I was coaching a young, energetic leader once whose role was about to change. He was a leader in the sales department and his new role would have him interacting and collaborating with the other departments in the company. I’ll call him Eddie. Eddie asked for advice as he began his new role and I stated, “play to your strengths, be aware of your weak spots.
Read MoreThese titles roll easily off our tongue and we use them daily without much thought. Their significance and implication, however, call for some focus. Leadership titles are easy to write on a job description or a company org chart but much more complex in application and impact. Most leaders possess a title or were assigned a title but not all live up to the meaning of it. This is especially important in the C-suite.
Read MoreI’m stealing an old adage from the Army. As a young officer, I attended Ranger school and was awarded the Ranger tab, a patch which I could forever wear on my left shoulder indicating this accomplishment. Along side serving in combat, it was the toughest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I operated off one meal a day, only a few hours of sleep and had to lead others under those conditions. I lost 30lbs in the process and looked like a prisoner of war.
Read More“I’ll see what I can do about looking into that for you,” said a young staff officer to me one late Friday afternoon in the 82nd Airborne Division after I reviewed his task list. I was the executive officer for a 700-person parachute infantry battalion, one of the most demanding jobs I held in the Army. Exhausted after a relentless week, I stopped him. “Say that again, better yet write it out on my dry-erase board.” This one was a keeper! I responded, “That’s as close as anyone has come to saying ‘no’ without actually saying it.” Keeping my composure, and feeling empathy for an equally exhausted paratrooper, I advised him to narrow down that sentence to one word. Yes.
Read MoreI remember as a young leader listening to a senior leaders preach ‘work – life balance.’ I would always laugh inside at their urging as I knew they worked insane hours, took work home and often came to the office on Saturdays. Of course, balance means a 50/50 split. Not possible. When you factor in sleep (which is important) you find imbalance. When you work well beyond the 40-hour work week, you find imbalance. What is work and what is life anyway?
Read MoreThere is tension between checking on subordinates and fostering trust in your organization. Good leaders feel that tension and struggle trying to balance it. Poor leaders either micromanage or avoid checking anything. Both of those are fear-based approaches which erode trust. Micromanagers fear something will go wrong or that what they envisioned will not materialize. They generally do not trust people. Avoiders fear the confrontation which might occur or do not want to spend the energy giving someone good intent and the space to operate.
Read MoreWhat was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in your life? Go back to your childhood if needed.
Have you ever seen a leader who was totally confident? There are none. Everyone wrestles with doubt, uncertainty, and insecurity which eats away at confidence. Life experiences, bullying, harassment, misinformation, and the world around us, (especially in a pandemic) all cause lack of confidence.
Read MoreCommunication technology such as email, chat programs like Slack, and text have eased the ability to pass information in the modern workplace. The result; information overload. Without some standard of how information is passed, people, especially leaders become saturated and ineffective. They are left to sift through mountains of messages to find the ones which will help them lead their organization. People navigate their days wondering what to share with the boss. We had this problem in the Army with large units and multiple communication means. To fix this we used CCIR, Commander’s Critical Information Requirements. Replace commander with whatever your title is and you have a useful communication rubric your people can follow.
Read MoreI’m writing about nurses this morning but it speaks directly to leadership. I’ve always had a deep love for nurses, what they stand for, the skills they possess and the values they embody. Yesterday was National Nurse’s Day. I confess I had forgotten but a client and friend reminded me, as good nurses (and leaders) do, copying me on a note sent to her nurses. I salute all of you!
Read MoreOne of your subordinates’ cheats on his safety certification test. You learn of an adulteress affair which has occurred between two employees in your company. Sarah wants to fire John who is not performing. She is correct about his performance but has never formally appraised him or trained him. Your top sales associate lies about the efficacy of your service to gain several new clients. An email gets sent to a wide distribution of people in your company with a cartoon and joke which is a bit sexually and racially sensitive. Brian’s personal Facebook posts are very political and abrasive which is not in keeping with the values and culture everyone subscribes to in your company? The extra hours Chelsey must work this week are only due to her own failures when she attempted the task the first time. Should you pay her for those hours? What do you do in these situations? How should you lead?
Read MoreWelcome the month of May! The weather is warming, trees are greening and it seems many places are coming out of COVID restrictions to bring people back together. I’ll take that as a sign of hope and better days ahead. Here is an approach for your leadership kit bag as we welcome May and sprint toward summer.
Read MoreVision, Values, Culture. There is your short answer. As leaders we can sometimes be so enamored with what we want from a certain position in our company we overlook the person who we want to fill it and the values and beliefs we want them to possess. New positions in a company typically fill a dire need generated from the expansion of the mission and the demands on individuals. A leader envisions a new Internet Technology Manager relieving the pressure and headache related to IT problems in an organization. She or he creates a job description, a recipe designed to solve a problem and relieve pain. Missing from that recipe is what an organization wants that person to believe in and subscribe to.
Read MoreI held several especially important positions in the Army. I was given limited resources and complex missions; I was charged with the wellbeing of my soldiers and inclusion of their families. I was a good steward of all of this. Merriam Webster defines stewardship as, the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care: stewardship of natural resources. I love this word in leadership.
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What is a crisis? In leadership it is essential to bring clarity to this word. Merriam Webster defines crisis as an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending. Words are important for a few reasons. First, they shift the thinking of leaders and employees. When words like crisis are spoken, they capture (or should capture) the attention of people as shouting stop or freeze would.
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Words do not themselves treat people poorly, leaders do. Lofty words and catchy phrases and their associated processes cloud over the reality and need of human connection. In the production of my book “It’s Personal,” while interviewing over 75 business leaders and HR professionals I rarely heard the word “people.” I felt as if we were talking about the management of machines instead of the leadership and care of people. “Human” was used but only in conjunction with another word like “human resources” or “human capital.”
Read MoreWhen crisis happens, people look upward to leadership. What comes back at them ought to be effective and constant communication.
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Whatever remembrance you choose, let the pain return like I do when I think about that visit to New York. Never forget the fallen, for they paid the ultimate sacrifice. Remember, it’s supposed to hurt.
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Words do not themselves treat people poorly, leaders do. Lofty words and catchy phrases and their associated processes cloud over the reality and need of human connection. In the production of my book “It’s Personal,” while interviewing over 75 business leaders and HR professionals I rarely heard the word “people.” I felt as if we were talking about the management of machines instead of the leadership and care of people. “Human” was used but only in conjunction with another word like “human resources” or “human capital.”
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According to Dictonary.com, to invest is “to use, give, or devote (time, talent, etc.), as for a purpose or to achieve something.” As you might invest time in a garden to take in its beauty or consume its vegetables, or as you might invest in real estate to create more income, you invest in people to gain something; that something is to make them better people.
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But we are socially distant! Nonsense. I did it in a combat zone. You can invest in people through virtual means. Programs like Zoom, Slack and many others facilitate that. Your personal smartphone is a nice place to start!
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