Dealing with the Power/Truth Imbalance - The Army Leader. The 4 Powerful Conversations that Will Improve Your Leadership. Everyone I know in leadership has more to do then they have hours in the day. But even with the top leaders I coach, there’s a common mistake they make when they’re pressed for time—most are concentrating on tasks instead of leading. It’s understandable that when you have too much to do, you do what comes easily, but that impulse doesn’t lend itself to great leadership. People go into leadership because they are visionaries and motivators, and they should be creating leaders among their team members instead of putting out fires and staring at spreadsheets all day. To implement your vision and direction, you have to do the work of leadership. Too often, though, leaders get stuck in the weeds, doing daily tasks, being a manager instead of a leader. So how can you make sure you’re actually leading?
Conversation #1—Check in on the weather. Conversation #2—Identify greatness and gaps in those you value. Conversation #3—Ask about development and improvement. Buy now Photo Credit: Getty Images. The One Leadership Skill You Need To Succeed. 100 Ways You Can Express Love as a Leader. Why Leaders Need To Be Great Storytellers - SmartTribes Institute Official Site. *As originally seen on Forbes.com We’ve all seen them. Emotionally flat presentations. Emotionally devoid corporate mission, vision, and value statements that are simply wall art.
They’re not memorable. Why? There’s no story. What’s your favorite movie? Shutterstock And then there are company stories. Source: www.educatorstechnology.com What Do You Love In A Story? Notice what makes stories memorable for you. Here’s the storytelling recipe my client’s love when they are crafting company stories. Step 1: Focus On Your “Story Customer” And Their Context Who is the story for? When you tell your story, choose the communication vehicle that fits their context. Step 2: Make It Authentic Fabricated stories don’t usually have the same emotional impact as the real ones. To make it really memorable it also helps if the story is told by a trusted member of the community. Step 3: Give The Story Movement Start your story with a problem or situation and then tell how that problem is resolved. Try it out. Opinion: five ways to guarantee women can speak up and speak out.
Over years of working in government and in academia, I have been able to study the practical ways in which the most effective male leaders value, praise, and advance women every day in their professional lives. Here are the five outstanding techniques I have seen deployed: Sample the FT’s top stories for a week You select the topic, we deliver the news. 1 Always give a woman credit when she deserves it. In any meeting or discussion involving men and women, whenever a man makes a point ask yourself if he is repeating something a woman has already said. As every woman or man who already practises this habit knows, you will be astonished at how often the woman’s contribution is ignored until a man makes it. 2 Make sure all the women at the table have a chance to speak. As Susan Cain points out in her book Quiet, you will not only hear from women but also from your male employees who are more introverted. 5 Ask a man to do the office housework. Three Problems with Top-Down Teams (and How to Fix Them)
Giving Praise - Communications Skills Training From MindTools.com. 100 Ways You Can Express Love as a Leader. Many people believe that love doesn't belong in business or leadership. But I have found that when leaders love their people, their people love them back. They remain loyal, they respect each other, they trust each other. It is the kindness you show and the appreciation you express that lets people know you value them.
Each time you say I love you, you are letting people know you care. Take the time today to tell someone "I appreciate you" and express your love to them. Not sure how? Here are 100 possibilities: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. Nonprofit Know-how: Giving Feedback.
Feedback is an effective, but underused, way to develop your people and achieve your mission. “When nonprofits use feedback regularly and effectively, they strengthen the work of the organization,” says Shera Clark, manager of CCL’s nonprofit sector. “Plus, you don’t need extra funding or a formal system to engage in giving feedback.” Clark is author of a new book in CCL’s Ideas Into Action series, Feedback That Works for Nonprofit Organizations.
“The key to effective feedback is the ability to create and deliver a specific message based on observed behaviors,” says Clark. CCL has developed a feedback technique called Situation-Behavior-Impact, or SBI, to help you give feedback in a way that works. Using SBI you can avoid common mistakes people make when giving feedback to peers, direct reports, volunteers, a boss or board members, such as: Judging individuals, not actions.Being too vague.Giving unwanted advice.Sandwiching negative feedback between positive messages. Learn more: The Leader-Coach: 3 Essential Steps That Make All the Difference... Fifteen years of experience in the corporate world have helped me to understand the 3 essential differences that separate a leader-coach from anyone else: 1.
