Blog

A tool to help leaders listen

What does effective leadership look like when you meet one on one with your people? What does good followership look like, and how do you ask the right questions of your leader and share with them what you need so they can lead? Talent management is about great conversations, and here is a template to make that happen.

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How long do you listen?

Listening is not the lost skill of leadership, but it tends to take a back seat to getting work done when things are moving fast. A recent speech by a brain expert reminded me how little listening doctors do in the course of diagnosing certain medical conditions. Leadership and getting most out of the talent of a team (talent management) is, in part, about listening.

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3 Habits To Help Great Leaders Be Good Managers

Leadership is important, but being able to be an effective manager is also important. Talent management (getting the most out of your people) does not happen without engaging people one on one, getting to know them, listening to what they need, and helping them. Here are 3 habits for any leader to help this to happen.

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A trap: Over Leading and Under Caring

Being a leader versus being a manager. It is a great topic and a key discussion to have as you challenge seasoned managers and directors to take make a shift that the organization needs them to make. But many of the relational needs people have are best done by managers – and even the CEO needs to wear that hat on occassion.

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Failure (continuing a thought from Seth Godin)

Failure is an important part of leadership and followership. Striving to be our best does not mean always being right. Seth Godin planted the seed for this post, and I reflect on how certain leaders show they are special by how they process failure openly. Leadership development, self awareness, and building a great culture require a healthy attitude towards failure.

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7 Key Numbers All Leaders Should Know

Learning takes energy. Here are the numbers any leader or follower should think about before they start asking for or embarking on personal change. Talent management is about all of these AND the conversation that follows. Your next talent management strategy or leadership development key note address should probably include all of these numbers.

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Why Were You Promoted?

Why were you selected for a new leadership role? Simple question, and yet critical in aligning the right people with a situation and creating an effective transition plan. Based on David Baker’s book, Managing Right – For The First Time, this is a question all leaders should ask, when hiring or being hired. Talent Management is about great conversations, and this question is a cornerstone of a great talent management conversation.

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Quick trU Tips: 4 Destructive Myths

Here is a quick learning activity for a leadership team. Tony Schwartz talked about myths that live in organizations that are destructive. Leadership development is about awareness first, and these points help leaders examine some myths that might be getting in their way. Use this at your next leadership team meeting, or around an examination of talent management.

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Transformation or Training?

Talent management is too often focused on putting in what was left out. Real change takes energy, and acknowledging that helps the performance evalutation and professional development focus take on more significance. We need to ask up front “Are you ready?” and then the leader needs to ask “How can I help?” Leaders need to remember that their role in talent management is to help define the what and how – – then support in the journey to a new place. Great followership involves making a choice to go to a new place.

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Leadership Development Starts – BEFORE you lead

David Baker wrote a book to help new managers make their transition successful. As I read Managing Right For The First Time in preparation for writing a review, I will share things that make me go Hmmmm. Some thoughts are around leadership development, while some are just about self awareness or individual development. This is about starting your development before you lead.

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Where Leaders Learn and 3 Ways To Make It Stick

Most learning is free. The challenge is slowing down long enough to recognize it or to be purposeful about finding a friend to help process it and make the new knowledge a habit. Here are some tips about talent management of ourselves as leaders. Included is a Talent Scorecard to help you see where your own habits as a leader need to be built.

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5 Habits To Build a Trust Savings Account

Truth and trust are the two areas that all leaders need to focus all of the time. Here are 5 Habits to build a Trust Savings Account (aka: Emergency Fund). The Birkman Method is a great tool for helping to understand the individual needs of your people. This is s cornerstone of both leadership development and the development of the culture of your team.

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