Recovering Leader

When a Harsh Personality Preempts Leadership

Leadership is not—and should not be—a popularity contest. Yet a difficult personality will render ineffective even a highly talented executive. As a result, their potential contributions will go unexplored. Consider a leader with world-class talent in a specific area, yet whose lack of interest in relating well to other people is seen as arrogant and argumentative. We’ve all met one... Read more →

The Why and How of Your Next Promotion

Suggestions and considerations to help you move up At its best, a promotion to a more senior level of responsibility can challenge, energize, and reward you, and enable you to accomplish something of greater meaning in your professional life. Moving up isn’t for everyone—it may not be important to you, and/or you may be happy with the level of responsibilities... Read more →

Leadership Delegation:Trust, Verify, Consequences

Just a few thoughts today on elements of delegation. 1. TRUST Give someone a task, project, or “to do” that fits them (role, responsibilities, capabilities) and you think they can and will do it well. Give them clarity: WHAT you want and WHAT success looks like, WHEN you want it done by, WHY you want it – how does it... Read more →

Unleash Your People’s Best: Stop Telling Them What to Do

During the course of our coaching work, one Chief Operating Officer client told me: “I need to tell them what to do and how to do it, or the ball will stop rolling.” Guess what? She’s exhausted, hasn’t taken a vacation in documentable history, and her people are frustrated. “Why doesn’t she just do my job for me? She’s practically... Read more →

Are You a Manager or a Leader: Complete Analysis of Survey Results (Final)

In June, 2009 we started taking a sharp look at the distinctions between manager and leader. I developed a 20-question online survey (“Are you more of a manager or leader?”) that's so far received 139 responses. Given the volume of info, I broke my analysis into several blog posts that cover all 20 questions. Previous posts had analyzed the results... Read more →

Self-aware Leadership Watch: Is Your Ego Your Amigo?

Fundamentally, a healthy ego is a good thing. It serves a simple and vital function: to keep us separated from each other in our own thinking. Without it, there’d be no sense of self versus other, and I’d have no way of telling myself from you. However, a mismanaged ego can be anything from a minor liability to majorly overbearing.... Read more →

The 1-2-3 of Using Self-awareness to Resolve Conflict

Whether you're dealing with someone difficult, resolving a conflict, or simply broadening your perspective, here are practical approaches and practices to help you be at your best. Make sure you read down to the simple exercises, and try them! It boils down to this: the more you make yourself look through another person's eyes, even if you can't stand them,... Read more →

What is Self-aware Leadership, and Why Should You Care?

It leads to sustainable effectiveness . . . Today's tumultuous conditions require leaders to master speed, turbulence, and complexity, upgrading from traditional leadership competencies to new and more flexible strategies for leading organizations. Building greater self-awareness must be a high priority. Self-awareness is not a common theme in leadership literature, and the practices that lead to it aren’t easy to... Read more →

A Challenge for Worried Leaders

Worrying: is a trait shared by many leaders. is completely optional -- up to you whether you do it or not. is fed / encouraged by society and the media. never made anything better, despite the notion that you may think it keeps you on your toes. boils down to making up stories / lies to yourself and repeating them.... Read more →

Think Like an Owner, Not an Employee

People who think and act like owners are happier, healthier, and more effective at work. Layoffs, dinosaur management styles, "do more with less," and constant role/responsibility reshuffles are the new "normal." And, these things certainly haven't made it easy for folks to have a sense of ownership and engagement in their companies. In fact, I had a junior executive tell... Read more →