We’re often too quick as leaders to throw in the towel on teams that have whiffed. That’s a mistake that may be more costly to performance and morale than the initial and temporary failure. Here are 5 signs that your failed team merits more time:
Though-provoking quotes from my current management and leadership reading stack. If you are looking for some thought-provoking leadership and management reading, here are a few great choices:
The concept of performance drift (for professionals) is wonderfully outlined by John Hamm, writing in his recently published book, Unusually Excellent: The Nine Skills Required for the Practice of Great Leadership. Here are my added thoughts on helping you recognize and slow your own professional performance drift:
I’ve yet to run a workshop or program on leadership where anything approaching a majority of the participants describe their initial days of their initial role as a team leader, supervisor or manager as a period when they received much if any support and coaching from their own direct manager. Most describe this particularly precarious professional time as more like a “hit and run.” That’s unfortunate, because the flame-out rate for first-time leaders is high and the fallout on those around them heavy. Here are 8 ideas for you to strengthen your support of your first-time leaders:
Look for the latest issue of the Leadership Caffeine Newsletter (subscriber only content) next week. And in case you missed it, here are links to Art’s posts on decision-making, strategy and career survival from last week. Enjoy your weekend!
During the past few years, I’ve marveled at the start-ups and small to mid-sized businesses in my community who didn’t need an army of consultants or MBAs to teach them the very relevant and important lessons that Reeves and Deimler share in their recent Harvard Business Review article, “Adaptability-The New Competitive Advantage.”
Nothing happens without a decision. Nothing good happens without the right decision. And, in case you doubt the need to focus on making better decisions, spend some time skimming the news. If you’ve kept up with your health and fitness resolutions thus far this year, you know that even minor adjustments in diet and exercise pay big dividends. The same goes for our individual and group decision-making approaches. Here are 5 key questions and suggestions for strengthening your team’s decision-making processes.
Much of the pablum that is passed off for guidance on leading others ignores the reality that the context in which we lead has changed from just a few years ago, and it continues to change faster than any of us can truly understand. While it’s a bit disheartening to realize that those of us with much time under our belts and more than a few laps around the block of life are vestiges of a bygone business era, we are. That doesn’t mean we can’t be relevant, but first, we have to understand and accept some of the important contextual changes in our world of business:
Few would argue that a nimble, quick-to-learn and quick-to-adapt organization is a bad thing. Given the rate of change in our world, those characteristics are increasingly table-stakes for survival and success. Why then has the approach to strategy and the notion of “strategic planning” in so many organizations remained mired in a 1960’s kind of static, top-down event-focused model? Here are six ideas to transform your organization’s approach to and effectiveness with strategy.
Leaders step up during times of crisis. This is where people in positions of responsibility finally earn the right to the “L” label. Unfortunately, in this instance, much like just about every other crisis we’ve created or viewed, leadership seems to take a holiday, replaced by “everyone for himself” and “it’s not my fault.”
