Great Leaders Give Presents of Presence
The greatest holiday gift or year-end bonus might not come in a package. Great leaders give presents of their presence – and they do it all year long. Employees won’t always remember what you gave them, but they’ll remember how you made them feel. Be present. Practice mindful leadership. Don’t treat employees like employees – treat them […]
Listen With Your Eyes
Listening with your eyes as well as your ears is so important. Whether you’re the boss or the employee, the parent or the spouse, you’d better be a good listener, but how do you do it? To really understand, listen with your eyes. Remember what you’ve learned about active listening? You make eye contact, nod, […]
Stretch Out of Your Comfort Zone
For constant improvement, take a lesson from a baby – stretch out of your comfort zone. Why does a baby learn to walk? She gets bored. How does she learn to walk? She takes baby steps. First, she learns to stand, then bounce, then hang on to something and take a step. Eventually, she lets […]
Speaking Clearly – How to Make Your Point
As a leader, you have to communicate, persuade, and sell your ideas – and you do it all day every day. Maybe you’re speaking one-to-one with an employee. Or, you might be bringing up a motion for approval at a board meeting. And, how about those times when you have to step up to the […]
Appreciation – Lavish it On!
Here’s what I think: Nobody ever goes to bed at night feeling over-appreciated. Think about that. Do you? Neither do I. As a leader, this is helpful to know. (As a human with personal relationships, it’s also helpful to know!) Appreciation is a primary employee motivator, as well as a relationship builder. So with appreciation […]
You Reveal Your Leadership Style When You Play
Sometimes you can get excellent leadership lessons from a fun little teambuilding game. If you think about it, you reveal your leadership style when you play. And play isn’t just for kids – it’s a great way to analyze and improve your leadership style. I attended a meeting over the weekend that had a “zoom” […]
Teamwork and the Weird Thing about Harmony
Your people all have different roles and personalities, yet you want them working together. It would be easier if they all saw eye-to-eye, but that’s not how it works. I learned a great lesson about teamwork when I sang in a quartet. Let me explain the weird thing about harmony. Each member of a quartet […]
Frustrating, yet Fortunate Failure
Waaaaa! She was really looking forward to the taste. She was so careful, but she dropped her ice cream cone. The specifics don’t matter. As a manager, you’ve been there. Maybe it was a project you tried, a job you wanted, or an event you planned. You worked. You prepared. Yet, you failed. Try to […]
Think about Stress as a Verb
When I’m delivering conflict resolution training, I ask participants about the meaning of stress, They give me answers like tension, trouble, misery, or lack of control. These factors are outside of their control – things that they just have. They are describing stress as a noun. Try to think about stress as a verb instead. […]