Why is it so easy to criticize the decisions of others but so difficult to make the tough calls ourselves? What is it that makes high-stakes decisions so difficult? I used to think it was because it was hard to decide the right solution. But as I’ve coached executives struggling with such decisions, I’ve noticed that often it’s fairly clear …
You know the story—girl meets boy, girl likes boy, girl wants to hire boy, girl decides to check boy’s Facebook/Snapchat/Twitter/Instagram, girl sees stuff she doesn’t like about boy, girl doesn’t hire boy. Is this OK? What do you think? Let’s exclude LinkedIn from the debate since that’s a generally accepted business and recruiting tool. What about all the others? Yes—it’s …
Company leadership receives input from employees in a variety of formats: Engagement surveys, pulse-check forums, rumors heard in the hallway, supervisors reporting what their teams are saying, etc. Yet, too often company leadership squanders the gift of this input, and actually discourages employees from sharing information from the front lines. They do this in a few ways: They criticize the …
The other day, a coaching client asked me a question that I was shocked to realize I didn’t have a ready-made answer to. Asking around and conducting some research revealed that most others don’t either. The question was: What is it that a leader does? I have a bunch of ideas about what leadership isn’t. And it’s easy to find …
Terminating employees sucks. But everyone has to do it from time to time. One way to soften the blow of an exit notification is the offer of severance. Not only does a severance agreement buy you a commitment from the departing employee not to sue, but it also provides some helpful support to employees as they pursue their next steps. …
April Fools’ Day is a fun tradition of fooling others into believing something that isn’t true. It’s mostly harmless and in good fun. It’s less harmless when this becomes the standard practice for giving feedback in the company. Yet all too often, companies inadvertently set up feedback mechanisms that encourage foolish feedback – the type that is inaccurate, incomplete, and …
Effective leadership involves a million traits. As discussed in What Leadership Isn’t, it’s often easier to explain what leaders want to avoid than it is to review the laundry list of traits effective leaders employ. This post is about one behavior to avoid: getting triggered. As I’ve coached leaders over the years, and indeed as I myself have learned where …
Hierarchy is falling out of favor like jean shorts and intelligent political discord. I think it’s a scapegoat. Hierarchy doesn’t necessarily stifle innovation and engagement in the Knowledge Economy. What does? Answer: Discouraging opposing points of view, restricting access to information and ideas, and micro-management. These are the problematic behaviors that we need to banish, but these behaviors are not …
Unfortunately, many of us will eventually have to work with someone we don’t get along with. Most of us will believe this other person is incompetent (or rude or dishonest or unqualified or whatever it is that we have a problem with), so we’ll spend the better part of the relationship simply wishing the other person would simply move along. …
In my last entry, we covered the role of corporate culture in achieving your company’s mission. Ideally, your corporate culture guides people’s behaviors to be consistent with the corporate values, which enable you to implement your strategy for achieving your mission. The trick is assessing whether your corporate culture is, in fact, aligned with your values. If it’s not, this …
