John Baldoni Video Blog

John Baldoni is an internationally recognized leadership educator, executive coach and speaks throughout North America, Europe and the Middle East. John is the author of more than a dozen books, including MOXIE: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership, Lead with Purpose, Lead Your Boss, and The Leader’s Pocket Guide. John’s books have been translated into 10 languages.

The best leaders lead with purpose. John Baldoni’s videos provide practical insights that enable individuals to lead themselves and their teams more purposefully.

Featured Video

Look On Bright Side

Wise leaders look at what an employee can do rather than what he cannot do.

The lesson for leaders who evaluate people--that is, every leader--is to adopt a "glass half full" versus a "glass half empty" attitude. An executive who is evaluating talent should ask three questions about the individual:

Talent is not a commodity. It is the lifeblood of the enterprise and those leaders who look for it, nurture it, and seek to capitalize on it are ones who achieve their objectives.

Playlist

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Look On Bright Side

Wise leaders look at what an employee can do rather than what he cannot do. The lesson for leaders who evaluate people--that is, every leader--is to adopt a "glass half full" versus a "glass half empty" attitude. An executive who is evaluating talent should ask three questions about the individual: Talent is not a commodity. It is the lifeblood of the enterprise and those leaders who look for it, nurture it, and seek to capitalize on it are ones who achieve their objectives.

What It Takes to Lead

People often ask me what are the essential attributes of leadership. Big question but let me borrow from something I heard from Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball. He said a political pollster told him once that every great leader need to demonstrate three things: Motive. Passion. Spontaneity. Motive, passion and spontaneity complement one another. A leader who is motivated, passionate and spontaneous can use these attributes to build what all leaders need: trust, that bond that links followers to the individual and the cause.

Before you start making changes…

Change is part of organizational life -- inevitable, unsettling and necessary. Too often when managers are pushed to improve they make changes without taking stock of their situation and their talent. And so before you embark upon a change process, learn to ask yourself and your team five critical questions. Knowing what you are now, coupled with the fortitude to push for positive change, is what leaders today need to succeed in our turbulent times.

Learning from Fiction: An Insight into Coaching

Techniques fiction writers employ to develop characters can provide insight into how managers develop their employees. Learn the secret that one novelist, Ellis Avery, uses to develop her characters. This technique can give managers real-world insight into how they can help their employees succeed.

How to Motivate Your People

The secret to motivation is that there is no secret. Why? Because leaders do not motivate anyone. Motivation is intrinsic and therefore individuals motivate themselves to succeed. It is up to leaders create conditions for motivation to occur. A leader reinforces motivation when he or she leads by example. The leader who is the first one into the office and the last one to leave as well as one who is willing to come in on weekends, if others are asked to do the same. That is the kind of boss others want to follow.

4 Step Guide to Coaching Your Employees

Coaching your employees requires commitment. It must be planned in advance, not done off the cuff. Management today is really about enabling people to succeed and that means providing them with the guidance, resources, feedback, and support they need to do their jobs. Coupling feedback with expectations is the foundation of manager-to-employee coaching. It's also the method by which managers can help employees and teams get the work done and promote higher levels of engagement and productivity.

Reputation without Character is Worthless

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow," wrote Abraham Lincoln. "The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." Character is what a person is; reputation is how he seems. It is therefore perception that can be interpreted or manipulated in different ways.

Treat Others with Dignity

Got some tough news to deliver? Use a one-two approach: affirm their value, then critique their performance. Too often managers open with the tough stuff and when they do they cause the other person to go into a defensive posture – or shut down as psychologists say – and hear nothing else. If you play it straight and with dignity, you demonstrate that you care about your employees.

Show Trust to Managers Who Work with You

Do you trust the people who report to you? That question is not just about right vs. wrong. It’s also about competence vs. incompetence. Sometimes managers let things slide because they “trust” their employees will perform. Trust is a bond between individuals or between teams and their supervisors. It can never be expected, nor imposed. It is earned through example and reinforced through success as well as recognition.

5 Questions on Character

Character is essential to leadership and so educators and executives alike are wise to focus on it. Recently I came across a definition of “leadership skills” offered by Jeff Nelson of the One Goal organization that works with disadvantaged youth in Chicago. Nelson believes that kids need to learn “resilience, integrity, resourcefulness, professionalism and ambition.” These traits are important because they are inherent to a leader’s character.

Humility: Don’t Skimp On It

Leaders who value humility are the ones other people want to follow. Humility is not something taught in business schools but it may be one of the most powerful attributes a leader can utilize. But leaders who do not readily accept it may not always be to blame. Humble leaders are those that others not only want to follow but enjoy following because of strong leadership as well as strong humanity.

Three Ways to Make Your Presentations Better

Getting a presentation ready for primetime can sometimes be frustrating. Content is seldom an issue; organization is. So let me share some advice I received from a Jesuit speech teacher who learned it from Aristotle. Simple, direct and memorable, Aristotle gives us a handy method to employ whenever you need to make a presentation, long or short, that you want people to remember.

Preparing Your Leadership Presentation

One of your principal duties as a leader will be to deliver speeches. Learn how to develop your presentation so that it conveys your message as well as your convictions and your style. You can sum up what it takes to develop and present your presentation with one word: preparation. The more prepared you are, the greater your odds of success.

Patience & Presence

One thing that all leaders require is patience. And for someone who is in charge that is not easy because it often falls to the leader to make things happen. So how can you learn to be more patient? Well, try adding some presence. Presence is the ability to command through the power of your example.

Leaders Can Change Their Minds

The challenge of leadership is to do what is right for the organization even when it means reversing a decision. When reconsidering a decision it is important to decide what you did, why you did it, and what will be the consequences of reversing the decision. Shrewd leaders think ahead, and are willing to reconsider decisions when situations change.

Manage Well. Lead Better.

Management is your day job; leadership is your career. Managers by nature are pragmatists; leaders are dreamers. Organizations need both types to survive. Managers are required to lead and leaders are expected to manage. It is a challenge to do both well. The higher one rises in an organization, the greater are the responsibilities. Therefore, managers learn to delegate and in doing so free themselves to be more strategic and in the process develop the talents of others and grow the capacity of the organization to meet rising challenges. That’s what we call leadership.

The Craft of Leadership

Craftsmanship is the bedrock principle in the manual arts. We admire artists and artisans who make things with their hands, yet we often overlook craftsmanship when it comes to working with our minds. So what about leaders? Can you think of leadership as a craft? Regarding leadership as a craft forces the leader to consider leadership as both art and practice. The practice comes from doing it; the art comes from knowing when to do it. And getting it right most of the time. Just like a fine craftsman.