leadership

A Simple Trick To Create A Great Leadership Team

We’re currently working with a number of organizations with relatively new leadership teams. As is often the case, the people on these teams have made their way up the organizational ladder because they have succeeded in their department or in a specific area of expertise. While it makes sense that they would move up in leadership as their skills grow, the transition to higher levels of leadership requires a major shift in their approach and mindset.  In particular, they need to…

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Effective Delegation Is Not Micromanaging

This is the follow-up to the 3 Steps to Delegate Effectively which we re-shared last week; we thought this follow-up should be re-shared as well. We heard from several of you that you were concerned that if you used our 3 Steps to Delegate Effectively, it would be experienced by others as micromanaging. Delegation is about providing Context, Content, and Connection so that the individual who is assigned the activity can organize their thinking and their tactics to accomplish the delegated task. When…

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3 Steps to Effective Delegation

As coaches and consultants, we find that many people regularly struggle with delegation, and they tend to feel uncomfortable admitting it because they believe they should know how to do it. In our experience, delegating is a challenging skill . . . one that few of us are taught. People are frequently told they should, “just delegate that” but when they do, and they don’t get the results they hoped for, they give up and just heap the task onto…

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Your Dream Team

One of the biggest frustrations we hear from people in leadership is that they have to be available to their teams “all the time” to answer questions and solve problems. They say that they read about dream teams that know how to move forward in the face of challenges but their team just doesn’t get it. When we ask them to share some examples of how this plays out, we often hear a long history of our client (as team…

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Oprah

Today is Martin Luther King Jr, and to honor his work around civil rights, we want to share with you a present-day voice advocating for a better world. On January 7th at the Golden Globes, Oprah gave a powerful speech about the importance of speaking up. The speech she gave was moving, and the reaction of the audience was equally, if not more, moving. You see, as Oprah spoke, her words fueled their hopes and their conviction for a better…

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Provide Powerful Input

There is a big difference between sharing your opinion and giving credible input and knowing that difference can have a powerful impact on your success.   Giving relevant, useful input is an important skill that requires practice and thoughtfulness. Without a framework for giving input on a question or issue, many of us get anxious and then resort to giving our opinion. Yet, when decision-makers look to you for your expertise, they generally don’t want your opinion—they want useful input.…

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30,000 Feet

We’ve been contacted by many of you over the years saying that you’re unhappy or worn down by your work and are considering a change. You feel like your company isn’t the same place anymore and you’re unmotivated or frustrated. You’re looking to update your resume and cover letter and see what’s out there that will be better than what you currently have. At first glance, this makes a lot of sense and yet it’s often the wrong first step.…

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I’m Outta Here* . . . *almost

As executive coaches, we often work with clients who are getting ready to take a new job and yet need to stay engaged and effective until they formally leave their position. Being able to stay engaged is really important not only to your self-esteem and your colleagues’ last impressions of you but also to your reputation – so it’s important that you do it well. So, what can you do to stay engaged when you know you’re moving on? Put…

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Brand You

Brand: You

  Good morning, instead of a narrative today, we have a hot seat moment for you: What is your brand? Your “brand” is a combination of your values, your contributions, your attributes, and it is the essence of what you offer to the world. In the next 30 seconds, write down the 3-5 things that best describe Brand You. Do you like what you wrote? Do you feel proud of your brand?  Now, identify 2 people who know you and…

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We All Work

As the title of this week’s post says, we all work. Some for money, some as a volunteer, and some in the home, but it’s fair to say that in general, we all work.   Because working is such a norm in our lives, we don’t often take time to think (see last week’s post Take Time to Think) about what we actually want from work and prepare to move forward in a way that gets us where we want…

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