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Our entire society feels very tense, very broken right now.
So what can we do, as individual leaders and travelers on this earthly journey?
Read the rest of this entry »“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” — Mother Teresa
I made a mistake this week. I overloaded someone with so much information that they backed away from a project. It became just too scary for them.
It wasn’t my intention, of course. I was trying to be helpful.
So what do I learn from this situation? Well, it’s not about hiding information. It’s about communicating in layers.
Read the rest of this entry »Real growth happens in the grey areas, the paradoxes, the places where easy answers fail.
— Mo Edjlali, Mindful Leader Founder & CEO
This quote is from an interesting article I read recently. It got me thinking about one of the leadership challenges – applicable in business and in one’s personal life.
We spend a whole lot of time trying to put things in order. A defined process, with steps and checkpoints and owners. Quantifying results with numbers and graphs and analyses.
Read the rest of this entry »I recently experienced the loss of a significant contractor commitment, and I realize now that it’s partially my fault for relying more on my hope than doing good due diligence.
The hard part is coming to internal peace. On the outside I can raise my chin and look forward to fixing the problem, but inside it still hurts a bit.
I’ve experienced this even more in the past when I lost a great employee or had a work relationship go sour. There are ones that I still regret, over twenty years later. And I’m not a particularly emotional guy.
Perhaps it’s some kind of “long grieving”, like the aftereffects of “long COVID.”
Read the rest of this entry »We use mirrors all the time to check how we look to the outside world.
My question is: How often do you hold a mirror up to your leadership skills?
As a leader, it’s tough to know how others perceive you. One useful tool is the 360° assessment, where you ask for formal inputs from employees, partners, and those above you in the organization. I’ve even seen those who ask for inputs from customers.
Read the rest of this entry »OK, THAT was a mistake. We don’t want to have THAT happen again.
As the leader, what’s your role in addressing this? Well, the top priority is to fix it as best we can, whether that means with customers, regulators, partners, employees, or whatever. But fixing it for THIS time is much different than getting to the root of the problem so we can ensure it doesn’t happen again. Or at least that recovery is a lot less painful.
Read the rest of this entry »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?
Read the rest of this entry »There are just some questions that just might be too scary to put out there.
This can be especially true if you’re a worker with relatively little power. When something looks just a little bit “off”, are you willing to ask to find out more?
Instead, we might deflect with “I guess that’s just the way it’s done” or “It’s above my pay grade.” Now, I get that – why risk a harsh response to a question that you may not be able to do much about anyway?
Read the rest of this entry »I’ve found that it’s hard to figure out whether to chart my own path or follow someone who went before.
This came to mind because I was recently teaching a class for people who are on their retirement path. The key question is: What do I want to do with the rest of my life? And the answer is different for each person.
So the class was all about deciding what your desired path is. Or however you describe your best life.
But this connects with the challenges we have in business as well, where it’s more common to be in an industry where there’s a “normal path” to success.
Read the rest of this entry »A big part of your role as a leader is to help those who aren’t yet as confident as you claim you are. The problem is that we’re all putting on a bit of a false front, acting more sure of ourselves than we actually feel.
As the boss, you don’t want to look foolish in front of your team. You’ve got this.
The employees or volunteers also want to look good in front of their boss and co-workers. But the fact is that we all have our moments of doubt. Even if we don’t show them to others.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Values-Based Business 