States Visited

I found this cool site that allows you to create a map with the states that you’ve visited.http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedStatescreate your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

Leadership Qualities

I am fortunate enough to have been invited to belong to a Mentoring Circle; this is a group of leaders and emerging leaders in the Coordinating Center of Infectious Disease at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where I work. I was invited to join the group by our Chief Management Official, Reggie Mebane an incredible leader.

At the last meeting we watched portions of a Federal Express Leadership video that discussed five qualities of a great leader:

1. Challenge the process
2. Inspiring a shared vision
3. Enabling other to act
4. Modeling the way
5. Encouraging the heart

Since then I have been have been observing leaders who I admire at work, church, and other places and watching for these qualities and steps. It is interesting to me that the ability to utilize these qualities consistently is present in very case of those I consider to be great leaders.

The other aspect that Reggie discussed during the meeting was the fact that these are not business specific qualities, that they are universal and applicable in every aspect of life, from work, home, church, and every little league.

Being a great leader requires one to look those you are leading more than yourself. That is what these qualities encourage. The greatest leaders get the most discretionary effort from those they lead and ensure that those they lead get recognized for this effort. By making others they lead look great, they in turn look great too!

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

Book Review:I just completed reading “Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell (http://www.gladwell.com/blink/ ) and found it very enlightening. From the book I found insight as to what and where rabid cognition can be effective in my life. The stories provided a view into what “thin-slicing” is and what it takes to be able to effectively use this in our daily lives.What I was glad to read in the book was that concept that in order to have a effective rapid cognition, one must first be a student of the situation. By this I don’t mean the actual instant that is taking place right now, but be an expert of that situation in the generic sense. For example I am an IT professional and I understand the details of IT project management and development. I have always been able to sit through a project status meeting and at the end be able to tell with fair accuracy if the project was on schedule and budget, and do this without a lot of background of the project, just by listening to the project manager’s status report. I’ve never put detailed though into why I’ve been able to do this, I thought I have a talent for IT projects. Well, now after reading the book, I realize that what I had thought of as an instinctive talent was a compilation of experience, knowledge, and insight in an area where I had expertise.I really like the concept that the effectiveness of thin-slicing is in direct correspondence with knowledge in the area. The fact that you can improve this ability with study and learning and become better at rabid cognition is a real motivating factor.

The other end of the thin-slicing spectrum is when you follow your instincts in areas where you have no background. This can get you into more trouble that it is worth. There are times when you need to gather all pertinent facts and others where you just need the rapid cognition from you inner core. Gladwell does his best to help us understand what he called the “Warren Harding Error”, or recognizing the good rapid cognition from the bad.

Leadership Motivation

I recently had the opportunity to attend a leadership seminar given by a gentleman by the name of Ray Sluk from Exponential Business Improvement L3 Inc, This was one of the best seminars I have attended. He discussed the qualities and character that a high quality leader should have.One area that I have always felt was the mark of a great leader is the ability to raise the level of performance of their employees. This trait is evident when your staff looks to you as a mentor and a guide for their career. The greatest pride I’ve had as a manager/supervisor is when I leave a position and I have trained someone in my group to take my place. Ray made the statement “Only hire people you want to work for someday.”

The other interesting point that was presented during the seminar was the methods of motivation. Ray stated there were three forms of motivation:

1. Fear
2. Reward
3. Love

What I liked about this is the fact he used the term “love”, most people couch this as respect or loyalty, but when it comes down to the base value love is the best terminology. I have started using the techniques I learned from the seminar, not only at work, but with my family and have seen significant positive results in all areas.

Fantasy Football

Fall rolls around and the smell of grass fills the air, it is football season. For those of us whose playing days a long past (or never were) this means talking smack to our friends and playing the great new sport – Fantasy Football –I still call fantasy football new, because it is only in the past five to ten years (and the advent of the internet) where is has become a huge business. I have been running two leagues, one for about 6 years and the other for 3. The thing about FF is it allows you to0 enjoy the game in a totally new way. Following players and seeing the difference in a “meaningless” field goal, remembering the reverse point play from a couple of years ago where the possession of the ball changed twice during one play and it messed up almost every leagues scoring.

For some people their FF league is deeply important and the competition gets really heavy, for us in both of my leagues it is about beating you family and friends in a game, just like Monopoly or Risk. But you can do it from long distance.

For those who have never tried FF, give it a run, but look to see the type of folks in your league. If you’re in it for the fun, be sure you’re in a league that takes it that way. Be ready to bring the SMACK.

Blogging and LinkedIN

OK, This is my first attempt at starting a Blog. I have been following a few and think I should give it a run. We’ll see if it sticks?!

I got a couple of invites to join LinkedIN a few weeks ago and I started to use the tool. It did a few things for me:
1. Re-connected me with people I haven’t talked to for a while
2. Started to show the size of network I have
3. Helped me understand that even if you are not looking for a new position, having your network in place is a good thing.

The tool itself is very cool; you can search and invite others into your network. Once you’ve gotten a good core group in your network you can see why the “six degrees of separation” theory has such a following. In the short time I have been on LinkedIN I have connected with 52 people I know (or have known in the past), that has translated to total network of 172,500 + that I can link to within 3 degrees. You can endorse others and other can endorse your work too.

Take a look at my public profile: JNay