Leading Unstoppable Teams! - The Best of "Two Minute Training"

This is the eBook version of the printed book.

This Element is an excerpt from The Truth About Being a Leader (9780131873384) by Karen Otazo. Available in print and digital formats.

The right ways to motivate—and how to avoid counterproductive “demotivational” techniques.

Great sports coaches know you can push athletes hard if you do it to take them to the next level. People can do amazing things when you really need them to stretch to get work done quickly or to cover for others. Setting “stretch goals” can be exciting and inspirational. But there’s a dark side to “stretch goals.”

A closer look at Toyota’s quality and lean manufacturing problems–and the powerful lessons and warnings they represent.

In the general and business press, Toyota’s quality issues are just that: quality issues. The industrial community wonders if there might be more to it: whether Toyota’s namesake production system (TPS), also called lean manufacturing or just-in-time production (JIT), has been sullied. To see why this is a concern, consider the primary objective of the Toyota system/lean/JIT…

"Leading from Within is perhaps the most soulful treatment of leadership ever composed. Leadership is first an inner quest, and there is absolutely no better place to explore your inner territory than in the pages of this book. This is an evocative work of art; do yourself an immense favor, and engage with these amazing and diverse leaders and their poems."—Jim Kouzes, coauthor of the bestselling The Leadership Challenge and A Leader's Legacy

"Leading from Within makes brilliant use of the world's great poets to inspire us to lead with our hearts as well as our heads. It calls to the deeper purpose and meaning within all of us to use our gifts to serve others."—Bill George, author, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership

"This is a superb collection of poems and deeply personal reflections from a wide range of real leaders. It is a gift to all of us who believe in bringing our hearts to our work."—Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.)

"The entries in this wonderful anthology are a joy to read and all the more interesting because of their special meaning to the leaders who recommended them. It is a book that every nonprofit leader should place among those they draw upon for inspiration every day."—Diana Aviv, president and CEO, Independent Sector

Smart leaders learn from their own mistakes. Smarter ones learn from others’ mistakes—and successes.  

John C. Maxwell wants to help you become the smartest leader you can be by sharing Chapter Chapter 14, Keep Learning To Keep Leading, of Leadership Gold with you. After nearly forty years of leading, Maxwell has mined the gold so you don’t have to. Each chapter contains detailed application exercises and a “Mentoring Moment” for leaders who desire to mentor others using the book. 

Gaining leadership insight is a lot like mining for gold. You don’t set out to look for the dirt. You look for the nuggets. You’ll find them here.

Today we face a unique dichotomy between the wisdom of the Baby Boomer generation and the passion of Generation Y. According to Wisdom Meets Passion, the question is not which is right, but rather how can the two work together?

Wisdom, meet passion. Passion, wisdom.

By bringing these two voices to the issue, this book takes readers through familiar plights, such as understanding the American Dream, the quest for security, and work that matters—regardless of age. Through candid storytelling, Dan Miller and Jared Angaza uncover various generational approaches to work, money, success, and relationships, proving that it is possible to be both passionate and wise.