What is your filter for saying “yes” for your role? For your organization? The irony is that a filter is really there to say “no” all the time, as a way to intentionally have conversations so “yes” is backed with reason and requirements from key partners in your work. A Core Focus is a way for leaders to help their teams have more powerful conversations around their work and the team’s work.
Powerful Giver? As I wrote it, the word oxymoron came to mind. Leaders should read Give and Take by Adam Grant, and EOS (Entrepreneurial Leaders) should pay special attention because success in leadership requires effective giving behaviors. Here are three skills that will help leaders become more effective at being what I call a people-centered leader. Well done, Adam Grant.
Are you a giver or a taker in your approach to leadership? Adam Grant’s book is a powerful exploration of that question and provides great research to educate us, offering givers things they can do to be more effective leading AND still be a giver. Learn about this book and the 8 values that define givers and takers.
When we ask questions of people and provide space for them to tell us about themselves and share their thoughts, it has the same neurological effect as feeding them or giving them money. People-centered leaders understand that, and practice it. Here are three difficult conversations committed people-centered leaders work to master.
Documize. In a recent EOS session, I uttered this word and the response from the team reminded me what a gift a safe environment for learning and working can be. It also provided me with an opportunity to demonstrate what leading in a safe environment looks like. What are you doing to create safety today?
Would you invest millions in equipment and NOT send technicians/engineers to training to learn how to setup and optimize it? No – – and yet we spend billions each year on leadership training and do just that. Here is data on why that is a bad idea and how to get better ROI for leadership training.
I just ended a vacation where our four children were around a lot. One of my goals was to listen, and I also found myself reading one book they all recommended (Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff) and starting a second book...
What are you willing to guarantee to your customers? In my experience working with clients guarantees are scary and hard to define. Here are some examples and reasons I believe they are critical in our journey to excellence.
There will be lots of gathering going around over the next few weeks. Here is a bit of advice to make that time more fruitful. It also follows my core value of Learning + Doing = Growth – and comes with a story of how I can be a bit slow on the learning part sometimes . . .
In coaching leaders to become more people-centered, it quickly became evident that preparing their team for the career/development conversation was critical because too many people were not ready to share what they wanted. Here is my proven process for conversation and some perspective for leaders and/or individuals desiring to own their development.
Do you have a plan for your best people on where they will be in a year? Two years? What is keeping you from asking your people about the future? Here are the 3 reasons leaders don’t ask and 2.5 steps to start this conversation. Included are links to all the resources you need to equip your people to Own It! (including a free whitepaper and links to my 4 favorite posts on this topic).
Leaders committed to growing their company or being successful in their next big role need to have mentors. This includes anyone using the Entrepreneurial Operating System or experiencing a promotion to an executive-level role in an organization. Here are 4 steps for establishing an effective mentoring experience. As a bonus, I also provide a link to a single page document that provides all the details you need to be successful and building a great mentoring experience.