Leadership & Initiative Overload
By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Are you guilty of making the mistake of taking on more work than you should and thereby committing initiative overload? As we rapidly approach Q4, it is my most sincere hope that you will take pause for a bit of reflective thinking – I would ask that you ponder the following question: “Am I so busy that I’ve lost the ability to be as productive as I need to be?” One of the most common problems facing leaders is the lack of ability to remain focused on highest and best use activities. While we could talk about being better managers of technology, communications, interruptions and various other productivity killers, today’s post will focus on the number one killer of executive productivity, which is biting-off more than you can chew, or what I like to call initiative overload…
My question is this: Is your intellect an asset or liability? All one has to do is watch a very bright person defend their position to understand what I’m driving at with today’s post. Observing intelligent people lecture, spin, posture, position, cajole, argue, rationalize, or justify their beliefs in order to “get the win” is often times entertaining, but it can also be exceedingly frustrating. I’ve come across more than a few self-proclaimed “intelligent” people who believe that their intellectual acuity is far superior to the discernment ability of their peers and co-workers. Not only are these intellectual giants wrong, but sadly, by the time they awaken to a state of reality it is already too late. In today’s post I’ll share the keys to leveraging your intellectual assets as opposed to having your intelligence serve as a barrier to your success… 
Those of you familiar with my work know how much I detest politically correct sound-bites. Even worse is when those sound-bites are used in an attempt to make statements which embolden a corporate position that doesn’t really even exist to begin with. Just because something is written in a vision or mission statement, placed on a website, included in company collateral material, or frequently espoused by corporate leadership as a competitive value proposition doesn’t necessarily mean its true. In today’s post I’ll examine one of the most frequent offenders; “Talent is our biggest asset.”
I read an interesting post last night by Dan Rockwell (
Leadership is a full-contact sport, and leaders that cannot effectively deal with conflict are not really very good leaders are they? From my perspective, the issues surrounding conflict resolution can be best summed-up in three words…”Deal With It.” Conflict Resolution is a skill set necessary for survival in today’s business world. While you can try and avoid conflict (bad idea), you cannot escape conflict…The fact of the matter is that conflict in the workplace is unavoidable. It will find you whether you look for it (good idea) or not. The ability to recognize conflict, understand the nature of conflict, and to be able to bring swift and fair resolution to conflict will serve you well as a senior executive or entrepreneur. In today’s post I’ll share my perspective on the art and science of conflict resolution.
As much as some people won’t want to hear this, “help” is not a dirty word. Rather asking for help is a sign of maturity as a leader. So my question is this: Are you easy to help? Think about it…do you make it easy for others to want to help you, or is your demeanor such that most people won’t lift a finger to assist you in a time of need? How many times during the course of your career have you witnessed executives and entrepreneurs who desperately need help, but either don’t recognize it, or worse yet, make it virtually impossible for someone to help them? In today’s post I’ll address the importance of positioning yourself to be helped…
Can leaders be blinded by their own success? You bet…While success is what all leaders strive for, unless you’re prepared to handle it, success can quickly complicate your life. Even worse, without the proper perspective success can actually contribute to the beginning of your downfall. So my question is this: Is your success serving as a springboard for even greater success, or is it merely a temporary state, precariously positioned and ready to implode with the slightest change in circumstance? As strange as it may sound, success can often times be the precursor to failure. Success without perspective, purpose, and focus can actually cause more harm than good. In today’s post I’ll discuss how CEOs, entrepreneurs and other leaders can either leverage success, or if they’re not careful, have it serve as a catalyst for a rapid downward spiral…
What’s your definition of Leadership? In thinking about the comments I’ve received from readers on the topic of leadership I noticed an interesting paradox…while many of you vehemently disagree on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of different leadership styles, most of you are in total agreement on the qualities and attributes possessed by great leaders regardless of style. In further pondering this dichotomy an interesting thought came to mind – If I could genetically engineer the perfect leadership gene what qualities and characteristics would constitute the architecture of leadership DNA? In today’s blog post I’ll attempt to paint the portrait of the perfect leader…