First-Time Manager #10—Your Number One Challenge at Start-Up
Getting started as a first-time manager is one of the more challenging tasks you will ever encounter in your professional life. It's particularly difficult given that almost no one on your new team has any reason to want you as their manager. However, there are some approaches you can take with your new team to quickly begin building your leadership credibility. These include...
Leadership Caffeine™—Beware Creating Toxic, Under-Performing Cultures of Niceness
It's possible for organizations to contract a potentially terminal case of under-performance while pursuing a culture that emphasizes not only collegial interchange, but a sense of what I can only describe as niceness. High performers and high performance cultures thrive on challenge and push, not coddling or sheltering from reality. As a leader, you set the tone.
Leadership is Common Sense in Action
Most of us understand the behaviors that define effective leadership. Sadly, like the behaviors that lead to physical health, we tend to do the opposite. It's time to accept that effective leadership is common sense and cultivate a bit of discipline with our behaviors. Skip the doughnut and do the push-ups.
Leadership Caffeine™—Help Others Paint a Remarkable Picture
While we don't stop on a daily basis to consider the long-term implications of our decisions, the best leaders understand their decisions create ripple effects in the lives and careers of others. You don't know it at the time, but you are painting a picture...a mural trailing behind you in your decisions. If you are going to lead, make certain it's a beautiful mural.
The Good, Hard Work of Developing Managers Who Lead
Enough with the false dichotomy between managers and leaders. Our priority must be to teach, coach, and inspire our managers to lead from day one. While those on the front-line live closer to the work of the organization, leadership behaviors are every bit as essential (maybe more so) for success as they are for those operating higher up the organization chart. Start developing your managers as leaders!
First-Time Manager #9—12 Ideas to Help You Build Better Meetings
Over a long career, few meetings are memorable. However, the cumulative pain of the many miserable, counter-productive meetings lingers long after they've ended. As a newer manager and an emerging leader, take the time to cultivate the habits that lead to effective meetings. Your team will thank you! Here are a dozen ideas to get you started:
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