Leadership Development

Your voice is smiling

Attitude is contagious. Smiles also become contagious, and people can hear smiles. Here is a thought about how leading with a smile makes a difference.

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I can’t afford leadership training right now . . . what does that mean?

It is hard to invest in training when the market is way down. But investing in your best people goes way beyond a line item in the budget. Compensation is not a driver for your best people, it is time, opportunity, and the feeling they are part of something special. Here is a talent scorecard that helps a leader step back and understand what they should be doing.

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100th Post: What do I believe?

What do I believe? A question that is good to ask on occassion because it makes us think and put a stake in the ground on something. It might change, and even in that there is some learning. Here is what I believe.

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Leaders – The 4 Questions We Are Afraid To Ask

Some questions are hard to ask. Not because they are difficult to word correctly, but because the potential answers make us nervous. Actually, we are afraid of the answers. Here are 4 questions that leaders fear asking, and 4 habits that help us ask them.

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Approachability: A practice

Coaching is often about helping people make significant changes through simple practices. The slow-flooding smile is one of those practices. Here is a way it might look, and the questions a coach might ask to reflect on the impact.

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Ego and Leadership: My story

Is ego in leaders bad? When we think of ego we too often point to examples where ego has been the destruction of people. Barry Bonds. Bill Clinton. Marion Jones. Richard Nixon. The list could get long. We too often forget that ego is the reason many of these people succeeded in the first place. Ego deserves some exploration.

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Can You Hire and Lead the Ignorant?

Is ignorant a bad word? Should we hire the ignorant? The answers are No and Maybe. It takes a special leader to hire the ignorant and sometimes hiring them is a bad idea. It can also be a powerful word for pushing us to grow.

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Engagement – The One Question to Ask

The Birkman Method defines it and many leadership programs talk about it. Asking directly What do you Need is a cornerstone question to great leadership. In this question people are invited to the trUPerformance conversation.

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Leadership Assistance Program

Leadership is challenging. One challenge is creating a safe place for conversations and still have boundaries when problems come to you that are beyond what you can help solve. The formal name is Employee Assistance Program, but another good name is Leadership Assistance Program.

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