Communicate, Listen and Coach to Earn Employee Trust A friend’s son, an engineer who has been working from home since COVID, was recently approached by his manager. The manager stated that leadership was encouraging everyone to return to work at the office. The young engineer, soon to become a new father, needed more work flexibility,…
Six Ways to Grow Influence Without Authority
Grow Your Influence, Grow Your Leadership Power in organizations typically comes from two major sources: position power (direct) or influence power (indirect). Position power is normally hierarchical. It is derived from title, responsibility and authority assigned by place in the organizational structure. Position power also includes budget authority, which enables leaders to fund key initiatives…
Improving Executive On-Boarding:
Seven Essential Steps for New Executives to Thrive New executives hired from the outside typically want to align their leadership team quickly so critical goals can be achieved as soon as possible. Afterall, they’ve been hired by the Board of Directors or senior executives to introduce fresh thinking and positive change. Unfortunately, the rush to…
The Harm in Too Much Team Harmony
Team Coaching Helps Teams Achieve Faster and Better Results Many leaders desire teams to have internal harmony so that work goes smoothly and conflict is avoided. They often double down on this philosophy by hiring or promoting new members to their teams that “fit” into the harmonious culture they’ve worked to create. This may have…
Use Feedback to Gain Self-Awareness and Grow Your Career
Feedback, it seems, is an F-word to many people. It doesn’t need to be. With the right frame of mind and guidance it can be key in developing self-awareness, improving results and growing your career if you act on what you learn. An apt definition of feedback is that it is information about the gap…
Celebrating A Milestone
Seven Strategies Helpful in Building a New Business This month marks the fifth anniversary running my own business. Given the failure rates of new businesses in the first three-to-five years, that’s worth celebrating. Five years ago, I left the corporate world to start my own executive coaching practice. I desired to fully align my purpose…
Set Up New Managers for Success
Coaching Helps Develop New Leaders Organizations often take their top individual technical or functional contributors, promote them to manage a team and expect instant success. The promotion from individual contributor to manager, however, is an abrupt career step: Succeeding as an individual contributor is one thing; becoming an accomplished leader is more complex. It requires…
Being Intentional Improves Outcomes
Six Steps of Intentionality to Achieve Goals Achieving the change or outcome you desire normally demands heightened focus and a willingness to try different approaches: It requires intention. Being intentional is more important today as we constantly face the dichotomy that comes with contrasting goals, such as: Managing performance issues while increasing employee retention Improving…
It’s the What and How, Not the Where
Adapt to Get Results Regardless of Where People Work Some leaders are still struggling with the work-from-home (WFH) or hybrid work models. These leaders want people back in the office and hold a firm belief that working together in a common environment will lead to greater collaboration and results. While they may be steadfast in…
Trust and Return to Work Decisions Will Affect Retention
Carefully Consider How to Re-Engage Your Employees As the United States emerges from the pandemic, Americans are getting back to the lives they put on pause over a year ago. Daily routines that revolve around interactions with others are back. We are traveling, going to sporting events, dining inside restaurants and —for many—heading back into…