One of the greatest casualties of today’s pace of work is thinking.
Many leaders move from meeting to meeting, respond to an endless stream of emails, and race from one deadline to the next. Somewhere along the way, thinking quietly disappears from the calendar.
Leadership often succeeds or falls short because of seemingly small details.
Even if you are not naturally detail-oriented, paying closer attention can make the difference between an average result and an outstanding one. I know this from personal experience.
One of my clients has a simple communication rule: the senior account executive must be included on all communications relating to his or her accounts. Team members know this means copying them on emails and keeping them informed of important conversations.
Simple enough.
Conflict is inevitable in every organization.
The question isn’t whether it will occur. The question is how leaders respond when it does.
The July 4th holiday is upon us, with many having a three-day weekend ahead. In honor of the holiday, today’s column is short and sweet. I gathered some fun links in keeping with the festive holiday spirit and in hopes that you will make time to enjoy the holiday weekend.
Want to test your knowledge of July 4 trivia? Click here to take a quiz. Interested in expanding your knowledge about the holiday? Click here for some fun facts. Want to tell some 4th of July dad jokes? Here’s the link.
One of my clients has an employee who consistently blames others whenever something goes wrong in his department. If his manager offers criticism or coaching, he has an artful way of deflecting responsibility and pointing the finger elsewhere.
We’ll call him Brandon.
I recently had a challenging series of conversations with a tech support representative about a problem that was enormously frustrating. At one point, a supervisor kept repeating the same instruction despite my telling her that I didn’t understand what she was saying.
Her solution was to say it again. Only louder.
In the past few weeks, several clients shared stories about presentations that didn’t go as planned. The situations were different: one was giving a speech, another was presenting to a board, and the third was meeting with a prospective client.
All were experienced professionals. All knew their material well.
Many high-achieving leaders are disciplined about setting goals. Whether the process is formal or informal, the objective is the same: achieving meaningful results.
Most people focus primarily on the tasks and activities required to reach those goals. That approach makes sense and is often effective.
Leadership behaviors spread quickly through organizations — sometimes in productive ways, and sometimes in destructive ones.
When people think about improving at work, they usually focus on acquiring new skills. Far less attention is given to the behaviors, habits, or attitudes that should be eliminated.