Management

Nov
22

Creative Problem Solving and Decision Making

How do you solve big problems?  Do you have a systematic approach or do you just wing it? The Creative Problem Solving Process uses six major steps to find and implement solutions to almost any kind of problem. The six steps are: Define the Problem Perform a Gap analysis Generate Possible Solutions Evaluate Possible Solutions […]

By jay@americanwatercollege.org | Leadership . Management
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Nov
15

Tell Me a Story

Storytelling can be very useful in a variety of organizational settings.  You can tell stories for presentations, managing staff, motivating colleagues, and training. In our Effective Utility Management workshops, we have a structured training module to help you learn about this powerful tool for communication and influence. Your position as a manager and leader can […]

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Aug
23

The Art of Influence

Leadership expert and best-selling author John Maxwell says, “Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less.”  You may or may not agree with this complete statement, but there is no question about whether a key component to leadership is influence.  It is. Today, we’re going to look at the art of influence by focusing on persuasion. […]

By jay@americanwatercollege.org | Leadership . Management . Uncategorized
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Aug
16

Characteristics of Great Leaders

Recently we’ve looked at the skills needed to be a good manager – the foundation of leadership.  Today we are going to look at what’s involved in making the leap from being a good manager to becoming a great leader. Our goal here is to highlight some of the most important characteristics while recognizing there […]

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Aug
09

3 Skills of a Situational Leader

To become an effective situational leader, you need to master three skills: Diagnosis Flexibility Partnering for Performance Diagnosis To be an effective situational leader, you must determine the development level of your direct report.  The key to diagnosing is focusing on two factors – skills and motivation. Skills Skills are the sum of knowledge and […]

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Aug
02

Situational Leadership

Don’t treat all of your employees the same! That may not sound right, but compelling leadership style research comes from Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard indicates that’s exactly what you should do.  Hersey and Blanchard are responsible for providing the management world with a Situational Leadership Model. The Hersey-Blanchard model addresses the key to practical leadership […]

By jay@americanwatercollege.org | Leadership . Management . Uncategorized
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Jul
26

Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Teamwork is essential in most organizations.  And most organizations, find that their teams exhibit one or more of the five dysfunctions identified by Patrick Lencioni in his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. In our last installment, we identified the five problems that all teams must overcome.  Today, we’ll share some of Lencioni’s ideas […]

By jay@americanwatercollege.org | Certificate Programs . Continuing Education . Leadership . Management
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Jul
19

Five Problems All Teams Face

In his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni  identifies the five major problems all teams must overcome in order to become a high performing unit.  Today we’ll take a look at the five dysfunctions model to get a good understanding of these issues so you can identify any that may be present […]

By jay@americanwatercollege.org | Certificate Programs . Continuing Education . Leadership . Management
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