ARTICLES BY DR. ANDY NEILLIE, CSP

As a leader, do you struggle with flexibility?

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There is a continuum of communication: inform, persuade, manipulate, coerce. Effective leaders spend most of their communication efforts persuading. Managers inform, Leaders persuade, autocrats manipulate, dictators coerce.

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I recently heard a futurist talk about nine trends for the future.  The first four trends he discussed were challenging, the last five trends offered optimism.

1. Consumers in the US lack confidence. They are “bullish-but-squeamish.”
2. Baby boomers are aging and anxious.  The “young-old” are doing well, but the “old-old” are struggling.
3. Climate change is happening. Weather will impact markets and travel more and more.
4. Water scarcity is impacting millions and will grow.

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Leaders lead by instinct and anecdotes. The best leaders add data to support what they suspect.

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Leaders simply “clear the clutter” for their teams.

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If you don’t like change, you better love irrelevance

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I’ve been a member of Recreational Equipment Incorporated for more than 20 years.  REI started out as a small mountain-climbing buyer co-op, and I was into mountain climbing in high school and college.  REI has grown to become an international member co-op with retail locations across the US and around the world, and their gear has gone far beyond ropes, carabiners and pitons.

Their equipment now even includes headlamps – incredibly bright LED lights mounted on elastic –

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In his excellent leadership book, Axiom, Bill Hybels challenges us to “Hire Tens.” By this, he means that we should only hire a leader who is a “10” at their job: top-caliber in their abilities to lead and drive excellence. The fear is that, if we hire an 8, the best that person can get underneath them is a 6 or 7, and pretty soon we have 2s, 3s and 4s doing the work of our organizations.

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