What I learned about leadership

I just finished writing an essay for class on the role of leadership in strategy. Here is a summary of what I learned after doing the research and writing the essay:

1.       There are many different types of leaders and the effective ones have the ability to assess their surroundings and develop a vision that fits their unique circumstances taking the staff, organizational structure, internal and external environments into consideration and motivating all the staff members and subgroups to achieve that organizational vision.

2.       Ineffective leaders fail to accurately assess their surrounding and they attempt to craft visions and strategies that are not possible to achieve with the current resources. This incongruence leads to frustration, poor performance and mistrust.

3.       Effective leaders change their interactions with their followers as the situation calls for. If a task is closed, routine and there is limited time and then the leader is more autocratic. If the task is open, non-routine and there is more time the leader is more democratic.

4.       Followers in general prefer their leaders to be transformative and different followers of separate groups prefer social support, democratic decision making or autocratic decision making

5.       Transformational leaders are most effective in navigating an organization through a change or a period of upheaval. Once the objectives have been met and the organization is stable, then the leader must change their style toward more transactional in order to maintain their current course. Constant organizational change is not an effective long term strategy.

6.       Lassiez-faire leaders are ineffective. Their followers do not trust them and do not understand what their role is.

7.       Communication is important. Leaders need to be able to articulate what their expectations are, what the steps are to achieve the organizational strategy, what objectives they are going to use to evaluate their success and how each person can contribute to the overall success.

8.       When there is a change in leadership, the organizational will experience an initial decrease in performance until the new leader can change the strategy and motivate the members to perform for will. The longer a leader is in their role, the more successful the organizational (in general).

 

It is clear that every situation is different and this is why it is so hard to identify key features of successful leaders, and why some leaders experience success in one role, but failure in another. It takes constant monitoring of the overall circumstances to achieve success and every change demands a different approach. Successful leaders have the ability to either change the situation to their benefit, or choose situations that best utilize their skill set.

Running drills

Nothing is easier than running, right? You tie on your shoes, open up the door, and start.

Why then, are there so many injuries?

If something is that easy, why are we always trying to improve upon it?

 

As it is, running is a good form of exercise and it is easy to do. However, like other forms of exercise it is important to understand where you are and develop a plan to get to where you want to be. Everyone has a different ability to run and tolerate the stress of running. It is important to start easy while building a base and then progressively increase the activity either through time, distance, speed, hills, frequency or any combination of these.

 

Like other forms of exercise, if there is pain, back off. Take some time to cross train and recover before trying again.

 

It also helps to use good form. This link has some good tips with how to keep your form strong so that you get the most out of running and decrease your risk of injury.

 

http://naturalrunningcenter.com/2013/11/17/40-tips-improve-running-form/

 

 

Supplements

When you are trying to improve your performance, gain size or lose weight their are some thing that will help.

1. Follow a good nutritional diet. There is no replacement for eating right.

2. Proper training. Make sure your training plan is approriate and that you out forth the required work. 

3. Rest. Your body repairs itself with adequate nutrition and rest so make sure you get enough sleep. 

If you are training for a specific purpose there are additional things that can assist you, if the above are adhered to. The International Society of Sport Nutrition has listed these as apparently effective and generally safe:

Muscle building-weight gain powders, creating, protein, essential amino acids

Weight loss-low calorie foods, caffeine

Performance enhancement-water, sports drinks, carbs, creatine, caffeine, post exercise carb and protein mix

Depending on your goals, training, and nutrition, some of those supplements can help with achieving the goals. 

Acute Achilles Tendon Rupture

This morning I had the opportunity to assess a semi pro football player who injured his ankle. Upon exam he has a clinical picture consistent with an Achilles' tendon rupture. That got me thinking of the treatment options for these injuries and is surgical or non surgical treatment preferred?

I did some research and it appears that there is no clinical significance between surgical or non surgical treatment. Non surgical care has a slightly higher incidence of re rupture, but surgical has great her incidence if complications including nerve damage and infection. Both outcomes show improvement at 6 and 12 months but less than the non-injured side, as expected. 

Two treatments that seem to help regardless of surgery or no surgery are a functional brace instead of casting an early rehabilitation. 

Active individuals who want to return to activity may lean more toward surgical treatment. 

firms of endearment

I just finished this book and it was great. It is based on the premise of stakeholder centered management.
Companies can be very successful by putting their people, customers, suppliers and distributers at the forefront of everything they do. By estsblishing strong ties with these groups and working together to solve problems they have been able to create strong, successful brands and increase their performance.
By managing in a way that respects all they do business with, they have more people that want to do business with them. They maintain high quality standards that lead to increased sharsholder value.
Give it a read, it offers a different perspective to typically managed corporations.

Keep things simple

The more I learn and interact with others the more I realize how much I want to simplify my life.

Creating principles to guide what you do and what you stand for helps you keep your programming, networking and interactions simple. They can guide you in what you do and provide your basis for  your system. 

Over time you can evaluate your principles for their effectiveness and make any necessary changes to it. These principles also serve as talking points when you talk with others about how you are different and how your system provides results. 

Depending in your client base, their goals and your background, the principles you use may be different. They main thing is to understand what those are, how they work together in a system to provide results and how you evaluate their effectiveness. 

By simplifying your approach and streamlining your process you can maximize your time for other things. 

Power of a team

As much as we can try, we can't know everything. This is when it is nice to call upon those who know more than you do.

When you devote yourself to developing a specialty you learn as much as you can in that area. While your knowledge can, and often does, expand in other areas, it is hard to know everything about those subjects, too. 

When you are presented with a challenging case or a client that wants a specific outcome you need to know who to send them to. Cultivating relationships with others that have specialties different than your own can help ensure that you meet all your client's needs. 

Your clients appreciate knowing that they can ask you a question and you can find the answer. This will keep them coming back and continuing to trust you.

When you choose people to refer to it is important to make sure that they perform work at the same high level you do. Keeping the client satisfaction levels high will increase referrals and continue to expand your client base.