Inspirational leadership, effective teams, increased ROI, and job satisfaction; what do these behaviors have in common?
Answering that question, reaching these and similar lofty goals have been my challenge throughout my career. In a highly competitive business environment, it seems that good is never good enough. For my entire career both as a company CEO and as an organizational development expert, I have been charged with making the adequate into the superlative.
Over decades of experience, I have come to intuitively sense those leaders and teams that have what I always think of as an “edge”. People and groups with an edge are always a step ahead of their colleagues… and they know it.
The elusive edge can be enhanced, but not really taught. What I have worked on for years, is helping clients, colleagues, employees, friends, and communities to realize those things which already give them an “edge” over others in similar situations. Just as a professional athlete strives to be a moment or a second or even fractions of a second ahead of a competitor, it is empowering for people to truly grasp those things which they already have within themselves that are an extra bonus in their daily lives.
Sometimes it’s easier to find the absence of an edge. These are the painfully obvious situations where a manager barks out orders and threatens to fire employees regularly and the disconsolate employee who takes their own frustration and despair out on the customer and fellow worker.
And there is the friend who always present their own problems and anger and rarely asks about others. And, finally, there is the group, workplace, or the community with hot button anger issues, where those who can make an exodus to a new beginning elsewhere are always departing.
In this blog on an ongoing basis, I want to bring my own life experience and education to address the questions of why we choose to succeed or fail, based upon the attributes we value and reinforce in ourselves regularly. I hope you’ll find some of my own perspectives interesting and applicable to your own daily life and career challenges.
Marie Maher, Ph.D
gratefuledge 