09 Dec
[email protected] Team

Stressful or Joyous Times?

Busy is a choice. Stress is a choice. Joy is a choice. Choose well.
— Ann Voskamp

It’s that time of year when pending goals and projects targeted for completion are looming overhead. It’s also the time for vacations, families, friends, and holiday traditions. This often creates joy as well as stress.

Are you in tune with both? Do you have a sense of how your team, colleagues, and even family members are feeling?

We believe most would share that 2021 was a better year than 2020, but it continues to have its challenges with seemingly never-ending health risks, job security, and a questionable economy.

Don’t disregard behaviors that may be “off”. Having a blend of emotions as the year-end approaches is to be expected, but how is it being managed? How are you managing it?

As a leader start by assessing if you have spent a sufficient amount of time acknowledging accomplishments and contributions of team members. It’s a great time for a team luncheon or an after-work event (this can be done in person or virtually). During this time focus only on the positive (use team meetings or one on one sessions to address missed goals, gaps, and development needs).

Be genuine about what is deserving of recognition. Hopefully every team member has added value in at least one way – celebrate and share it! Consider applauding individuals for their contributions to the team.  Some examples are:

  • Technical savvy
  • Influence
  • Mentorship
  • Inclusiveness
  • Approachability
  • Analysis
  • Creativity
  • Humor
  • Steadiness

Too often time flies by and we neglect to let others know how and why we value them. Understand that others may be feeling stress and make the time to share some joy.

Joy is increased by spreading it to others.
—Robert Murray McCheyne

02 Dec
[email protected] Success

Gear Up!

Personal development is a major time-saver. The better you become,
the less time it takes you to achieve your goals.
―Brian Tracy

2021 may be winding down but it’s time to Gear Up for 2022.  What behaviors or actions can you commit to for becoming a better you, and for obtaining your career aspirations?

SUCCESS magazine provided the following 10 suggestions:

STAY STRONG
Both mentally and physically; keeping your mind sharp and your body healthy is energizing and supports achieving desired results.

SELF-CARE
Every day build in time for self-reflection or meditation. What went well and what can be done to address obstacles and challenges?

CHANGE LANGUAGE
Don’t ignore self-doubt; rather replace your negative thoughts with positive words that will move you forward.  Ex. Think and say “I can, and I will”

GET INTENTIONAL
Be purposeful. What do want to do? What’s the intent? What behaviors are needed?

FUEL CREATIVITY
Pause and reflect on new perspectives and alternative views. What can be done differently?

DEAL WITH IT
We all have to manage the unexpected; don’t get derailed, keep your focus and stay on track.

LEARN MORE
Commit to continual self-development; join a network, stay abreast of changing times, and build in time for reading about your industry or your position.

BE COURAGEOUS
Being a leader requires courage and that includes making difficult decisions.

OWN UP TO IT
Be accountable; hold others accountable.

AIM HIGH
Set stretch goals and track progress.

What do you need to do to gear up for 2022? How can you help others gear up?

Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead.
―Morihei Ueshiba

18 Nov
[email protected] Leadership

Self Discovery

Invest in self-discovery. It will help you envision a better tomorrow and blaze a path to achieve what you truly desire.

How much time do you invest in yourself?  Do you actually make it a priority to evaluate:

  • What makes you happy?
  • What could change to help you achieve that goal?
  • What are the obstacles that are getting in the way?
  • What’s missing from your life and your career?
  • How has your past influenced this?
  • Do you regret any past decisions that you’ve made? If yes, what have you learned from them?
  • Have any past decisions helped you move closer to your goal?  How and why?
  • What makes you anxious?
  • What makes you relax and feel content and comfortable?
  • What inspires you to do more and expand your comfort zone?
  • What makes you feel valued?
  • What’s needed to grow your career?
  • What actions need to occur to address development opportunities?

The Collins Dictionary defines self-discovery as:
becoming aware of one’s true potential, character, motives, etc.

The Merriman-Webster Dictionary defines it as:
the act or process of achieving self-knowledge.

Growing self-knowledge requires energy, courage, honesty, and commitment. It also requires addressing the “why” behind our thoughts, words, actions, behaviors, and emotions. This can be difficult and challenging for many of us but is essential if we want to realize our full potential.

Musician Kevin Abstract says that “self-discovery is an ongoing thing”. We agree! It’s not a point in time situation, but a particular event may be what gets us started. We always say learning is to be continual and that leadership (like learning) is a process, not an event. That’s why we call many of our programs “Journeys” – they are roadmaps that have no end!

As leaders we generally help others with self-discovery but don’t do the same for us. Why is that? It’s time we “blaze a path to achieve what we truly desire”.  In the words of Nike: “Just Do It”!

