As I travel around the country to lead workshops, I often hear frustrations with or objections to some of the supervisory/leadership techniques and approaches that I advocate and teach. I seldom hear an outright disagreement with the general approach. Instead, people express their frustration or objection like this: “That sounds great, but … “I work in the … [Read more...]
4 Ways to Prevent Discrimination in Your Workplace
The concept of "sensitivity or anti-racial bias training" has been in the news a good bit lately, ever since the Starbucks' debacle back in April, when two black men were asked to leave a Philadelphia location, and then subsequently arrested, for doing what people across the country do at Starbucks all the time: sit, study, work, wait for others without ordering a thing. The … [Read more...]
Train Employees to Do More Than Just Offer Ideas
I love hearing people’s ideas. I love outside-of-the-box thinking, and I regularly—my teammates might think too regularly—ask for people’s input. So just to be clear, I want people to offer ideas. That said, I’m less than excited when people send ideas—and nothing more. They don’t offer any insight into how an idea will be executed. They don’t consider obstacles. In some … [Read more...]
Is Your Focus Too Narrow?
Focus. It is one of those words everyone says is a good thing and something most people would like to be better at. Yet, focus alone, isn't enough. What you focus on is what really matters. Take some time to think: What are you focused on right now? What are your priorities? To become the best leader you can be, and to best serve both your team members and your … [Read more...]
Working Long Hours Doesn’t Mean Dedication
Why do you hire new employees? Ok, this seems like an obvious question, and no, it isn’t a trick. We hire people because we have assignments that need to be completed, sales to be made, and products to be created, manufactured, shipped and billed. We hire people because we're growing and because other people leave. We hire people to be productive and to get work done. … [Read more...]
6 Tips for a Super Successful Summer
Summer is the season of “school’s out,” cook outs and vacations. Summer is also the season of warmth, longer days and the period of greatest growth in the natural world around us. As leaders, we must navigate all those truths to create a successful summer for our teams, both at work and in the rest of their lives. The challenge, as is often the case in life, is about seeking … [Read more...]
Actions are Louder than Words: Simply Responding to Controversy Won’t Make You a Strong Leader
This is a guest post by Vishal Agarwal, author of Give to Get: A Senior Leader's Guide to Navigating Corporate Life. Much of the news run over the past few weeks has focused on what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg did not do once the Cambridge Analytics information came to light. Much of the anger has tied him to the billions of dollars of wiped out stock value. Yet, little … [Read more...]
4 Hacks Successful Leaders Use to Overcome Resistance
This is a guest post by Martin Lanik, author of THE LEADER HABIT. When you propose a change or new strategy to your team, do people openly resist your ideas? Do you have trouble articulating the improvements the change will bring? Are you unable to come to an agreement with particular team members? As a leader, you must be able to bring your people on board to make … [Read more...]
Change Course After a Terrible Start to Your Leadership Journey
If you feel like you've gotten off on the wrong foot as a new leader, don't throw in the towel, says Paul G. Krasnow, author of The Success Code: A Guide for Achieving Your Personal Best in Business and Life, "When you face a setback in your life, you have two choices: remain stuck or move forward. It's that simple." So how do you recover from a bad beginning to your … [Read more...]
Boosting Self-Esteem is the Key to High Performance
Self-esteem is relatively scarce in the world and in your workplace. If you don't believe that, it's probably because: You have a healthy self-esteem and so you assume others do, or it never crosses your mind. You don’t have it, and are in denial, (or think you are the only one with weak or low self-esteem). Your people seem to have good self-esteem Self-esteem … [Read more...]