As coaches and consultants, we find that people regularly struggle with delegation and they tend to feel uncomfortable admitting it because they believe they should know how to do it. In our experience, delegating is a challenging skill; one that few of us are taught. People are frequently told they should “just delegate that” but when they try, they don’t get the results they hoped for so they give up delegating and just heap it onto their already full plate…
Those of you who know us know that we believe that leaders exist at all levels of an organization and in all walks of life. We believe that leadership is a way of being in the world. It requires a willingness to influence the world (not stand on the sidelines and complain) and to be influenced by the world (not stand impervious to the events and lives playing out around you.) We are passionate about finding the key nuggets of…
There are a lot of reasons why it’s important to nourish your spirit, but the most important reason is so you will have more of yourself as you navigate the opportunities and challenges in your life. In our leadership model, The Leader in You: Three Steps to Claiming Your Power, Influence, and Impact, the second step focuses on knowing yourself. This includes: Knowing the kinds of things you fear and how you show up when you are at your best…
It’s a simple question but it’s one that we all need to be asking ourselves if we are to be effective leaders in our work and in our lives. We all operate with a certain set of “rules” that guide our thinking, decisions, and actions. We have rules for our kids, ourselves, our family members, as well as rules for our teams and our staff. It’s important to regularly assess if these rules support our current needs and goals or,…
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill This quote by Winston Churchill speaks to us as way of being in the world that we find distinguishes great leaders. As executive coaches, we have the privilege of working with many great leaders, leaders who have experienced huge successes and great failures. In fact, they often come to work with us on the heels of those successes and failures…
Over the past few months we have had several executives say (in almost these exact words), “I’m getting grief for not communicating effectively—but I don’t have time to explain every thought!” We are in a time where every person we talk with describes feeling frazzled, overwhelmed with demands, and say they barely have a minute to breathe, let alone pause to consider how to communicate with the people in their lives. We understand the sentiment—it can be a challenge to…
While personal talents and individual contribution are important in the new economy, the ability to engage collaboratively on a team and contribute to a successful team outcome is equally, if not more, important. In today’s economy sharing information in a team setting is vital to generating new ideas and solving complex problems. Organizations want to make the best use of their resources and so they are asking employees to not only do their individual jobs effectively but also to join…
Since we’ve been talking about Emotional Drama and Emotional Data, we wanted to spend this week talking about one of the ways that we have defined adulthood over the years: Adulthood is the ability to hold two opposing ideas or feelings at the same time. The ability to hold two opposing ideas or feelings simultaneously is especially important when managing or leading others. In our work as coaches and consultants, we have seen that individuals who have the ability to…
From time to time, an executive will come to us saying that they are working to create an environment of logic and reason but despite their best efforts they are failing. Unfortunately, the fact that they are failing makes sense. Business is and always will be an enterprise where feelings and emotions are a central part of the environment because of the simple fact that businesses are made up of people. It’s a package deal; people bring the whole of…
Recently, we took a cross-country flight and on the flight we witnessed an extraordinary leader in action. Let us explain: At Carpenter Smith Consulting we define leadership as a willingness to influence your world and a willingness to be influenced by your world (or in this case, a plane with 180 passengers on board). One of the things we see in great leaders is that they are in relationship with the people they lead even if it’s not face-to-face. As…