Those who look back and reflect upon the start-up period in their first leadership role will frequently describe this stage as having been awkward or uncomfortable. The transition from individual contributor to supervisor or manager is abrupt for many and lonely for most. Building your priorities and daily activities around the mantra, Engage, Inform, Inspire, can help you cultivate the good habits of effective leaders.
When opportunity knocks, all too often our gut reaction is to hesitate. In more than a few situations, we might be better off telling our gut to shut-up and let our feet answer by moving forward.
Whether you are responsible for the work of others or your “team” stares back at you in the morning mirror, there are many key skills that you must cultivate to help differentiate you from your internal competitors and to successfully grow your career. Professional Presence, is one of those slightly squishy to define but critically important topics. Professional presence is that amalgam of qualities…confidence, authenticity, positive body language, proper vocal management, empathy etc. that others perceive in you and about you.
Here are 6 Key Questions and 5 ideas for assessing and deliberately strengthening your professional presence:
Beyond the certainty of death and taxes, one other absolute in life is that as a leader, you will make mistakes. A great number of them. From misspeaking to making a decision that turns out wrong to a million other areas to show off your humanness, mistakes are part of the learning to lead process. How you choose to deal with your mistakes will help determine people’s perception of you and speak volumes about your leadership character. Here are 6 ideas to help you leverage those moments effectively:
This month’s excellent edition of the Leadership Development Carnival is being hosted by Sharlyn Lauby, aka the H.R. Bartender! In addition to a great variety of posts, Sharlyn asked each contributor to share what they are reading this summer, and the results make for a great reading list for the final weeks of pre-Labor Day book consumption.
An extended weekend and then some productive business travel reduced the writing and posting time to a dull roar. Nonetheless, these two posts reflect my current reading…from Drucker to neuroscience. Your thoughts and ideas are always appreciated her
We all know people who seem to thrive on the negatives in life. They can look at what is perceived by others as a beautiful picture and spot the flaws, almost taking pride in their role as watchdogs against perfection. Here are 4 ideas and several resources to help reduce your negative self-talk and improve your effectiveness and happiness as a leader and person:
Of the many important themes espoused by the late and arguably pre-eminent management thinker of the latter part of the twentieth century, Peter Drucker, perhaps the most valuable to us as individuals, is his constant reminder that we are responsible for our own self-development. One of Drucker’s more provocative suggestions as described in William A. Cohen’s enjoyable read, “A Class with Drucker-The Lost Lessons of the World’s Greatest Management Teacher,” is for managers to actively work at developing expertise outside of their chosen field as a tool to preparing to become a senior or strategic leader. (Read More…)
One of the biggest derailment factors for early career or first-time leaders is the issue of conducting tough performance discussions. Here are 4 critical mistakes of first-time or newer leaders when it comes to dealing with tough discussions, and 6 ideas to help strengthen performance.
With this post, I’m announcing the availability of a new online program to help professionals at all levels develop and strengthen their feedback communication skills. This is a practical, powerful program based on a great deal of live-session and prior version(online) participant input. Best of all, there’s a low cost of entry to put this on-demand and guided self-development program it in easy reach of motivated professionals at all levels.
