...]

Knowing Our Personality Type

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

To me, one of the most important aspects of Self Reflection is investigating our own personality traits. When I teach leadership in the classroom and get to the part where we talk about Self Reflection, I’m always amazed at the number of “aha” moments that happen for people when they start to discover their personality traits through various self-assessments. Time after time, the one area that continues to fascinate me is learning about our particular personality type through tools such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am neither a MBTI® [...]

Take the Time to Reflect – Or Else

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

I’ve often said that Reflection Leadership starts with being able to take the time to stop and reflect on what is going on around us. But what happens when you feel like you can’t take the time to stop and reflect? I found myself in this exact situation this week.

There’s Work To Be Done

I’m currently working on the final stages of a large project that started a year ago that will culminate with a large number of deliverables 17 days from now. This project touches most of the organization and has required the efforts of [...]

Sometimes Nice Guys Really Do Finish Last

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

I really wish I could figure out the lesson that the universe is trying to get me learn. For the second time in just over five years, I’m finding myself in a situation where I just can’t win. After a successful tenure at three (and a half) different jobs, the last two have turned out to be hard to understand.

I was brought up in a time when hard work and perseverance was not only strived for, but rewarded. When looking at the generation that I belong to, I end up being a tweener. I was [...]

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