It's April 1 - traditionally, "April Fools Day." Web sites today are full of silly posts and nonsense. Along those lines, I thought I'd post this:
You can find leadership lessons in many unexpected places. I recently re-watched Pulp Fiction. There's a scene at the beginning where Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta lead a kind of small group "discussion" over breakfast.
I took away a few quick points on working effectively in a small group:
- Spend a few moments before entering the room to consider the discussion topics, and get into "character" for the meeting.
- Position yourself to hear everything clearly. If you continue to interrupt by asking "What?", you will derail the conversation and annoy the speaker.
- If you interrupt and break the other person's concentration, apologize. Then move on.
- Use emotional intelligence to keep the discussion calm, or you'll find the meeting getting out of hand and people losing temper.
- Never stop a discussion to quote Bible verses. It is considered rude.
