Category: <span>Leadership</span>

Category: Leadership

Leadership, Success

Trust and Team Building

itemprop="discussionURL"0

The post before last was about finding balance in your life, based on information from the book  Breaking the Trust Barrier, by JV Venable.  If you recall, Venable was a commander and demonstration leader of the Thunderbirds, the USAF’s elite demonstration team. In addition to balance, the author addresses building teams – and the commander of a team whose slightest mistake can cause death and disaster knows something about building strong, tight, effective, high-functioning teams! Critical characteristics of a high-functioning team There are three key components to a great team: Trust Loyalty Commitment Trust: The willingness to put yourself or your team at risk with the belief that another will follow through with a task, in a role, or with a mission. Loyalty: Cohesion within a relationship – the kind that can be built only on the foundation of commitment. It is fostered by a leader’s willingness to go the distance to support his/her team without the expectation that they will respond in kind. Commitment: The demonstrated will to deliver for the people around you. Building a Team No matter how willing people are to work together, deep feelings like trust, loyalty, and commitment take time to develop. Steven Covey …

Coaching, Leadership, Self Improvement

How Accountability and Resilience are Connected

 , , , itemprop="discussionURL"0

I recently had a conversation with a client which generated a leadership AHA! about how accountability and resilience are connected.  In this situation, a millennial was involved.  He had been working for a year with this organization, and his manager had had 18 conversations about performance issues with this person.  Several of these challenges created liability issues for the organization, customer service failures, and employee morale issues for the people they work with and serve.   The situation became more complicated because this person was friends with the owner of the company.  Lots of challenges here! Millennials What Do Millennials Want? Millennials.  There have been lots of conversations, complaints, discussions and challenges stated about Millennials in the workplace.  Simon Sinek states in his famous You Tube, “BEST SPEECH EVER – Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace”, with more than 2.5 million views: “Millennials, born approximately 1984 and after, are tough to manage and accused of being entitled, and narcissistic, self-interested, unfocused, lazy.  But entitled is a big one.  Because they have confounded leaders so much, they have asked of Millennials, ‘what do you want?’  Millennials are saying, ‘We want to work in a place with a purpose. We want to …

Leadership, Life Balance

Leadership and Gratitude

 , , itemprop="discussionURL"0

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and a perfect time for reflecting on the people we are grateful for in our personal and professional lives. Find ways to demonstrate gratitude all year long! In my workshops and retreats discussing leadership, there are many important leadership characteristics that seem to come up over and over again: Humility Honest and Respectful Communication Clear Vision Trustworthy I am certain you could add many more to this list… The one characteristic I wish I heard more often is Showing Gratitude.  There is a lot of research that supports leadership and the importance of thanking people and showing gratitude.  When co-workers, peers, direct reports, and employees feel adequately recognized and appreciated, they take more ownership in their position, feel more fulfilled, and actually stay at their job.  We know and understand the painful costs in time and energy in replacing valuable staff members.  Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: You can see how Showing Gratitude fits into four out of the five basic human needs.  Knowing this, why don’t more leaders demonstrate their gratitude by providing positive feedback and recognition?  Here are some reasons:    They feel that the employee is paid well, and providing them with …

Coaching, Communication, Leadership

Mastering Difficult Conversations

  itemprop="discussionURL"0

One of the things I hear quite often from Leaders and Managers at all levels:   “I have to have a Crucial Conversation with someone, and I don’t know how…” This is understandable. Crucial conversations can be difficult. But they are key to helping your team improve performance. As a leader, one of the most important and valuable tools you can develop is the ability to have effective Crucial Conversations with those you lead and manage.  There’s a link below to a brief video by James Robbins on “How to Challenge an Employee”.  This video talks about the “emotional science” behind a conversation with a person asking them to “up their game!”  This is difficult for both people involved in the conversation.  Both manager and employee have an emotional spike that is directly connected to FEAR and/or ANGER!  Some of the emotional spikes/thoughts both parties may have: Emotional Spike For the Manager/Leader: How do I start the conversation? What do I say? Will I hurt their feelings? How do I tell them they are not doing a great job, I need them to step up? Will they still want to work here? How do I ask them to increase their performance? Will …

