Musings

Lessons of LeBron – the Cleveland Perspective

In the May issue of Fast Company Magazine, there was an article called Lessons of LeBron. Though I’ve had the issue out on my desk since I got it, it’s taken me awhile to read it. I figured it would be a lot of chest thumping and hero worship for a man who broke my city’s heart.

Yesterday, I was in a good enough mood to be able to read it.

The article actually is pretty interesting. The point of the article is to look at LeBron, Bosh, and Wade down in Miami as chemists making a leadership experiment. Few times, if ever, in NBA history, have three key players strategized a way to play with each other, even to the point of leaving smaller market teams where they were the big show behind. The article points out in particular that Wade and James are similar in style, so having them both on the same team is particularly interesting if you’re studying teamwork and/or leadership.

Despite all of this interesting talk, the article is still from the Miami point of view. What does this experiment mean for Miami? How is Miami doing? There are some engagement lessons that we can learn from LeBron when looking at him from the Cleveland perspective too, though, and I thought I would offer those up for conversation today.

The construction of a dream

by Margie Clayman

One of the first books I read from as a child was a little light blue paperback book about Abraham Lincoln. I don’t know how many times I read it, but I remember always being hypnotized most especially by the tales of his youth, when he scratched out lessons on the wall as he rested from a hard day of manual labor. I read that book, but I had no idea that it was the beginning of a dream.

When I was 16, I called a local driver’s education place to ask if they would be able to teach me how to drive. Did they have a special car that I could learn in? They responded, “Uh, we have some phone books. I guess you could sit on those.” Being 16, I took this as a thoughtless, insensitive response. The obstacles in the way of learning how to drive seemed immense. How could I learn how to drive when no car could accommodate me? How could I buy a car and get it fixed up when I didn’t even know how to drive? All of this unwound itself 9 years later when I found a person named Wally whose specialty was teaching people like me how to drive. His car could accommodate anyone. I trained all Summer to pass my driver’s test, and around the time of my 26th birthday, I got my real driver’s license. But I didn’t know that that was just one piece of a dream.

A little note about Mother’s Day

by Margie Clayman

For many people, Mother’s Day is a day for buffet lunches or brunches, flowers to mom, heartwarming cards, breakfast in bed served by your kids, and all sorts of wonderful things.

But this is not true for everyone. For some people, Mother’s Day may be a reminder of the mom they have lost. For others, it may be a reminder of a child who is not there to celebrate. For still others, it is a reminder that the journey to becoming a mom cannot be taken for granted. It stands there, a day of springtime celebration, and for some people, it is a thorn without the rose.

Women and Social Media: Carol’s post is live!

by Margie Clayman

Well, this brings us to the end of the Women and Social Media series. I hope you have enjoyed reading all of the contributions as much as I have!

Today, the series ends with the wonderful Carol Roth, newly minted best-selling author of The Entrepreneur Equation. Carol’s take is extremely interesting. She argues that the dehumanization that Social Media causes makes it easier for sexism (and other offensive behaviors) to persist online. If nobody is really “real” to you, being crude, rude, or obnoxious is a lot easier to rationalize. Check out her post because it’s a great and thought provoking read!

Here is an overview of the series, and please give a visit to the following posts:

A Glass Ceiling in Social Media? By Daria Giron, aka @mominmanagement

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Oh My! Baby Boomer Women Transition Careers Through Social Media, by Chanelle Schneider aka @writerchanelle

On Facebook, Women Just Want to Have Fun. by Heidi Cohen, aka @heidicohen

Women and Social Media: Supporting Others by Amber Cleveland, aka @ambercleveland

How the Other Half Tweets by Jill Manty, aka @MantyWebDesigns

The Labels We Choose, by Dawn Westerberg, aka @Dwesterberg

Women and Social Media: Dawn’s Post is Live

by Margie Clayman

We’ve been talking about gender and how it intersects with Social Media for awhile now. We’ve talked about whether women keep each other down. We’ve talked about whether women use Social Media to socialize more, and whether women are more supportive while men are more promotional. What if what we have really been talking about is labels, though? In today’s contribution to this series, Dawn Westerberg argues that the only label you have is the one you choose.

For the rest of the series so far:

Here is an overview of the series, and please give a visit to the following posts:

A Glass Ceiling in Social Media? By Daria Giron, aka @mominmanagement

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Oh My! Baby Boomer Women Transition Careers Through Social Media, by Chanelle Schneider aka @writerchanelle

On Facebook, Women Just Want to Have Fun. by Heidi Cohen, aka @heidicohen

Women and Social Media: Supporting Others by Amber Cleveland, aka @ambercleveland

How the Other Half Tweets by Jill Manty, aka @MantyWebDesigns

Women and Social Media: Jill’s post is live

by Margie Clayman

Jill Manty of Manty Web Designs is our contributor for today. Jill has written a great post exploring how men and women use Social Media in different ways. Branching off what Heidi Cohen found, Jill explores the fact that women tend to socialize online more than men do and seem less keen on promotional activities. Give it a read! It’s a great post!

For the rest of the series so far:

Here is an overview of the series, and please give a visit to the following posts:

A Glass Ceiling in Social Media? By Daria Giron, aka @mominmanagement

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Oh My! Baby Boomer Women Transition Careers Through Social Media, by Chanelle Schneider aka @writerchanelle

On Facebook, Women Just Want to Have Fun. by Heidi Cohen, aka @heidicohen

Women and Social Media: Supporting Others by Amber Cleveland, aka @ambercleveland

Musings

Footer