Hello there! The Productivity Professor is feeling a little curious this morning.

From conversations I’ve had over the years, leadership means different things to different people, but I did notice some overarching themes about what a leader is and what a leader isn’t. What about you?

• Do you believe perception is reality?
• Do you believe leaders are born, not made?
• Or do you believe everyone has the potential to be a leader?
• What are some characteristics of a great leader?
• I invite you to post your thoughts below.

Another invitation I want to extend is reserving July 14th, 7pm EDT for

…Bea Fields Companies, Inc: Summer Virtual Tour…

Free Mega Teleclass: The Future of Business From the Minds of Ten Top Professionals

Date: One Monday, July 14, 2008 from 7:00-8:00 p.m. Eastern
What happens when you get ten top professionals on a call together to discuss the future of business and leadership? You walk away inspired to change the way you think, live and operate in business. Join Bea Fields as she shares this open call with her partners from EDGE: A Leadership Story for a call you don’t want to miss.

Fields will be joined by Michael Gerber, Michael Port, Corey Blake, Dave Buck, Carol Dickson-Carr, Eva Silva-Travers, Kimberly George, and Roger Dewitt. Each professional will be asked a question they have never been asked before about the future of business, and you don’t want to miss their answers. This is BIG!

Register Here!
Learn about the presenters here
Download audios from past calls here

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In the meantime, please share your thoughts on leadership below!

Carol Dickson-Carr, The Productivity Professor

Some of you reading this, might be thinking, “What the heck is ‘Twitter’?”,

while others might be thinking, “What’s the POINT of Twitter? Sounds like a pointless waste of time to me!”

while still others are thinking, “Twitter is so cool! I’ve built many wonderful friendships and collaborative relationships there, and have learned heaps!”

You can guess which camp I fall under! But there is still so much to learn about Twitter–not to mention the many applications and associated websites than help your marketing efforts and your market research, in addition to building and strengthening your relationships. That last point is the most important!

If you want to really be “in the know,” tune in tonight (June 13) as Deborah Micek, Biz Coach AKA mover and shaker in Hawaii and Warren Whitlock talk about the different Twitter Applications as they continue to create content for their Twitter Handbook. You can find out the details by clicking here! You’ll be glad you did! If you can’t make it live, I am almost certain that it will be archived for your listening pleasure later.

And if you don’t already have a Twitter account, sign up at twitter.com and start “tweeting” your expertise and interests and making your presence known.

Update June 17, 2008: If you’d like to listen to the show, click here. After ironing out logistics, they really get started about 15-20 minutes. Well, worth the listen!

–Carol Dickson-Carr

Check out this entry from The Independent and this entry from Jim Turner’s Pit Bull Marketing Blog… And take heed!

This is a fresh (albeit second-hand) account, but my source (who asked to remain anonymous since this is a small world) is quite reliable as he’s been a very dear friend of mine for almost 18 years. The following are the snafus of various conference participants and paid speakers.

No-No #1: Agree to be on a panel but book your flight so that you miss the panel and others end up carrying you

No-No #2: Show up for your presentation unprepared (extemporaneous is great as long as you’re not rambling and you stick to your promised topic; being unprepared isn’t!)

No-No #3: Deliver a 40 minute presentation that was only supposed to be 20 minutes, thereby cutting into the time of other participants (and the moderator is at fault here too!).

No-No #4: Take it for granted that because you’re an award-winning author that you can take a $5,000 plus fee and do a reading (from the worst chapter in a book that’s been out for a number of years mind you) when the participants expected a keynote.

As my eight year old daughter would say, “What NOT to do!”

About a month ago, Carol Dickson-Carr went into a little more detail about strategic intelligence–one of the four different types of creative intelligence as it applies to the four temperaments within the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® (MBTI®). Listen in she talks about how those with the idealist temperament (intuitive and feeling preferences) use their diplomatic intelligence to get things done. Those of you not naturally inclined to that temperament might want to “try on” the idealist temperament’s approach to creativity and productivity as a stretch goal once you find out more about it! 

Our next 6-week program starts Weds, May 7th!

 

 The Idealist [6:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You decide! Check out an article The Dallas Morning News recently published sharing some of the perceptions (or misperceptions depending who you talk to!) of Millennials in the Real World. Some of the boomers and X-ers have stopped hiring the Gen-Ys because they aren’t sure how to bridge that communication gap. The article talks about a few ways to bridge that gap because these creative young people are our future. Thoughts?

A few weeks ago, Carol Dickson-Carr briefly talked about the four different types of creative intelligence as it applies to the four temperaments within the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® (MBTI®). Listen in she talks about how those with the rational temperament (intuitive and thinking preferences) use their strategic intelligence to get things done. Those of you not naturally inclined to that temperament might want to “try on” the rational temperament’s approach to creativity as a stretch goal once you find out more about it! Check out our comprehensive resource library

 

 How to Appreciate the Rational Temperament in Problem-Solving [6:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In reading an op-ed piece in the WSJ about the Microsoft-Yahoo merger, I wondered if we could attribute a personality type that paralleled these Internet giants to our own businesses. The prevailing opinion seems to be in Google’s favor. Where do you think you stand? Inquiring minds want to know!