Effective Utility Management

Should a Leader Admit Failure?
Dec
06

Should a Leader Admit Failure?

Do you ever fail?  Do you admit it when you do?  Should you? I think it is critical for leaders to admit failure when it happens.  Many people try cover over mistakes and pretend they didn’t happen.  Others try to shrug off missteps as things that happen to everyone. While doing so might seem harmless, […]

By jay@americanwatercollege.org | Leadership . Management . Uncategorized
DETAIL
Questioning the Answer
Nov
29

Questioning the Answer

When it comes to making important decisions, always question the answer.  In their Harvard Business Review article “The Big Idea: Before You Make That Big Decision,” Daniel Kahneman, Dan Lovallo, and Olivier Sibony offer a Decision Quality Control checklist you can use to do just that. This 12-question checklist is designed to help leaders discover […]

By jay@americanwatercollege.org | Leadership . Management
DETAIL
Creative Problem Solving and Decision Making
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
DETAIL
Tell Me a Story
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 […]

By jay@americanwatercollege.org | Certificate Programs . Continuing Education . Education . Leadership . Management . Workforce Development
DETAIL
Characteristics of Great Leaders
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 […]

By jay@americanwatercollege.org | Certificate Programs . Continuing Education . Leadership . Management . Uncategorized . Workforce Development
DETAIL
3 Skills of a Situational Leader
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 […]

By jay@americanwatercollege.org | Certificate Programs . Continuing Education . Leadership . Management . Workforce Development
DETAIL
Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team
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
DETAIL
Five Problems All Teams Face
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
DETAIL