Want to be the next COO of Facebook? Surround Yourself with Great People

I will never forget the conversation in the car on the way back from a meeting in Montgomery with my then boss.  I had been accepted into the graduate school program of my choice and was working full-time in economic development.  The graduate program was full-time and a two-hour drive away, but I didn’t want to give up the job. I waited until about half-way into in to the two and a half hour car ride home, to say. “I want to go back to graduate school.” “Okay,” my boss said. “I got accepted.” “Where?”  He said. “Middle Tennessee State”

Leadership Lessons from College Football

WHAT NICK SABAN HAS TO SAY ABOUT DOING THE LITTLE THINGS RIGHT With football season fast approaching, my house is all-abuzz with excitement.  You would think my husband (and my dad, and my brother, and well, most of men in my life) were five year olds anxiously awaiting Santa coming down the chimney. With the all the buzz, my husband’s inbox, twitter feed, and texts have been dinging football talk, and I get forwarded anything that he feels is a “must know” for this season.  Every good wife in the state of Alabama surely needs to know what high school

Beyond the Lemonade Stand

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A CAREER EXPLORATION STRATEGY Information Interviews, Job Shadowing and Internships are all a great way to learn more about your career interests. If you want to put your career exploration in full throttle, consider working for yourself in high school or college in an area that interests you as well as where you can provide a marketable service or product.   An Example: While interviewing students for a highly competitive ambassadors program at a high school, the interview panel came across a student that ended up being at the top of the heap of candidates.  Why? She demonstrated

August Leadership Carnival- Best Advice for New Leaders

“The most important thing: Get to know and care about the people you are leading/managing. Who are they, what they like and don’t like, what they are most proud of, what their strengths and weaknesses are, how they see themselves contributing to the overall success of the organization, etc.  Leaders make more leaders and realize that results are achieved through people, not task lists.  If you don’t know your people, they won’t do their best for you.  Read Leadership and Self-Deception for more food for thought on seeing people as people.

How To Replace The Lies In Your Head

Every day we hear little lies within our minds. We often tell ourselves that we’re not good enough, we don’t have the money, or that no one cares about us. You may not realize this. But those words are lies! These lies are what hold us back as we progress in our leadership. We tell ourselves these things so we’ll have excuses as to why we’re not getting things done or leading better. There’s some bad news and then there’s some good news. Let’s go over the bad news first. The Bad News I like to start with bad news