And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?
― Rumi

11 Nov
[email protected] Leadership

Leadership and Humility

One of the best ways (to be humble) is to adopt the humble mind-set of a servant leader. Servant leaders view their key role as serving employees as they explore and grow, providing tangible and emotional support as they do so.
–Dan Cable

Last week we shared some traits our clients wanted to see their leaders exhibit and one of them was the ability to be humble. Did this strike a chord with you? We’ve talked about servant leadership in the past and part of the common theme of definitions includes the need to be humble.

A post by Rebecca shares 21 attributes of a humble person.  We’ll highlight a few; to read her entire list and article click here. Humble people:

They do not belittle others
Quite the opposite – leaders make others feel important

They are not rude
Leaders are respectful, they listen, and are mindful of the
needs of others

They are truthful
Leaders live life with integrity and no hidden agendas

They will put themselves in someone else’s shoes
Leaders seek to understand

They are not self-righteous
Leaders do not have a superiority complex

They are not judgmental
Leaders do not form opinions without obtaining facts

They are not arrogant
Leaders do not portray a sense of self-importance

They will not dwell on the past
Leaders do not let negative “baggage” hinder their decisions

They will not get defensive
Leaders are accepting of feedback and suggestions for
change/improvement

  • As a leader, how would you score yourself in the above categories?
  • What about how you would score your leader?
  • What category would you like to personally or professionally develop? Don’t forget to add them to your development plan!

Servant-leaders have the humility, courage, and insight to admit that they can benefit from the expertise of others who have less power than them.
—Dan Cable

04 Nov
[email protected] Leadership

What Do You Want In A Leader?

Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.
—Peter Drucker

Have you given much thought about the type of leader you want to work for?  What skills and behaviors matter most and inspire you to thrive and perform at your highest level?  Another way to look at it is to assess the type of leader you don’t want to work for. That may be easier!

Over the years we’ve listened to what our clients have shared but we’ve never taken a formal poll.  Here are some of the more common wants that we heard:

  • Inspirational
  • Humble
  • Builds trust
  • Sets and leads towards a vision
  • Caring and passionate
  • A desire to develop others
  • A good listener
  • Provides meaningful feedback
  • No hidden agendas

Steven J. Stowell, Ph.D. and Stephanie S. Mead, MBA did conduct a survey from 2100+ individuals and asked for the top three qualities they wanted in their leaders. The results were:

  • Communication skills (45.2%)
  • Interpersonal skills (44.2%)
  • Values and ethics (41.9%)
  • Personal attributes (30.2%)
  • Coaching and feedback (21.8%)
  • Credibility (22.3%)
  • Direction and strategy (16.7%)
  • Management essentials (5.6%)

Did you find any of the poll results surprising? Soft-skills and people skills seem to be the prevailing “want”. Were there any key omissions from your list, and do you think technical skills are a need?

Let us know!

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.
—John Maxwell

28 Oct
[email protected] Leadership

Surprises Are Rarely Enjoyed

I just want one normal day at work. No surprises, no emergencies, just a simple day where we can all do our jobs without feeling like the sky is falling.
—Unknown

Surprises at work are rarely well received except for maybe raises, promotions, or at Halloween. Even surprises that have positive impacts are dimly viewed by some as they are removed from their comfort zone.

In general, being kept in the loop about daily activities, pending changes, and known issues is appreciated, and this also holds true for leaders and clients.

We once worked with a leader that strongly shared, and in colorful language, that he should not find out about problems caused by his team by someone other than a team member.

His intent was actually very positive despite his delivery being a bit harsh.  Once he explained his intent, his message made sense. When he’s informed, he won’t be blindsided, he can share the known facts, provide status updates, perhaps have an idea when the issue will be (or has been resolved), and most importantly, he shared he’d do all he could to support his team member.

Communication is the first and most important step for preventing surprises. When in doubt, over communicate and be sure to provide as many details and facts as possible:

1.    What’s the situation?
2.    Who is/was impacted and in what way?
3.    Who needs to be kept in the loop?
4.    Is the root cause known? What can be done to prevent a reoccurrence?
5.    Provide status updates

a.    For large issues with severe impacts, we suggest hourly
b.    For medium issues with a moderate amount of disruption, twice daily
c.    For issues with minimal impact, daily

6.    Once the issue/problem is resolved:

a.    Identify and share the root cause
b.    Document the solution and what will be done so it does not happen again.

Having a work culture that owns issues, communicates them, and works towards a permanent solution will build integrity and trust levels and prevent unpleasant “surprises”.

Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.
—Paul Hawken

21 Oct
[email protected] Leadership

Colin Powell – Public Servant and Trailblazer

If a leader doesn’t convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they’ll start to fall down and get depressed.
—Colin Powell

This week we want to recognize General Colin L. Powell (1937 – 2021) as it builds on last week’s topic of Quality Person, Quality Leader.

