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Your boss leads YOU and the rest of the team, right? So what does it mean for a subordinate to lead their boss?
I’ve had a surprising amount of experience at doing this successfully over the course of my career, so I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learned.
There’s a popular phrase “managing upward” but sometimes that has overtones of I need to limit the amount of damage that my boss does to me. I have to admit that there can be times for this, but it’s not the kind of collaborative relationship you’d like to build.
Read the rest of this entry »It’s really nice to be needed, to be valued based on your knowledge and skills.
The real question is: Do you want your organization to outlive your personal contribution? It’s actually a tricky question to answer, because it means that you need to be able to put aside your ego.
And it’s hard to prepare others to take over your role. I get that.
Read the rest of this entry »It’s a new year, fresh with possibilities! Let’s go team!
But you might be battling against winter blahs, uncertain economy, or still reeling from the craziness of the holiday season.
It can be hard to get people energized in that situation. But as a leader, it’s part of your job to be a cheerleader.
Read the rest of this entry »I love it when a plan comes together.
But here’s the problem: How often is your perfect plan disrupted by reality? It seems that surprises always come up, whether good or bad.
Your job as the leader is to help your team navigate through that mess in real time.
Read the rest of this entry »This is often the time that we move into a positive, energizing, forward-looking mindset.
This is a powerful leadership tool, because it connects to your team’s desire to do something which makes a difference. Together.
I often see organizations which have goals which boil down to “do what we did last year, but 10% more.” That can have some value for certain kinds of people, but only if they believe that they have a direct impact on the team’s result.
Read the rest of this entry »I talked last week about the downside of decisions, but this week I’d like to focus on the possible upside.
There are times when it is healthy to be optimistic about the possible future. I appreciate this because it generates energy and attracts people toward your ideas.
Let’s imagine that you’re planning to expand the business to a new location. I’m sure you’re hoping that you’ll serve more customers, generating income and profits on top of the necessary expense.
Read the rest of this entry »I was part of a great discussion recently about the difficulty with incorporating personal values into the business.
This discussion was about incorporating Christian beliefs, but the same logic applies whenever we’re talking about something which doesn’t have a strong link to the purpose of the business itself. After all, we can agree about the need to treat customers and employees fairly – that’s just great business practice. But your personal beliefs often extend beyond that.
In addition, you might feel constrained in your authority to make decisions if you’re not the company owner. Fair enough. I have some thoughts about that at the end.
Read the rest of this entry »Last week I talked about giving in and bringing things to a close. But most of the time we don’t want to do that, right?
We want to be the cheerleader to bring everyone to that wonderful vision of the future. That’s such an important part of your role as leader, to help bring everyone together, align their actions, and help them commit to doing all the hard work.
The challenge may be that the team isn’t emotionally there yet.
Read the rest of this entry »I saw reports today that three national retail chains are shutting down or severely cutting back.
That puts me into a more reflective mood. I realize that there are indeed times where it’s appropriate to given in to the painful reality.
This has happened especially in the context of volunteer organizations. Sometimes there just isn’t enough heart and momentum to continue – like we saw many times during the pandemic.
Read the rest of this entry »As the leader, your job is to push the goals forward, whether you created them or they came from higher up in the organization.
The challenge comes from what your team needs and expects.
It would be typical that your needs for revenue and customer growth would end up working your people harder than they can accept. There’s a gap. So what do you do?
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The Values-Based Business 