Rising Above Disappointments

We all deal with little victories and disappointments on a regular basis, but every once and a while a biggie happens. It’s easy to celebrate the big victories, but it’s much more challenging to manage big disappointments.

This could be the expectation of receiving an important promotion, a new and better job, or an opportunity to break into a new client relationship. It doesn’t matter what “it” is; if you had your heart set on it and it doesn’t happen, it can feel like a setback.

Do You Need to Unstick?

As much as a new year can inspire a fresh start, sometimes it has the opposite effect. For example, if you took it easy during the holidays and haven’t yet gotten up to speed, even consistent high performers can get complacent.

It’s worth seeing whether such a malaise is affecting any of your people (or you, for that matter), and if it is, you need to help them snap out of it immediately. The longer it drags on, the longer it will take to reverse course.

Resiliency in the Midst of Change

Change can create massive turmoil. Organizations that undergo restructuring, management shifts, and new job responsibilities can create a whirlwind of confusion and bewilderment.

When you layer on employees’ concerns, dissatisfaction, even demoralization from such changes, it can become a leadership nightmare.

What Do You Know Now?

Something that helps people make progress is to consciously think about what they know now that they didn’t know last week (month, year, etc.). Incremental knowledge – no matter how small or big it may be – accumulates and adds to your professional development.

Why not ask this question in your weekly team meetings? If you take time to have a quick round robin, you may be pleasantly surprised with what you hear.

Managing When You Don’t Want To

Do you suffer from too much work, not enough time, and (heaven forbid) your employees need your help?

Good news, bad news, the same news: Get used to it.

“I’ll Take Care of It”

To succeed in today’s workplace, people need to demonstrate their value and curtail any hint of dispensability. At a minimum, they need to at least act the part.

Here is a personal example to illustrate the point. I needed help to remove a piece of furniture from my apartment. I asked Joe, who works in my building, if he’d like to make a little extra money by assisting me.

Management Myopia

Have you ever faced a situation where you’ve clung to an old “story” about an employee even if the circumstances have changed? For example, let’s say you’ve been dealing with a “renegade” employee for at least a year.

You don’t want to loosen your grip over him, because you believe this old scenario is still current. From your perspective, “He’s still out of control” or “I don’t want the management headache”.

Struggling With Feedback?

Many managers wrestle with how to give feedback to their employees, and as a result they aren’t successful in conveying what they really want to say. Consequently, delivering feedback can be one of the more stressful parts of their job as manager.

At one end of the spectrum are managers who are so brutally blunt that the sting of their harsh words is more powerful than the underlying message. At the other end are managers who couch their feedback in overly positive and flowery comments so that their employees completely miss the message.

Revealing Mistakes

Do you often succumb to “I’ll do it myself”? Sometimes, hard-driving managers become frustrated when their staff makes mistakes, and as a result, they sing the refrain of “it’s easier to do it myself.”

This is usually a bad idea. Of course, there are exceptions, but overall, it’s better to take time to coach someone about what was done incorrectly and how to do it accurately the next time.

It’s All in the Details!

Even if you don’t see yourself as detail oriented, paying attention to details can make a difference between average and outstanding communication. The expression, “it’s all in the details” takes on fresh meaning in these situations. Consider these examples:

The executive who isn’t clear in his instructions but expects his assistant to know precisely what he has in mind. The assistant books his travel and the exec yells at her because it wasn’t the exact schedule that he wanted (which he, of course, never mentioned).

Leadership is a Mindset

Category: Managing People