Whether you’re managing up (your boss), managing across (your peers or cross-functional stakeholders), or managing your direct reports, influencing others is key to navigating complex organizational environments and a requirement in leveraging your value. Yet, many experienced leaders feel flummoxed or flat when their efforts to move the ball forward are thwarted by others with different … [Read more...]
Cross the Finish Line with Gusto
“Finish stronger than you start,” was a common parental refrain in my household growing up. I didn’t appreciate it then, and I’m sure my parents didn’t appreciate my eye-rolling either. Now, however, I see how it reinforced the values of accountability, persistence, and tenacity. If you find yourself more of a “starter,” and your energy and enthusiasm wane as the newness of a project … [Read more...]
10 Questions to Help You Envision the Future
Some leaders have a sixth sense of what lies ahead for their organizations and markets. The leaders who do this well tend to be branded as visionary, or in some cases, “out there.” Many leaders, however, need to develop their strategic skills, and could benefit from a framework to help broaden their perspective beyond the day-to-day. If you have a difficult time carving out time, much less … [Read more...]
Bring Your “A” Game to Drive Change
Highly matrixed organizations are complex in and of themselves, often fraught with ambiguous reporting relationships, inconsistent agendas, and slow, ill-defined decision-making processes. Leading cross-functional initiatives through a highly matrixed organization can be confounding -- on a good day. Leaders who have learned to navigate the complexities are a special … [Read more...]
The #1 Hurdle to Making Better Decisions
Decisions come in all shapes and sizes across an organization: from the simple to complex, to immediate vs. long-term. No matter the variety, the first and most important factor across all types of decisions is determining (and gaining agreement around) the decision maker. Or, as one of my esteemed colleagues says, “Who owns the ‘D’?” “Who owns the D?” is often informed by the stakes of … [Read more...]
6 Tips for a Peaceful Year End…and Beyond
The final months of the year are often fraught with apprehension and stress. Then, before you know it, it’s a clean slate and we’re kicking off another year with new, more ambitious goals. We’re off to the races again! Is it any wonder that even the most centered leaders get a little out of sorts at times? I’m guessing that most of us have said something to someone that was not received … [Read more...]
Is Lack of Reflection Holding You Back?
Of all the leadership skills my clients choose to work on, the most under-valued is reflection. It’s not that anyone is incapable of reflection, it’s more about prioritizing it and carving out time to make it happen. Let’s face it, it feels so much more productive to, well, produce something. You crank out emails, respond to Slack messages, send texts, interview people, conduct staff meetings, … [Read more...]
Healthy Engagement Leads to Clear Skies
When your team is stuck or at odds with one another, it’s not unlike the weight we feel when the atmospheric pressure has dropped. We often feel drained, and we move more slowly. Some of us get a headache. Cultivating healthy engagement across the team is one way to raise the barometric pressure and make room for clear and inviting skies. Healthy engagement happens when your team and … [Read more...]
Clearing Space to Focus on What Matters Most
The end of one year and the beginning of the next gives most of us cause for pause. “Out with the old, in with the new!” sounds so festive when the bells are chiming at midnight. Yet, it’s difficult to embrace new habits and approaches when the old ones have served us reasonably well. That is, until they don’t. If, for instance, you find that driving meaningful change for yourself, your teams … [Read more...]
Catalyst for Change
The magnitude and frequency of change over the past year has been daunting, testing even the most competent leaders. While many were able to right the ship (especially in those organizations amenable to eCommerce and Zoom), few leaders would qualify the last year as one in which their teams and organizations thrived. As organizations have shifted their attention to a post-pandemic life, there … [Read more...]