Coaching, Leadership

Reasons People Don’t Take Action & How to Get them Moving

  itemprop="discussionURL"0

With the start of 2017, many of us think about the goals we want to accomplish this year and beyond.  If we manage or lead others, we are also helping others set and reach their goals.  As a coach, I am often asked/told, “How do I get ‘Name’ to take action?” or, “No matter what I do or say, this person does not take action!”  I have found through 15+ years of coaching that there are three main reasons human beings don’t take action.  Missing Skill Out of my Control Psychological Block If you have someone who is not executing or taking action, here are some coaching questions you can ask to identify the block: Questions to ask about each situation:                     What missing skill, training, tools or knowledge do you need? What is out of your control?  What is in your control? What is holding you back from taking this action? Missing skill:  Training or knowledge is an easy fix.  Get them the training, tools and/or information they need to be successful. Out of their Control:  An example of this is:  There are three people working on a project, Person A has completed their part, it is now sitting on …

Leadership

Leaders Listen, Laugh, and Love

 , itemprop="discussionURL"0

I have been working with “leaders” for a long time – over 30 years.  Wow!  The time has flown by and what a learning journey it has been and continues to be every day! I have worked with some amazing leaders, who were and continue to be my teachers, mentors, and coaches.  These people continue to challenge me to be more self aware and continuously challenge myself to a higher level of accountability and growth.  Thank you! There are three important skills a leader brings to their organization to encourage growth in their organizations:   Listening, Laughing and Loving. Listen Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Stephen Covey We live in a very “noisy” society.  Everyone and everything is clamoring for our attention and they all seem to be getting louder and louder (Social Media, Podcasts, Blogs, Traditional Media, Emails, Texts…).  There is a lot being said, but how many of us are truly listening? What does listening as a leader mean?  It means using Pareto’s 80/20 rule.  Listen 80%, Talk 20%.  This is not an easy task!  When we take the time to listen to our staff, we are telling them they are important, we value them and …

Leadership

Shifting Our Mindset

 , , itemprop="discussionURL"0

7 Ways to Shift your Mindset as a Leader Shifting our mindset from “how does this impact me” to “what is the greater good for the greatest number of people” is not an easy shift!  It takes time for most to let go of old and outworn beliefs and thoughts and replace them with new life-affirming mindsets. But this kind of change can have a great impact on the organization as a whole.  For leaders of the future, the following seven shifts may be good places to start in the workplace. Shifting our Attention:  From and To 1.  Sickness to Well-being Concentrate and invest in physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being.  How many people are well and have true life balance? Celebrate wellness, and set targets around well-being.   Focusing attention and energy upon absence and sickness means it is created and prolonged.  Focus on what we want to create consciously, a culture of Well-Being, personally and professionally. 2.  Scarcity to Abundance Instead of cutting costs, settling for second best, or laying off employees, develop possibilities of generating ways to grow and increase wealth. Be generous and don’t allow FEAR or guilt about finances be the decision-maker.  Think through changes strategically and …

Leadership, Life Balance

Leading Staff through Holiday Stress

 , , itemprop="discussionURL"0

The holidays are a busy time and can be truly challenging, both personally and professionally. Often when we are stressed, going in too many directions, overwhelmed, or dealing with organizational changes, our EQ takes a real nosedive; regardless of our rank or position (CEO’s to the front lines)!  If, during stressful times, we take a few minutes to take a deep breath and think things through before we speak, we move from reactive mode to proactive mode and avoid being “inhumane”, which always turns out to be counter-productive.  Recognizing Humanity in Organizations All organizations are “living organisms” filled with human beings.  A colleague of mine, Sandi Cardillo, has a beautiful saying:  “Make change more human for the humans.”  Regardless of the type of change — loss of staff, shuffling the organizational chart, financial reorganization, company growth, etc. — the goal should be to “make the change more human for the humans”. As leaders, our goal is to get things done through others. As leaders, it is our job to set the compass for all our team members to grow and to bring their own capabilities (strengths) to the organization. As leaders, we create the environment for them to succeed by getting them in the right seat of the bus and then trusting they have the capability …

Leadership

What People Want

 , itemprop="discussionURL"0

What do customers, friends, the socially networked, users, neighbors, classmates, servers, administrators, employees… maybe even brands… want? notice me like me touch me do what I say miss me if I’m gone The above blog was written by Seth Godin, Saturday, May 14, 2011.  I thought about this and how it applies to leadership and the most impactful way to treat people. The following are my thoughts and expansion on what Seth wrote.   As a leader, it is imperative that you constantly feed your staff.  They want to hear it from YOU! Notice me – acknowledge me when I do something right and value what I bring to this company Like me – smile, ask about ME, get to know me, ask me what I do when I am not at work Touch me – send note cards with acknowledging and supportive comments, connect with the heart Do what I say – ask for my suggestions and take action on some of my suggestions Miss me if I am gone – always acknowledge the strengths a person has brought to the organization All of your staff like to be “touched” by you.  Not in the physical sense of course!  In the heart.  You as the leader, have the “magic touch” to motivate, …