As your responsibility in guiding and managing others grows, you are increasingly involved in the organizational dialog around budgets, projects and talent. Congratulations, you've entered the political arena in your workplace where power and influence decide who goes where and which teams and projects are on the receiving side of new investment. Here are 3 ideas for playing in your firm's political arena while maintaining your integrity:
Most senior management groups are teams in name only, but not in performance. Sadly, the costs to the organization of this failure to coalesce at the senior management level are heavy. Great functional performers are not automatically great team players, and the hard work of moving from a team by name to a team in performance is just that, hard work. In part 1, we kick off our series on creating high performance senior management teams with a look at some of the key conditions for successful teams and an exploration of the 4 key areas senior management teams fail and flail when it comes to pursuing high performance.
The best leaders wield questions precisely, respectfully and always with a clear objective in mind. Here are at least 4 reasons why questions are a leader's best friend:
There are a number of decisions in every leader’s life that stand head and shoulders above all others. These are the decisions that change the trajectory of people, teams and organizations and on a bigger stage, nations. As you navigate your career and your growth as a leader, be prepared to stand up and be counted on these challenging issues:
Note from Art: This is an annual post at Management Excellence, offered in the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. It's a nice time for leaders to pause and recognize the many reasons they have to be thankful for the privilege of serving.
An employee interested in developing is like catnip for a conscientious boss. We’ll put in extra effort to support your development; find ways to relax our training budgets to push you along, and frankly, if you are genuinely, authentically pushing the envelope on your own development, you will gain access to the challenging assignments that set people up for advancement. Here are 5 ideas to make sure the boss knows you are interested in learning and growing:
In an article in the Sunday Chicago Tribune, Edward Lampert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sears Holding Corp offers, "We don't have a sales problem. What we have is a profit problem, and that's what we're intending to address.” Mr. Lampert, I respectfully suggest that you have a lot of problems in your shrinking, unidentifiable former retail empire. However, characterizing the situation as a profit problem is off the mark.
As managers, we tend to tolerate certain employees who straddle that toxic boundary, in large part, because we can rationalize their aberrant behaviors in the context of what they do well. This is a mistake with tremendous costs to the organization, team and to your own credibility as a leader.
Listening is in short supply in this noisy, interruption driven world, yet it’s critical for leadership success at every level. Here are 6 ideas to help strengthen your effectiveness as a listener starting today:
If humans are in the picture, mistakes will occur. Whether the mistake is an error in judgment, a result of incomplete planning or, due to inexperience with the task at hand, your team members will make mistakes. Your response to a mistake sets the tone for the next stage of your relationship. Here are 5 ideas to help you move in the right direction in these emotionally charged situations:
