Pesach (Passover) is a time for family and larger than usual gatherings. However, the preparations and responsibilities that come with hosting or attending gatherings can often lead to stress and anxiety. From cleaning every nook and cranny of the house to planning and serving elaborate meals, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. But fear not! With some mindfulness and planning, you can navigate through Pesach with ease, enjoying quality time with your loved ones without the stress.
Read MoreTrust is the bedrock of any successful relationship, and this holds especially true in the dynamic between leaders and their teams. Without trust, a leader's ability to inspire, motivate, and guide their people is severely compromised. Yet, building and maintaining trust can be a challenging task, requiring dedication, transparency, and consistency. In this article, we will explore the importance of trust in leadership, examine examples of leaders losing trust, and discuss strategies for earning it back.
The Importance of Trust in Leadership
Trust forms the foundation of effective leadership. When team members trust their leader, they are more likely to collaborate, communicate openly, and fully commit to the organization's goals. Trust fosters loyalty and enhances morale, leading to increased productivity and a more positive work environment.
However, trust is fragile and can be easily eroded by actions or behaviors that betray the expectations of followers. Leaders must be mindful of their words and actions, recognizing that every decision they make has the potential to either strengthen or weaken the bonds of trust with their team.
Read MoreDetermining if someone is truly sorry and trustworthy can be a complex and subjective process, but there are several key factors to consider when trying to assess their sincerity and reliability:
Apology and Acknowledgment: A genuine apology is often the first step. The person should acknowledge their wrongdoing, take responsibility for their actions, and express remorse for the harm they've caused.
Empathy and Understanding: A sincere apology should demonstrate empathy and understanding of how their actions have affected you or others. They should be able to articulate the impact of their behavior on your feelings.
Businesses have many assets. These could be physical (buildings, inventory, computers), intellectual (trademarks and patents) or financial (cash and equivalents, marketable securities).
But the greatest asset that every company has, hands down, is its people, also known as human capital.
The better a company does at managing its human capital and keeping its people happy and productive, the more successful the company will be.
Managing human capital effectively involves creating an environment where employees can thrive, reach their full potential, and feel motivated and satisfied.
Read MoreOftentimes, we rush to judge others and we assume that people are in full control, and that they're just acting rude, loud, etc. anyway.
But let's remember that we've all had moments where we struggle!
We struggle with our emotional health.
We struggle with the people around us.
We struggle with our finances.
We struggle with our physical health.
We struggle with our circumstances.
We are constantly struggling! And because of this struggle we don't always have the optimum awareness and sense of how we should be interacting with other people.
Read MoreThey thought that I was hiding. Or worse, disinterested.
As an introverted head of school, I would often close my office door.
It helped me focus, think, and get more done.
And I didn't think much of it.
But others did.
Largely because my predecessor kept an open door policy.
And was always accessible.
When people lack information, they typically assume the worst case scenario.
No project of scale can occur without clear communication. Everyone involved must know what needs to be done and how they’re expected to do it. Otherwise, you’ll quickly get a silo effect, where team members work too independently and decrease productivity.
As leader, you’re the one who needs to set the tone. For many of us, this can be a real challenge.
Read MoreOne of the greatest challenges that confronted me when I assumed the role of head of school was the contrast in personalities between my predecessor and me. In many ways we were polar opposites, including our general affect, how we interacted with others and in the amount of quiet, private time (with the door closed) that we wanted or needed to function effectively in our jobs.
At the time, I really didn’t appreciate this issue. To me, I was who I was and I assumed that everyone else would simply get used to dealing with a new boss. In hindsight, I feel that I could and should have taken more time to understand my personality and, by extension, leadership profile and how that may impact those around me, especially when they were used to something very different. While personality differences between leaders are to be expected, when they represent a major shift then there can be a difficulty in adjustment for everyone involved. And that difficulty became apparent soon enough in my situation.
One of my favorite leadership training sessions is based on the True Colors Personality Assessment. In this system, people generally identify as being one of four colors: blue, green, gold or orange.
Read MoreAs a leader, you know that leadership offers great opportunities to guide and inspire others, to set the agenda and see it to fruition. However, it also can place us in compromised situations, where we feel as if we have lost control of the situation around us and need to engage in damage control. There are even times when we step into a leadership role that did not previously exist in order to address a need, a problem or a concern, oftentimes a pressing one at that. Such was the case of Matthias, the elderly priest who assumed an expanded leadership role at a time of great national duress in order to save his nation and the Torah that they treasured.
In this article, I will aim to distill leadership lessons from within the broader historical context, lessons that we can apply within our own lines of work and our lives in general.
1. Understand the objective - For most of our nation's history, we have lived in exile (either in the literal sense or in our homeland under foreign subjugation). While in exile, we enjoyed varying levels of freedoms and autonomy, but were generally content to subvert ourselves to our host nation so long as we were given the freedom to live religiously as Jews.
Matthias and his sons had no interest in attacking the Seleucid forces. They had fled to Modiin, a small hamlet on the outskirts of Jerusalem, because they knew that it would give them a better opportunity to live a Torah-observant lifestyle than in the now-Hellenized capital. Knowing what was of primary importance to them is what drove their decision to relocate as well as all of their subsequent ones.
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