The Emotionally Intelligent Communicator

I attended a meeting of an organization whose board I serve on. I was in the back of the room, and seated behind me were two disgruntled people who were loudly dissing everything that was reported during the meeting.

During the Q&A portion of the meeting, these people went a few rounds with the moderator of the meeting, until one of them stood up and shrieked an acerbic comment. After this drama, she declared, “I’m a communications professional and I know I’m right.”

Asking for Help Can Be Good for Your Health

How would you rate yourself on asking for help?

I’m not talking about being a slacker and asking others to do your job. Instead, this is about chipping away at your “I can do it all” mentality and gaining benefits from someone who is willing or even eager to help you.

Dealing with Losses

We deal with losses in the workplace all the time. We lose new opportunities and established business. We lose employees. We lose momentum. We lose market share.

When leaders deal with these losses, they often view them tactically. They evaluate the immediate impact, come to conclusions, and move on. They don’t necessarily think deeply about how the immediate impact affects the long term.

Managing Surprises

Out of nowhere, you receive a surprise. It can be professional or personal, big or small, welcome or not, but a surprise in any case.

If it’s positive, you’re probably feeling pretty good. On the other hand, a negative surprise can knock you out.

Time to Smell the Roses

We’re approaching Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., which means a three-day weekend for many people and the unofficial beginning of summer. It’s the time to stop and smell the roses, the coffee, the golf course, or whatever makes you take a pause and refresh.

Many of us function at warp speed, and don’t take nearly enough time to reboot, reassess and reflect. This is a good weekend to do so, and hopefully you’ll do something that fits one of those categories.

“Lone Ranger” Leaders

I’ve been working with a leadership team where three out of four people are aligned around organizational goals, while the fourth is singing to the tune of his own agenda.

Although this leader is valued in his role, if he doesn’t work to achieve alignment with his colleagues, over time it will infect the leadership team.

Collegial Trust

One of my clients has a somewhat contentious relationship with a peer leader in his company, where they are both in key roles. Although they get along on the surface, during a recent coaching session, it was clear that there has been a breach of trust on both sides.

Both know that they need to fix this. The longer my client avoids dealing with the issue, it will be “the elephant in the room” as they move forward. The company is undergoing a strategic transition, and it will be extremely difficult to accomplish their ambitious objectives without rebuilding trust.

Leadership Decisiveness

As a leader, you’re always “on”, whether you want to be or not. Sometimes it seems like everyone is observing your actions and making judgments. And, of course, these judgments are usually made out of context, without full information.

This comes with the leadership territory and as such people want to see confidence, decisiveness, and consistency in their leaders.

Your People Are Watching You

Sometimes you just don’t know when your leadership makes a difference for someone. I witnessed one of these situations with a young colleague, who was sharing a story about an interaction on her team.

When I asked her if she realized the impact of her specific action, it was clear she hadn’t thought about it. Although she was genuinely pleased, it almost seemed like the surprise effect of my pointing it out was more thrilling than what she had actually done.

Flexibility and Resiliency

How prepared are you for the unexpected. “Life happens” – and doesn’t it always seem to do so at the most inopportune times?

You can perfectly plan your schedule, and then life inserts itself, throws you off base, and leaves you bewildered about how this could have happened when you were so well organized.