Category: Leadership Skills

John Maxwell explains, “I’ve been studying leadership for over fifty years, and I’ve heard this sentiment many times, ‘I like what you teach about leadership, but I can’t apply it. I’m not the main leader. And the person I work under is a terrible boss.’”

Maxwell likes to point out that everything rises and falls on leadership. It really does. If you don’t believe it, just put together a group of people without a leader and watch them. They will drift. When there is no good leader directing a team, running a department, leading an organization, or heading a family, then the organization suffers. 

In fact, one of the worst things that happens when bosses don’t lead is that the vision of the organization suffers. No matter how good the vision is, if people don’t believe in the leader, they will have problems buying in to the vision.

If your boss isn’t leading, don’t ignore the vision just because you’re frustrated. It will ultimately make you look like you’re not a team player.

Vision may begin with one person, but it is accomplished only through the efforts of many people.

If your boss isn’t communicating the vision, then become a vision champion for the organization yourself.

Click here to learn more from John Maxwell on How to Lead When Your Boss Can’t (or Won’t)

Last week—the second week of October—was “National Work From Home Week.”  The week recognizes the seven million people in the United States who don’t commute to work every day and focuses on the way technology changes the ways we approach remote work and its benefits.

From 1995 until 2018, I worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where there was a strong culture of in-person teamwork.  I started as an entry-level HR professional and progressed to an executive-level HR Director position.  Then, in 2018, I was selected as NASA’s Director of HR Services, responsible for supervising executive-level HR Directors across the Agency.  I immediately sought an executive coach with experience leading other executives remotely. 

Then in September 2018, I found Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel’s book The Long-Distance Leader through our on-line learning management system.  The book provides “rules for remarkable remote leadership.”

Click here to learn more about The Long-Distance Leader