Tag Archive - Attitude

Two Ways I Beat Procrastination

By: Dave Anderson  |   Category: Miss Cellaneous   |   4 Comments
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Maybe later...

I’ve been meaning to write this blog for a while…. (See what I did there?)

I am a world-class procrastinator. I have years of experience under my belt in putting off things I do not like doing. I have also spent a lot of time trying find ways to stop procrastinating.

I have read books. I have bought planners. I have hired people who I ask to remind me to do things. All of these have helped. But, I now realize I will never be rid of this trait. Procrastination will always be there. Continue Reading…

Two Problems With Team Standards

By: Dave Anderson  |   Category: Leadership My Dad's Way   |   2 Comments
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How High Is The Hoop?

“I met the standards. What is the problem?” There are likely two problems here. Problem #1 is the attitude. Problem #2 is the standards themselves.

I have either caused or witnessed both of these problems. Some people believe the first problem is with the follower and the second problem is with the leader. This is a fallacy.

Continue Reading…

How Calm People Stay Calm

By: Dave Anderson  |   Category: Miss Cellaneous   |   10 Comments
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Are You Really Calm?

He was more amped up then a Chihuahua after a can of Red Bull. Here was my peer yelling at me because some people were sitting in the wrong area of a conference room during a sales meeting.

When I told him we could “make it work as is”, he said “Well I am glad you can be so flip about this Dave!”

Some people do not react well to stress. In fact some people create their own stress and then don’t react to it well. On the other hand, other people never seem flustered by the most stressful circumstances. What do the calm have that the amped up Chihuahua does not?

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Daring To Fail Is The Road To Success

By: Dave Anderson  |   Category: Leadership My Dad's Way   |   2 Comments
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My baby boy did not begin walking on his first try. He took a step and fell. He pulled himself up and tried again, and he fell. He repeated this over and over until he successfully navigated the family room.

There was no fear in him then, just determination. Now he runs sprints at practice in high school football. In fact, fear of failure did not stop a single one of us from learning to walk or even run. So why are we scared of failure now? What prevents us from taking risks? Why don’t we dare to fail? Continue Reading…

My Un-resume: I Treated Everyone Equally

By: Dave Anderson  |   Category: Leadership My Dad's Way   |   3 Comments
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My Un-Resume

As a leader, one of my biggest mistakes was believing I should treat everyone equally. This is a societal fallacy that has moved into HR driven management training. In fact, treating people equally is management not leadership.

Treating all people equally is a management strategy that is meant to prevent litigation. It is a strategy that has little to do with driving productivity, developing leaders, or motivating employees.

As I strived to build Low Maintenance Teams in a bureaucratic organization characterized by equal treatment for all, I would often tell my people, “I will treat you all fairly, but I will not treat you equally.”

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Bad-Old Habits Vs. Good-New Habits

By: Dave Anderson  |   Category: Miss Cellaneous   |   0 Comments
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Exchanging Habits

I used to swear a lot, drink too much and eat Buffalo wings for a meal 3-4 times a week. Today I rarely swear, have a beer occasionally with a meal, and eat Buffalo wings once in a blue moon. Continue Reading…

Hiring A Low Maintenance Team - Hire Character

By: Dave Anderson  |   Category: Leadership My Dad's Way   |   2 Comments
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Recipe for an LMT: Hire Character

I am one of those guys who does not always get to control the TV remote in my house. Because of this dynamic, my desire to watch Deadliest Catch or SportsCenter is put on hold so my wife can watch one of her cooking shows.

One thing I often hear on these shows is to always start with the best ingredients: really good vanilla, fresh vegetables or premium meats. I see this as an essential for Building A Low Maintenance Team (LMT) as well. To truly develop a LMT, I must start with great ingredients. In this case, that means hiring the right people.

I must hire people of character. That sounds logical but Hiring Character is not simple. Continue Reading…

The Unethical Leader- An Oxymoronic Leadership Yarn

By: Dave Anderson  |   Category: Leadership My Dad's Way   |   6 Comments
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The Self-Centered Leader is an OxyMORON

Brad decided to write a book about effective management techniques. The title: How to Win, described his leadership philosophy. Just win baby! That was his motto and it had served him well. Continue Reading…

I Am Not Special and Neither Are You (Part 3 Video)

By: Dave Anderson  |   Category: Miss Cellaneous   |   0 Comments
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McCullough

Below is the You Tube video to David McCullough Jr.’s speech to the graduating Class of 2012 at Wellesley High School. This is an in your face yet inspiring speech to the coming generation.

The Bottom Line:

His last words to them are about being selfless. Being selfless is truly the most likely way any of us will become special.

Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion–and those who will follow them. And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special.

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I Am Not Special and Neither Are You (Part 2)

By: Dave Anderson  |   Category: Miss Cellaneous   |   0 Comments
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The Speaker: David McCullough Jr.

You see, if everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless. In our unspoken but not so subtle Darwinian competition with one another–which springs, I think, from our fear of our own insignificance, a subset of our dread of mortality — we have of late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement. We have come to see them as the point — and we’re happy to compromise standards, or ignore reality, if we suspect that’s the quickest way, or only way, to have something to put on the mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to leverage ourselves into a better spot on the social totem pole.

No longer is it how you play the game, no longer is it even whether you win or lose, or learn or grow, or enjoy yourself doing it… Now it’s “So what does this get me?” As a consequence, we cheapen worthy endeavors, and building a Guatemalan medical clinic becomes more about the application to Bowdoin than the well being of Guatemalans.

-David McCullough Jr. Wellesley High School 2012 Commencement Speech

Continue Reading…

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