Developing Your Team Remotely
The managers and leaders who are wading into remote management due to COVID-19 are finding it a struggle to keep their team growing while working away from the office.
If You Toss Someone a Grenade…
If you toss a group a grenade…they will run for cover. Starting a conversation with accusations or anger is akin to tossing a grenade into a room and expecting people to want to play “catch.” No matter how valuable your insight or how accurate your concern, the act of grenade tossing will result in people not hearing you because they’re consumed with ducking for cover. In talking to a client about his accusatory behavior he stated, “But the grenade isn’t…
The Fundamental Pause
As coaches, we get hired because people – despite the best of intentions – are struggling to change the things that are getting in the way of their success. Our goal is to help you recognize and overcome those habitual reactions that keep the changes you’re working toward from taking hold. The key behind the work that we do is helping people manage their reactivity, and to do that we teach them something we designed called, the Fundamental PAUSE. The…
What To Do if Your New Boss is Horrible
We recently had a conversation with a client who was feeling disheartened at work. He had a long history with his organization and had, for many years, loved working there. He was invested in their mission and wanted to contribute to business success. He had a great deal of respect for the leadership team and felt valued and appreciated for his contributions. Then it all changed. About six months ago the organization hired a new COO (who our client reported…
Your Role As The Conductor
Recently, an executive we work with was describing that he was struggling to get out of the weeds of the day-to-day. He knew that he needed to be more strategic in his thinking and actions, but instead found himself pulled into doing the work that his team was assigned to do. To succeed in his job, he needed to support others to do the work that needed to be done while he created the vision, strategy, and relationships to…
Your Dream Team
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from people in leadership is that they have to be available to their teams “all the time” to answer questions and solve problems. They say that they read about dream teams that know how to move forward in the face of challenges but their team just doesn’t get it. When we ask them to share some examples of how this plays out, we often hear a long history of our client (as team…
Take Time to Think
We have the privilege of working with leaders in a wide range of businesses – for profit and non-profit, large and small, service companies and product driven – and one of the major changes we’re seeing in all of them is that leaders are running hard and fast, going from one thing to the next, with not a moment to think. Not a moment to think. These women and men are running companies that need their leadership and yet, they…
Batsh!t Crazy
Two weeks ago we did a post on losing a great boss. We were touched by some of the stories we heard from you in response. It’s clear that it’s an incredible gift to have the opportunity to work with a great boss. Some of the ways you described their impact included increasing your self-esteem, changing your understanding of your skills, growing you in unprecedented ways, helping you overcome fear, opening doors, etc. Great bosses can change lives. In…
3 Key Steps to a Great 1:1
In many companies, managers meet regularly with their team members in what is called a 1:1. Over time, these meetings become the norm; it’s on the calendar and the meetings happen, but many managers report that they don’t really know how to structure those meetings so that they’re helpful for them, as the manager, and to their direct reports. In many ways, these 1:1 meetings are mini-planning sessions. You’re coming together to identify a vision for the…
Losing a Great Boss
We regularly hear people talking about their work and what they like about it, where they struggle, and what they wish could be different. And, there is a consistent theme for those people who really love their jobs – they have a great boss. One of the things many of us in the working world today have in common is the experience of the loss of a great boss. Whether your boss has gotten promoted or taken a position…