Weekly Posts and Insights
5 Reasons Why Getting a Workplace Coach or Mentor is Your Next Big Move
Results of a study conducted by Manchester, Inc. of 100 leaders primarily from Fortune 100 companies found that among the benefits that organizations received from providing coaching to leaders were improvements in productivity (reported by 53% of leaders), quality (48%), and organizational strength (48%). Among the benefits to leaders who received coaching were improved working relationships with direct reports (reported by 77% of leaders), working relationships with immediate supervisors (71%), teamwork (67%).
Understanding Your Employees Competency and Commitment Levels Can Improve Behavior and Motivation
There was a direct connection between a person’s commitment level and his/her confidence in his/her own ability to do his/her job. This is typically identified as competency.
Ken Blanchard speaks about Competence and Commitment (C&C) in his discussion around situational leadership; however, what is rarely discussed is the relationship between the two and the belief that competency is a driving factor for commitment. Blanchard uses these two indicators to help identify an employee’s level of development, which is determined by the level of competency he/she has coupled with his/her level of commitment to the job or organization.
Developing Best Business Practices During Chaotic Times.
How do we find our way out of this tunnel of uncertainty and change, or at the very least, learn how to ride the rollercoaster while still continuing to develop business? As Drucker points out, albeit simplistically, if you want to predict what’s ahead, your best bet is to create it. How do we go about creating a model that can handle the chaos of today, react when necessary, and attack with precision and purpose? Here are some thoughts…
I have to run meetings now! Where do I start? 13 tips to keep your meetings on track as a young leader
Do you know how much your meetings cost? Seriously. It’s so common now to be 5 minutes late, not have a direction to meetings, scribble a half-baked agenda (if that) and rarely have action items coming out of the meetings. Sometimes we meet just to say we met!
I’m A New Manager! Help!
Many of those that have gone through one of my workshops know that I despise the word manager. It’s too sterile and authoritarian. It doesn’t describe the actual purpose of the role. When you have entered the arena of manager (welcome!), you take on a new role. You are no longer suppose to make the widgets, work in the weeds, mow the lawn! Yes, you doing so well at those jobs probably got you there, but it is important to know when you receive the title of manager, supervisor or coach, you are putting down your widget making ability and picking up the skillsets of guiding a team to success!
Dealing With A Bully Boss
What makes a boss a bully? I believe that bully bosses think very highly of themselves, in fact to a certain degree they believe they are the only ones with the correct answers. Interestingly, this often shows up in mid-process, not in the beginning. Some will allow people to get started on a project or task, because they don’t fully know how to do it themselves. They will often not participate in the development of ideas, but focus instead on critiquing ideas once they are generated. Others will berate staff for not having answers early enough in a project and will supply all the answers from the start.
Crush Your Next Presentation With These 40 Tips
You probably aren’t going to have to do a TED talk anytime soon in your near future. However, we all have to present, communicate and convince other people. Asking for that salary raise? Discussing the new project with your team? Needing to get buy in from stakeholders? Speaking in front of your board? This all requires crushing it during the presentation. Presentation skills, I believe, are one of the most undervalued, least taught, and difficult skill for many leaders to master. Here are 40 tips, hints and facts that I practice, use routinely and hope you find some help with: crushing your next presentation…
Founder, Creator, Entrepreneur: Welcome To The Stage Generation Z!
Sorry folks, but this will be a long post. It’s finally time to talk about Gen Z. We’ve only scratched the surface. We’ve hopefully but together a good list of trending attributes to this generation. Give it a read and let us know what you think…
I'm not always the best at being assertive, here are 7 Steps I learned to become more assertive
I have to be honest, and you may not believe me, but this is one of the hardest skills I am in the works of learning. Perhaps it's my 8-person family, puritan upbringing, and as a middle child I just went along with what the group wanted, but assertiveness has never been a strength of mine. I believe in a give, give, give, ask method of forward movement (in marketing, sales, strategy, people, etc.), however sometimes I recognize the ask has to come a little bit sooner. Assertiveness is not being tough or arrogant. It’s actually a very humble and thoughtful dance. It is recognizing that we have value and we sometimes need to put up boundaries for others to recognize our value.
Forget the New 2019 Leadership Fad and Try These 13 Back-To-Basics Disciplines To Be A Great Leader
As I continue to travel around and see various businesses and organizations trying to get the edge on their competition or the market, I’m still astonished at the lack of basics from our leaders. Don’t get me wrong, the basics are hard. And, sometimes they’re not hot or new. And, so they are rarely discussed (even though some of them have been around for years) and barely used. However, they are time-tested and worth consideration. Forget the the 2019 leadership buzzwords and try some of these concepts as you develop your leadership.