Archive for July, 2010
Five Signs That You Might Be a Tool July 9 2010 one response
If you’re a sports fan and hang around with teenagers and college students on a regular basis, you might be suspecting that today’s post is inspired by LeBron James. Actually, it’s not although anyone who doesn’t bother to call his hometown employer of seven years before announcing on a prime time special dedicated to his fabulousness that “I’m going to take my talents to South Beach and play for the Miami Heat” should be in the running for tool.
No, the idea for this post came up a couple of days ago when I was talking with my college age son, my high school junior son and one of their friends, Zac, about what makes someone a tool. The reason I asked is because I frequently hear them saying things like, “That guy is such a tool.” I first looked up the word on Urban Dictionary and found that being a tool is in the eye of the beholder. There are a lot of varied definitions of tool on Urban Dictionary, none of them flattering.
So, using my go-to coaching move of asking questions I don’t know the answer to, I asked Andy (20), Brad (16) and Zac (16), “What do tools do exactly?” The first answer I got back was they act tool-like. That didn’t really help much so I kept digging with questions. When the conversation got a little more specific, they came back with a list of behavioral signs that in my experience apply to populations much broader than high school and college age young men.
So here’s their list of five signs that you might be a tool. As you read this list, you may conclude that you’re working with some tools. God forbid, you might start to realize you’ve been engaging in some tool-like behaviors yourself. That’s OK. It’s better to know than to not know, isn’t it?
How to Kiss and Make Up July 7 2010 2 responses
It's pretty likely that if you're a leader you will, from time to time, have public disagreements or falling outs with other leaders. It's just the nature of things. Some of their goals conflict with yours even though you share common interests on other fronts. When you get cross ways with each other, one of you needs to take the initiative to "kiss and make up" in service of the bigger picture.
That's what happened at the White House this week when President Obama and Israeli prime minister Netanyahu had a very public reconciliation session after a few months of tense relations. As reported in the New York Times, there was a long photo op, an extended one on one between the two, a lunch and, when the visit was finished, Obama walked the prime minister to his limo. With that as an impetus, I thought it would be worthwhile to start a conversation on how to get things back on track when you and an ally have a derailment.
Here are three tips:
Video Book Club: Leading Minds July 6 2010 no responses
So, as you’ll see from the three day stubble, I took a few minutes at the end of the July 4th weekend to talk a bit about one of my favorite books, Leading Minds
In the video clip, I share my big take away from Leading Minds
Fourth of July Memories – circa 1970 July 2 2010 2 responses
The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. The root of that goes back to my childhood on Midvale Drive. Fireworks weren’t legal in West Virginia but they were in South Carolina. When we went to Myrtle Beach on vacation my dad would buy what seemed like a ginormous amount of bottle rockets, roman candles, firecrackers, spinners, the incredibly loud M-80′s and a bunch of other low grade explosives which would promptly go to the top shelf of the closet in my parents’ bedroom. (I figure the statute of limitations has run out at this point and that I’m not putting my dad at any legal risk with this post.)
All of that firepower would sit there for weeks, months and sometimes for almost a year before the 4th of July would roll around. My little brother and I would get almost crazy with anticipation. We could not wait for all of that stuff to get set off on the big night.
The ritual on the day of was prepping the homemade ice cream. My mom would make the cream and then my brother and I and a bunch of kids from the neighborhood would have to hand crank that ice cream maker until our arms about fell off. It was the price we had to pay to get to the main event.
It seemed like it took forever for it to get dark enough for the fireworks to start. As dusk approached, all of the kids would pick the prime viewing spots on the hillside front yard of our across the street neighbors, the Mansours. Mr. Mansour was a grocer and he must have had some great contacts because he always had at least as many projectiles as my dad did. The two of them would pool their resources in the middle of the street and spend the next 30 minutes lighting fuses. This would always drive my mom crazy because my dad was a dentist and she was more than a little concerned about him blowing off a couple of fingers with an M-80. (Fortunately, that never happened.) My grandmother would monitor the police radio to provide an early warning in case the cops were on the way. I remember one year they actually drove up to Midvale. Everything was put away before they got there but there wasn’t much that could be done about the smoke and haze the cruiser slowly drove through. All of us kids were scared witless on that one.
I know all of this sounds terribly illicit but it was a heck of lot of fun. It’s the kind of thing you remember vividly forty years later. And that’s really my point. If you’re a leader in your organization, you are likely incredibly busy with all of the day to day pressures of the job. This holiday weekend put all of that aside for awhile and allow yourself the time and space to create some memories for your family, your friends and yourself. Who knows, maybe someone will be blogging about what you did 30 or 40 years from now.
Scott Eblin is an executive coach, speaker and author of 
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