Blog Articles about New Leaders
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March 04, 2010
Don’t ever argue ever.
This is a quote from Dale Carnegie.
Here’s the deal. If you argue and you win, the other person is angry. If you argue and you lose, you appear ineffective. If you agree to disagree chances are you are both angry.
There is no upside to arguing. Ever.
February 23, 2010
I nailed it and it was liberating!
A client called me this week. She had just finished a meeting with her boss. In the past several months her boss has been bullying her (she is one of the women I talked about in my last blog).
She said to me:
“I walked in to the meeting and I thought to myself, “I am a peer of this man and I am not going to let him push me around.”
I sat down across from him and we had our meeting. I was brilliant and it was liberating. I challenged him when I didn’t agree. I stood up for myself. I wasn’t defensive. I didn’t argue. I did what we discussed. I was factual, clear and focused and it felt great!”
Enough said.
February 10, 2010
Welcome to the big leagues and don’t take it personally.
I just left a meeting with a talented young woman. She is about a year into her first real leadership role. She is passionate about her team and about what she wants to accomplish. She is bright and energetic. Any organization would be happy to have her. There is one small “hitch”. This woman is getting “hammered” (her words) by one of her colleagues. Her colleague is an older man. This man takes every opportunity to criticize her to anyone who will listen. She is tired and frustrated and is wondering if she is cut out for leadership. The problems with this colleague have gotten worse over the past few weeks. He has taken his criticism to the highest level in the organization. Her question to me, “Why doesn’t he just do his job and leave me alone?”
January 05, 2009
A Return to Values
If you have been reading my blogs, you'll already know that I am an optimist. I have always believed that change is good. As I have said previously, even this current change in the economy is good. See my blogs for my thinking on this, "Change is Good. Even When it is Bad." and A Bad Economy is Good. In these blogs I talked about the reasons I think change is good:
- a greater focus on personal values and less focus on consumption
- a "clearing of the market" where marginal service providers will leave and great service providers will survive
- the economy as a "burning platform" to drive change
There is an additional reason this current economic change is good. It will change how leaders lead. You will see that that this happening already.
November 04, 2008
Performance Management is so yesterday
Think about it. Even the words "performance management" are kind of off putting. Begging the question "Who are you to manage my performance?". I have always disliked the performance management process. I say this, even though as an HR professional early in my career, I helped put in place many performance management systems.
July 21, 2008
You can’t have trust without dependability
A client canceled a meeting today with me today. You are no doubt thinking, "So what? Happens all the time."
It happens all the time with some people. A few people never cancel. Everyone is busy.
July 10, 2008
Blah, blah, blah
Leadership communications -- blah, blah, blah! That's how most people experience most leadership communications. Most are long winded email updates written by someone other than the leader or quarterly presentations on fancy Powerpoint slides (also written by someone other than the leader).
The subject matter of these communications is usually the organization's strategy. The strategy often comes off as sounding like platitudes. People feel preached at, bored or leave wondering what their role is. So how can you be different?
November 01, 2007
Downturns and How to Deal With Your Staff
Despite a good economy, many continue to be worried about their future. This no doubt affects you as a leader - undoubtedly there will be people on your team who are concerned for their job and their overall economic well-being.
In the article High Anxiety (Forbes), Dennis Zeleny talks about personal economic anxiety as a real issue today and explores 7 areas where leaders can help to their people to deal with these anxieties.
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