Leadership

The Five Keys A Facilitator Brings

Solutions come from discussions. Strategic solutions develop from structured discussions. For strategic planning, a facilitator is like the conductor of an orchestra – does not write the music or play the instruments, but does bring it all together for the desired result. The facilitator is an asset to a critical planning session bringing their experienceRead… Read more »

Leadership Is About Initiative

So why do our elected leaders have few initiatives? The dictionary defines “initiative” as the action of taking the first step; responsibility for beginning or originating; the characteristic of originating new ideas or methods; the ability to think and act without being urged by another. Napoleon Hill, a well known author on how to beRead… Read more »

Thursday Thoughts: Public Relations in Social Media

I am a graduate student at George Washington University and I am fortunate enough to be taking a leadership class with a former high-level government official. My professor has served at the highest levels of government, and provides a first hand account how to lead large, complex and bureaucratic government agencies. Every Thursday I’ll postRead… Read more »

Open Government Is Good Government

This week March 11th is Sunshine Week, a national initiative which promotes the importance of open government and freedom of information. Communities across the country are adopting open government policiesthat commit to putting more government data and information on-line. Information such as building permits, restaurant health inspections, and crime statistics are readily available in manyRead… Read more »

Innovation – A Precious Asset

The Smith School of Business just held it’s Annual Business Summit, a forum about the pressing topics of the time. A thread throughout the sessions was the hodge-podge innovative change, rigorous adherence to the ‘traditional’ ways, rapid technological change, shifting global market advantage, and irrational attempts to maintain existing market conditions. This yields an unstableRead… Read more »

7 Learning Disabilities that Hinder Teams and Individuals

Hopefully we can all get past the fact that there are both physiological and attitudinal learning disabilities (dysfunctional attitudes and mindsets can disable our ability to learn, just as can dysfunctional physiological characteristics), and focus on the intent and content of the blog. The Parable of the Frog and The Delusion of Learning from ExperienceRead… Read more »

Top 5: Topics for Small-Talk at the Office

Ahhhh…small talk. Some people just hate the concept in itself. But in reality, you need to be good at small talk in order to get things done. It helps you build rapport before meetings, between colleagues, and across functions which in the end contributes to the main goal (getting projects done in government) Personally whenRead… Read more »