Filling Big Shoes: Living Up To and Surpassing Your Predecessor’s Reputation

Filling Big Shoes: Living Up To and Surpassing Your Predecessor's Reputation by Laura Stack

"I've got big shoes to fill. This is my chance to do something. I have to seize the moment."— Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States.   In just about every field of endeavor, you start out at or near the bottom (depending on the extent and quality of your education), and have to work your way up from there. According to the Peter Principal, you also rise to your highest level of incompetence; this takes quite a while for the best of us. When you're promoted into a new position, you'll most likely fill the gap left by someone who's either lost their job due to incompetence, or who was competent enough to win a rung slightly higher up. It doesn't really matter which; you still want to wow your superiors with your sheer ability and high performance levels. But on … [Read more...]

Leader as Visionary: 4 Ways to Bring Your Vision to Life

Leader as Visionary: 4 Ways to Bring Your Vision to Life by Laura Stack #productivity

Clear communication is important in all directions, upward and laterally as well as downward. You'll have to learn to ar­gue effectively and productively with others at or above your responsibility level—because no matter how good-natured people are, if you bring any two together, they'll eventually find something to disagree about. Here's how you can argue your point productively, so ev­eryone can move quickly through the dispute phase and get back to work. 1. Get All Your Ducks in a Row. Prepare your argu­ments and have your facts straight. Run your thoughts by neutral people and ask them to shoot holes in your argument. You may find your position fails when other factors are brought up, or your view simply has less merit than someone else's. If this proves to be the case, admit … [Read more...]