Powell’s accomplishments are many. He was a former U.S. Secretary of State, the youngest and first black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was instrumental in shaping foreign policy for the U.S. He earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice (along with many other medals), and was respected by U.S. Presidents on both sides of the political spectrum.

Powell had the courage to admit his mistakes and took full ownership for them. The one he regrets most is reporting that “Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more”. It was later determined that this was false, and he called his reporting of this a “blot” that will forever be on his record.

His leadership style was respected and appreciated by many. He was known for being direct, for being a straight shooter, for his passion, and his problem-solving skills. He also created 13 Rules of Leadership:

  1. It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
  2. Get mad, then get over it.
  3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
  4. It can be done.
  5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
  6. Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
  7. You can’t make someone else’s choices. You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.
  8. Check small things.
  9. Share credit.
  10. Remain calm. Be kind.
  11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
  12. Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
  13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier

    In closing we’ll share another of the General’s thoughts on leadership:
    Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.

A Quality Person, a Quality Leader, a Public Servant, and a Trailblazer.    May he rest in peace.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work,
and learning from failure.
—Colin Powell

14 Oct
Career Coaching is for high performers to become more influential, inspiring, and impactful leaders.
[email protected] Leadership

Quality People, Quality Leaders

If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people,
the key is to become a person of quality yourself. – Jim Rohn

Do you agree that before you can be an effective leader you must be viewed as a “quality person”?

A good starting point is to think about Maya Angelou’s quote: People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

As a leader, how we make people feel absolutely impacts our work culture. It’s essential that we deliver messages with not only clarity but also respectfully. There’s no doubt we will have the need to deliver tough messages, but the way we do it makes a huge difference on how well the message is received, and it will also impact the ongoing relationship.

Author and motivational speaker Jim Rohn identified the following key leadership traits:

  • Learn to be strong but not impolite
  • Learn to be kind but not weak
  • Learn to be bold but not a bully
  • Learn to be humble but not timid
  • Learn to be proud but not arrogant
  • Learn to develop humor without folly
  • Learn to deal in realities

Leaders want to show compassion and empathy. We need to be authentic and let people know they are valued and appreciated, and better yet, we can provide specific details supporting our perspectives.

If we are a “quality” person and leader, chances are our behaviors will be modelled by those we interact with. We want to engage people, we want to interact with others in their preferred style (not ours!), we truly listen to what others have to say (understanding that sometimes our message may not be well received), but we can show empathy and explain what prompted the message. ie. Company mandates, errors, cost savings, growth, etc

Quality people (and leaders) are known for their integrity, for being trustworthy, for having no hidden agendas, for influencing and inspiring others, and in general making others feel good about themselves, with a desire to want to be around us.

Are you a quality person and leader?

Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position. —Brian Tracy.

07 Oct
Leadership
[email protected] Leadership

Effective One on One Meetings

One on ones are the bedrock of any relationship you have within your team and any organization.
-–Danielle Leong

How do you feel about attending or facilitating one on one meetings? We were in a group meeting last week and were surprised to hear that readiness levels were sometimes an issue.

  • Either the leader was ill prepared and asked “do you have anything to talk about”? If the answer was “no” the meeting would end.
  • On the flip side the, the attendee could be uncomfortable and not share their thoughts, issues, or successes.
  • Have you experienced either of these?

Tips for effective one on one meetings:

1. Schedule them regularly; some prefer weekly, others monthly. Regardless, get them on your calendar.

2. Establish expectations of the session

3. You can prepare conversation points to discuss but try not to have it too scripted, rather let the conversation flow naturally

4. Make time to “get to know” each other and build your relationship (and trust)

5. Ensure the sessions are comfortable and interactive

6. Be attentive and listen; don’t dominate

7. Ask what the attendee needs. Are there any obstacles or barriers you could help eliminate?

8. Obtain their perspective on what’s going well and what could be improved upon

9. Make them feel valued

10. Ask for feedback.  Ex. what could you do to be more effective?

11. Provide them with meaningful feedback

12. Discuss developmental wants and needs and career path desires

13. Recap any “to do’s” or commitments by either side (with target dates)

Often the sessions are primarily about business updates and not about the person. Use team meetings for business updates, organizational goal achievement, and strategic objectives instead of during one on one sessions.

How effective are your one on one sessions? Do you enjoy them? What could you change to make them even more meaningful?

Reminder: One on one meetings are meant to focus on the person.

30 Sep
[email protected] Leadership

It All Starts With Culture

It all starts with culture! You can have the greatest mission statement in the world but it’s pointless unless you have people who are on a mission.
—Jon Gordon

It’s no surprise that our work culture is important. It impacts levels of engagement, accountability, productivity, and team synergy. It also impacts attrition as well as the desire to grow and flourish in careers.

