It's easy to spend your working days in perpetual hair-on-fire mode. However, learning to lead effectively is a long-term continuous improvement project. Here are 10 ideas you can apply daily to strive to be your best leadership self.
Leaders too often exist in a bubble of their own creation. They view their actions and utterances through their own filters and fail to take into account how they are perceived by others. Objects staring back at you in the mirror are not always as they appear.
In our development of leaders, we focus on imprinting them with the same (important) but limiting behaviors. In today's world of change, it's essential for us to break this mold and work harder at developing and supporting individuals who lead differently.
If you've ever worked in an environment where accountability was in short supply, you understand how toxic this can be for everyone. Effective managers understand and tap into the power of accountability. Of course, accountability always starts with the manager.
Instead of fretting over annual resolutions that tend to fizzle by February, focus on strengthening your effectiveness as a leader every single day. Here are 3 daily resolutions guaranteed to help!
We're all guilty of building obstacles to progress in our minds. Successful managers learn to unpack those obstacles and overcome the self-limiting beliefs holding them hostage. Here are 8 key questions to help:
How confident are you that your message is getting through to others? Too often we perceive we are communicating clearly and effectively, when all anyone hears is something resembling the adults on a Charlie Brown feature. You know the noise they make: "Wah wa wa wa wah wa." Don't let this be you.
In most workplaces, we operate with loosely coordinated groups and not teams in the true sense. These groups lack purpose, coaching, structure, support, and leadership, and as a result, sub-optimize. Fortunately, the ingredients and recipe for effective team development are not locked away somewhere in a vault. Mostly, they are basic blocking and tackling.
We all know that change is the only constant, yet when faced with the need for our organizations to change, our first instinct is fight or flight. A better and career-enhancing approach is to jump in, ask questions, and importantly, volunteer to help. It's the only way you can actively shape the change.
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.
