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...]
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...]
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...]
Relationships Rule
Of the four Emotional Intelligence (EI) competencies, retaining, growing and managing relationships is one of the more challenging to master. For one, it requires an investment of time and energy, sometimes with no immediate “pay-off.” It invites vulnerability, which, let’s face it, is not always comfortable. It also depends on the other three EI skills (Self-Awareness, … [Read more...]
Put your Social Awareness Antenna to Work
You walk into a conference room for a 10AM meeting. Five minutes into the meeting, you notice the following: Two angst-ridden people from the same department tapping feverishly on their phones One person with his laptop open intensely pounding out an email The quiet person on your team sitting back from the table at the far end The not-so-quiet person on your team already energized and offering … [Read more...]
Manage Thyself
Managing oneself is a key aspect of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and confounds many leaders. Let’s face it, being aware of a behavior that doesn’t serve us well is one thing; it’s quite another to exercise a suitable alternative when we’re in the heat of the moment. Let’s begin by sharing some examples of what it means to self-manage. Leaders who self-manage well tend to… … call … [Read more...]
Know Thyself … Including Thy Blind Spots
Pop Quiz: Have you ever felt impatient and annoyed with a person sauntering in late to a meeting you’re running? Have you ever fantasized about something unpleasant happening to a co-worker who has a way of taking all the credit? Have you ever raised your voice in order to be heard in a conference room filled with a lot of opinions? Or, are you more likely to withdraw in that … [Read more...]
Hats Off to Dogged and Disruptive Change
Hats off to those of you who laugh at the face of danger and yawn at the status quo (you know who you are!). For most leaders, however, the constant drumbeat of change is draining and uncomfortable. A leader’s tendency to resist or embrace change varies dramatically and is driven largely by her perception of the risks and benefits. It sounds straightforward, yet rarely is. Once … [Read more...]