Author and speaker Jon Gordon has a blog: 14 Thoughts About Building A Great Culture.  Excerpts are below.

1. Great leaders build and drive great cultures.

2. Culture is the reason why great organizations have sustained success.

3. Culture beats strategy.

4. If you focus on the fruit of the tree (outcomes and numbers) and ignore the root (culture) your tree will die.

5. When building a team and organization you must shape your culture before it shapes you.

6. A culture of greatness doesn’t happen by accident.

7. Culture is dynamic, not static.

8. Your culture is not just your tradition.

9. When leading a new team or organization, it will take longer to build a new culture if you allow negative people from the previous culture to contaminate the process.

10. When you build a strong, positive culture most of the energy vampires will leave by themselves because they don’t fit in.

11. Creating a culture where people are afraid to fail leads to failure.

12. Change is a part of every culture and organization.

13. Progress is important but when innovating and driving change make sure you honor your tradition, purpose and culture.

14. Culture is like a tree.  Click here to read the entire blog

As leaders, it’s up to us to make a difference in our work culture. We need to share and support our organizational and team goals and values, we need to inspire our teams by listening to their views, we need to provide opportunities that support desired career paths,
and most importantly we need to build trusting relationships.

How’s your work culture?

I used to believe that culture was ‘soft,’ and had little bearing on our bottom line. What I believe today is that our culture has everything to do with our bottom line, now and into the future.
– Vern Dosch, Author, Wired Differently

23 Sep
[email protected] Team

Do You Know Your Team?

Don’t neglect getting to know your team on a personal level.

How well do you know your team? If you’ve invested in your staff professionally, perhaps sponsoring the Leadership Journey™, you may be familiar with things like Myers-Briggs Type, Listening Style, and preferred Conflict Mode. You also know how well they support goals, levels of accountability, and hopefully desired career paths.  This is all good, but how well do you know them personally?

Investing time to know about life outside of work builds trust and strengthens relationships. We suggest building in perhaps 5 – 10 minutes in team meetings (team size is obviously a factor), but start the meeting with something fun, interesting, and informative.

Here are some ideas for questions:

  • How many siblings do you have?
  • What’s your favorite family tradition?
  • What’s your favorite holiday?
  • Do you have a favorite vacation destination?
  • How do you like to spend your time outside of work?
  • Do you have a bucket list? What’s your priority?
  • What was the first concert you attended?
  • How do you feel about country music?
  • Are you married?  If yes, how did you meet your spouse?
  • Do you have children or maybe even grandchildren?
  • How many states (or countries) have you lived in?
  • How many countries have you visited?
  • Do you have any pets?
  • What movie have you seen 5+ times?

We all need to be viewed as people, not just as an employee or consultant. There’s a constant need to keep people engaged and for team members to have a sense of belonging. Gallup reports that 33 percent of American workers are engaged at work, 52 percent claim they just show up, and 17 percent say they are actively disengaged.

As a leader we can influence these numbers. What are you doing to learn more about your team members and help the team learn more about one another? Don’t neglect getting to know your team  on a personal basis, it makes a difference!

A leader is someone who creates infectious enthusiasm.
— Ted Turner

16 Sep
[email protected] Change

Roles, Expectations and Challenges

Clarity is the pathway to solid results.
–Victor Lipman

We frequently talk about the need for clarity. We need to excel at clearly communicating our message, ensure others have a strong handle on desired results, know what’s expected of them, and share accomplishments as well as challenges. Would you say you do this well?

If you were hesitant in answering that, you’re not alone. More and more is expected of leaders of all levels despite not always being clear on what’s expected of us. We’re still in recovery mode from Covid-19, and most of us experienced change and challenges with daily operations, maintaining relationships, and keeping our staff and colleagues engaged.

  • How has your role changed in the past 2 years?
  • What about the roles of your team/colleagues?
  • Have talent needs changed?
  • Can you adequately assess individual and team strengths and gaps?
  • Are there obstacles impacting effectively supporting goals?
  • What about with changes for daily operations?
  • How have your team or organizational vision, mission and goals changed?
  • Assuming they have, have the changes been well received or even accepted?
  • Is there a need to rethink how you connect with clients?
  • What about how your team is evaluated?
  • Former “best practices” may no longer apply; what needs changing?
  • How are you doing as a leader? Has your relationship with your boss changed in any way?

This list of common challenges is not inclusive by any means. The point is that whatever challenges we, and our team are facing, need to be addressed before pain points escalate.

We think the times of change (and stress) will continue, which makes it even more critical to have clearly established roles, clearly defined expectations, and the commitment to face and lead through the challenges with transparency.

Wishing you success!

Clarity of expectations is perhaps the most basic of employee needs
and is vital to performance.
–Galllop’s State of the American Manager Report

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