On my way to dinner with my husband we passed a large road project and a construction site. Road and construction projects are not that unusual after the snow finally leaves Michigan. But it was 7:30 pm on a Friday. As we were off to enjoy a nice evening I wondered about the spouses or children waiting at home for their loved ones that were still hard at work. I’m sure the workers were just Read more…
In every leadership act we have a choice regarding how we will engage with those we lead. Some leaders believe that all they have to do is create an awareness of what is desired and then their people will just do it. Other leaders will create that awareness and suggest an orientation and then expect their people to succeed. The best leaders create the awareness, understand their people’s orientation, and then guide them into action. Read more…
In our coaching work we often talk to our clients about leadership maturity. When we talk about maturity, we are talking about having the emotional, motivational and behavioral agility that is needed so that you can adapt to a variety of situations. People who lack leadership maturity only see things from their own point-of-view and insist that others always see things that way as well. Sometimes this will work out just fine but most often Read more…
Anyone who is an athlete knows that stretching is a good thing. The act of stretching helps to create greater flexibility in our joints and muscles. When coupled with appropriate strength training, stretching can help prevent injuries. This is so important in professional sports that Major League teams hire strength and flexibility coaches. Stretching is also important for our personal growth and development which, in turn, is critical for our performance and the success of Read more…
As the economy improves, so does the competition for the best people. This shift is causing many organizations to put more focus on the subject of employee engagement. Once we hire the right person, how do we keep them? There are many reasons that employees become disengaged or begin looking elsewhere. The consequences of disengagement on productivity, performance and turnover rates are astounding. As I was researching this subject there were two studies that caught Read more…
Having just come off a week at a trade association event, we thought it fitting to discuss the ever-important subject of networking. If you ask anyone about networking these days, they’ll give you their opinion. Universally people see the need and purpose for networking but not everyone sees it the same way. In fact, there are at least 3 different types of networking and each has a different purpose. Social Networking: The first type of Read more…
We recently completed a training workshop for one of our clients. At the end of the two-day session they identified three key learnings which they felt were game changers. Among the three was a simple, but very powerful truth. That truth? That it is “my” responsibility to make sure what I communicate is: Received by my audience Understood by my audience Resonates with the audience and they know what to do with my message Leads Read more…
Delegation is one of the most essential, yet often difficult skills every leader must master. Delegation done well taps into the collective talent of the team, spreads the workload and builds a stronger team in the process. Delegation that is not done well can cause frustration, confusion, inefficiencies and discouragement. If you can learn to let go, you can grow and empower your team and develop a strong team of leaders under your care. A Read more…
Tips for Transformative Leadership: That Space Between Us In an earlier Tips email we talked about the importance of pausing and being present in the moment. Today we’re going to discuss the importance of the “space” that pausing and being present, in the moment, can create. It’s important to understand the concept that all behavior is rooted in emotion. No matter how much we try to behave in a rational manner, our emotions are always Read more…
Tips for Transformative Leadership: It Doesn’t Work Unless You Work it In our last Tips for Transformative Leadership we discussed behaving your way to change. How many of you took on our challenge for the week and practiced one new behavior for the past seven days? Based on statistics, our guess is 10% or less. In fact, there were probably more of you that read through the exercise, said, “That sounds like a great idea”, Read more…