A leader-coach turns a conversation into a working session: crossing the threshold. Here comes Nicole. Nicole comes to see you to complain about her problem, a situation that occurred yesterday and that leaves her with great frustration. Turning the conversation into a working session, you ask the “How-to” question: So, what is your “How-to” question, Nicole? 2. Once the topic has been clarified and agreed-upon, it’s time to engage in the actual work. So, what are the aspects that you’d have to think about to answer that question? 3. If people knew the answers to the questions above, they wouldn’t need you.
What would help you with what’s blocking you? That’s it. 3 steps… 3 questions … 10 to 15 minutes of your time … and then? What happens if you try? Sound Like a Leader With These 5 Simple Sentence Starters. Can Your Employees Really Speak Freely? Chances are, your employees are withholding valuable intelligence from you. Maybe it’s about a project that’s gone off track or a manager who’s behaving badly. Or maybe they’re not sharing their thoughts on ways the business could grow its sales or improve operations. No matter how open you are as a manager, our research shows, many of your people are more likely to keep mum than to question initiatives or suggest new ideas at work. This is true even if, like most leaders, you believe you have an open-door policy. Leaders use a variety of tools to get people to speak up, like “climate” surveys and all-staff feedback sessions.
In a number of studies, we’ve found that when employees can voice their concerns freely, organizations see increased retention and stronger performance. So getting all this right pays off—not just for the individuals eager to make contributions but for the organizations they want to improve. The Fear Factor Relying on anonymous feedback. In a U.S. The Futility Factor. The Top Complaints from Employees About Their Leaders. If you’re the kind of boss who fails to make genuine connections with your direct reports, take heed: 91% of employees say communication issues can drag executives down, according to results from our new Interact/Harris Poll, which was conducted online with roughly 1,000 U.S. workers. In the survey, employees called out the kind of management offenses that point to a striking lack of emotional intelligence among business leaders, including micromanaging, bullying, narcissism, indecisiveness, and more.
In rank order, the following were the top communication issues people said were preventing business leaders from being effective: The data shows that the vast majority of leaders are not engaging in crucial moments that could help employees see them as trustworthy. This is startling, considering how much money organizations spend conducting employee surveys and reorganizations, engaging consultants and implementing change initiatives.
They know productivity is tied to communication. Why Your Culture Problem Is About To Get Much Worse. 4 Ways Leaders Can Create a Candid Culture - Joseph Grenny. By Joseph Grenny | 8:00 AM July 8, 2014 When leaders want to create an open culture where people are willing to speak up and challenge one another, they often start by listening. This is a good instinct. But listening with your ears will only take you so far. You also need to demonstrate with words that you truly want people to raise risky issues. Take the former president of a major defense company, whom I will call Phil. First, Phil’s workforce had successfully repelled every attempt at culture change in previous decades.
And yet, Phil needed to dramatically improve quality and costs at the 60-year-old tactical aircraft designer and manufacturer — and he knew that the stifling culture was suppressing the very ideas he needed. Like many leaders, Phil’s first attempt at fostering candor was by using his ears. While some executives would have blamed the audience for its timidity, Phil understood the problem was a lack of safety. Phil did four things that went beyond listening: I JUST WISH MY BOSS WOULD TELL ME THANK YOU! How to Take Criticism Well - WSJ. Manage a Difficult Conversation with Emotional Intelligence - Susan David. By Susan David | 1:00 PM June 19, 2014 I once worked with a leader — we’ll call him Karl — who needed to have a difficult conversation with an underperforming (but key) team member.
To prepare, Karl built ammunition by creating a list of the employee’s shortcomings. He sensed that the interaction would end poorly and he felt extremely anxious about it. Workplace conflicts like this one are often unavoidable. Just as you disagree with your spouse, your best friend, or your parents, at some point you are likely to disagree with someone at work. Many leaders, like Karl, choose to approach situations of conflict with logic: if a team member isn’t pulling his weight, get proof; if your office mate makes an egregious mistake, take note of the ways her mistake breaches company policy. But while logic is an important aspect of conflict resolution, it is only part of the equation. First, I suggested that Karl recognize the emotions at work in the situation.
