An Untitled Poem On Leadership

April is National Poetry Month. In celebration, check out “An Untitled Poem on Leadership” that was submitted and performed by winning group during the S3 Poster Project Competition (8th Annual Soft Skills for STEM Lessons Workshop 2024).

Check out the poem and the original post here.

[ACTIVITY] 7 Soft Skills CEOs Work On

While I was doing research for The Soft Skills Success Plan, I spoke to quite a few chief executive officers and other executives. I found it interesting that the soft skills they wanted in their employees were often the same soft skills in which the CEOs wanted or were receiving coaching for themselves.

But just because that’s what I found from a few dozen interviews, it doesn’t mean this trend is universal. Fortunately, I came across the 2013 Executive Coaching Survey administered by Stanford University and the Miles Group. The results were similar to my interviews, but they were more accurate and more data was available.

Here are the top 7 soft skills that CEO’s work on:

Leadership Lessons From Nelson Mandela and Stephen Covey

UPDATE: My heart is saddened by the passing of Nelson Mandela on December 5, 2013. He was 95. The life he lived will continue to be an inspiration to me and millions of people.

In the world of exceptional leaders it’s been a week of joy and sorrow.

On the sad side of things, Dr. Stephen Covey passed away on Monday, July 16, 2012. Covey was an educator, best-selling author, motivational speaker, and businessman. His book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is one of the most influential personal development and business books of all-time. Twenty-five million copies have been sold in 38 different languages!

Since I first read it, Habit 5 is one of the fundamental principles of my communication style: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

On the happier side of things, Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and former President of South Africa, is celebrating his 94th birthday today (7/18/12). I always thought I had a lot of determination and grit until I read Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom. I remember thinking to myself, “Al Duncan, you need to step up your game.”

Of course, neither Mandela nor Covey are without flaws and that’s what makes them great. Both epitomize many of the characteristics of exceptional leaders. Here are two of the numerous leadership lessons that can be learned from studying their works.

A Lesson on Leadership from Jackie Robinson

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”-Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson

Yesterday, Sunday, April the 15th, was the 60th anniversary of an exceptional act of leadership that has left an indelible mark on history. Jackie Robinson became the first African-American major league baseball player.

Drifting into reverie while watching the ball games on Sunday, I wondered what it would be like to be a trendsetter of that magnitude.

How would it feel to be a leader that has affected the lives millions and millions to come? What do you say to yourself when you know you’ve taken a swing at history, caught a ball for the future, and rounded the bases for the ages?