Change of leadership

May 20, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

It can be tough to undergo a change of leadership. Especially if you’re the outgoing leader.

Sure, there are potentially many effects on people in the organization, but that’s not what I’m focused on today. I’d like to talk about YOUR experience.

The best case is that the change is known in advance, even if not all the details are clear. Soon there will be a specific date, perhaps a certain event at which the announcement will be made. Ideally you see this as a positive thing, the passing of leadership duties from one person to the next.

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Simple

May 13, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

When you get down to it, the most important things aren’t complicated.

You have a few things which guide your personal choices. Your organization’s purpose is actually pretty straightforward.

Now, you may DO a lot of things, and follow processes which have a zillion steps which contain many hazards. I get that.

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Living in the future

May 6, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

I’ve been doing a lot of planning recently – weeks, months, years – and I’ve noticed something curious.

Here’s the way I describe it: I’ve created a plan for this thing happening next month, and have done my best to think through all the ins and outs. It’s become so real in my mind that I’m imagining it actually happening.

The problem, of course, is that it hasn’t actually happened yet.

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Solitary

April 29, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Leadership can certainly feel lonely at times.

A lot of that feeling comes from a belief that you’re not supposed to show weakness, doubt, or failure. You’re the strongest person in the entire organization, right?

But this leads to isolation.

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Your leadership style

April 22, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

There are some amazing leaders out there who we admire and even envy.

Here’s the problem: they’re not you. And if you tried to be them, you might totally fail. Or even hate yourself for trying.

How do we deal with this apparent contradiction?

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Courage to fail

April 15, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

We’ve all been there, the greatest embarrassments of our careers.

The hard part is being really honest with yourself, as you probably saw the failure coming and just hoped that you’d be able to find your away around it.

Jim Collins articulated this idea well in Good to Great:

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One-on-ones

April 8, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Do you have periodic one-on-one meetings with each of your employees?

I would imagine we all INTEND to do that, but … things get busy. It’s not critical. So these powerful conversations get delayed.

I’d say you don’t realize just how amazing these kinds of meetings can be. What’s the point?

Well, primarily you’re:

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Owning the results

April 1, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

When you’re involved in the decisions, you have more ownership of whatever results.

Every time I run across this principle, which is surprisingly often, I’m surprised about its nuances. Whether we’re talking about our kids, employees, volunteers, partners … The fact is that people are more inspired and motivated by things they actually have some influence over.

You can tell your employees what to do, and in fact you may even think that’s your job. The problem is that they may not be particularly motivated to do their best work in this case. It’s not that your directions were wrong – it’s that they didn’t have any input in the process. So you get compliance, not engagement.

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Ghosting

March 25, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Ghosting during the employee recruiting process seems to still be increasing.

I have to say that it’s the dumbest way to treat people if you really do want to find and keep great employees. But I get that it’s a way to avoid an uncomfortable conversation and that you’re “too busy” to follow up with all those recruits.

It’s still foolish.

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Co-creating

March 18, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

There’s a powerful concept in the field of coaching called co-creation.

It’s also useful in the world of leadership because it says so much about aligning teams and engendering buy-in.

The traditional view of leadership is that the leader is the one who tells people what to do. If you have any significant experience at all, you know that this definition doesn’t hold water. Why? Because if you respect peoples’ humanity, you have to give them the ability to make their own decisions.

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