Focus On: Conflict. The Best Way To Earn Workers' Trust: Pass-Along Email. Leaders, Are You Listening with Impact? 8 Things Truly Outstanding Leaders Do Without Thinking. 3 Keys to Empowered, Effective Employees. 10 Ways to Encourage Discouraged People. Leaders who lift get further than those who push down. Performance improves when people feel encouraged and declines when they lose hope. You don’t have to beat up high-performers – they do it to themselves – lift them instead. Image source All successful leaders fill people with hope. But, the added responsibility of encouraging others may discourage you, especially if you aren’t good at it. 10 Ways to encourage others: Encourage in private.
Facebook contributors say leaders who encourage: Give people challenging assignments and check them periodically.Lead by example and practice what you preach.Communicate clearly and follow through.Recognize and reward progress. A big one: Have you argued with a discouraged person attempting to change their feelings? Accepting people as they are – even if you must challenged negative behaviors – allows them to open the door to your encouragements. Prevent discouragement in the first place: What techniques help you encourage discouraged people? Like this: 8 Things Great Leaders Say in Times of Tumultuous Change. Change is one of the few certainties an entrepreneur can count on in business. It comes in many different forms--whether hiring a new employee or moving to a new office or merging with another company.
I've encountered all of these and more in my own company. For an entrepreneur, even a minor change can seem quite complicated and foreboding. And it may have big consequences. Experience has taught me that there is only so much you can do to prepare for change. Here's what a good leader should say to effectively connect with people during turbulent times. 1. We all share a basic need to connect with other people. 2. Leading others through change doesn't mean you have to do all the talking. 3. No matter their behavioral preferences, your people will absolutely need to know the reason for change. 4. And you need to mean what you say. 5. Empathic leadership opens the door to showing vulnerability as a leader, which can be an effective tool. 6. 7. --Judge Smails in Caddyshack 8. 5 Steps to a Life-Changing Culture of Thanks. Sure, your people need to be paid for their labor, but that's not what drives their performance. People want to be appreciated for the good work they do, and they want to know that you both notice and care about their contributions and them as people.
How do you do that? By creating a culture of thanks. Keep the following five tips in mind and you won't simply amplify the gratitude, you'll change people's lives. 1. Most people prefer to receive praise publicly, in full view of their peers and co-workers. Keep in mind, however, that some employees prefer to stay out of the spotlight and not be recognized in front of their colleagues. 2. Only reward your employees when you sincerely believe they deserve recognition and it comes from your heart.
When praising publicly, focus on the praise and the positive feelings of the moment, and save other departmental news and updates for another time. 3. 4. People are motivated by different things: money, time off, promotion. 5. Like this post? Lead at your best. Five simple exercises can help you recognize, and start to shift, the mind-sets that limit your potential as a leader. When we think of leadership, we often focus on the what: external characteristics, practices, behavior, and actions that exemplary leaders demonstrate as they take on complex and unprecedented challenges. While this line of thinking is a great place to start, we won’t reach our potential as leaders by looking only at what is visible.
We need to see what’s underneath to understand how remarkable leaders lead—and that begins with mind-sets. As important as mind-sets are, we often skip ahead to actions. We adopt behavior and expect it to stick through force of will. In this article, we’ll share five simple exercises adapted from our new book, Centered Leadership, that can help you become more aware of your mind-sets. 1. A surprising amount of our time and energy at work is focused on our shortcomings—the gap between 100 percent and what we achieved. As a small child. 2. 3. The Most Overlooked Leadership Skill - Peter Bregman. Even before I released the disc, I knew it was a long shot. And, unfortunately, it was a clumsy one too. We were playing Ultimate Frisbee, a game similar to U.S. football, and we were tied 14-14 with a time cap.
The next point would win the game. I watched the disc fly over the heads of both teams. Sam was on my team. Sam broke free from the other runners and bolted to the end zone. At the very last moment, he leapt. The field was silent as he slid across the end zone, shrouded in a cloud of dust. Sam’s catch won us the tournament. It also taught me a great lesson: Never underestimate the value of a talented receiver. I was reminded of Sam’s catch recently after broaching a sensitive topic with Alba*, a client. Before I spoke with her, I was hesitant and worried. I entered the conversation awkwardly, apologizing, and offering too much context. Thankfully, though, Alba turned out to be a Sam-level receiver. Alba listened without a trace of annoyance. So how do you become a great receiver? 1. How Great Leaders Communicate.