The New Year is a natural time to assess what has worked well and what could be better. As leaders, this type of self-analysis needs to include a hard look at your leadership effectiveness. For example, it might be hard to be responsive and consistent in your approach to leading when competing demands are pulling you in multiple directions. So many leaders I know struggle with how to keep up with the promises they’ve made and the follow through on activities that others are expecting. Who have you let down in the past year? Has your busyness damaged relationships with others because they couldn’t count on you? Are you compromising the trust between you and those you lead because you are inconsistent in your words and actions?... read more
Archive for the ‘Executive Coaching’ Category
Consistency Can Improve Your Leadership Effectiveness
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012Trick or Treat: Hiring Can Turn Out To Be Either
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011Hiring the right talent can be tricky. You want the candidate to fit into your organization’s culture and you also want someone who can be effective on the job. Ideally, the person you hire will be a top performer and with your organization for a good period of time. The tricky part comes in when you consider all these variables and factor in how human beings make decisions.
In his best-selling book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell discusses how people are wired to make decisions and often make them in the blink of an eye. An adaptive mechanism goes off called the adaptive unconscious to allow for faster decisions; this mechanism limits the multitude of variables you could possibly consider. Turns out we can collect too much data and suffer from analysis paralysis. In learning to survive, humans have adapted themselves to look at a more limited number of factors so that we can act more swiftly. If we are skilled at knowing the best variables to select for, we can do well in hiring. If we look for the wrong things, we can make an expensive mistake. In our work with organization on hiring and selection, here are some of the common selection problems that hiring managers make:
Parachuting Priorities
Sunday, August 7th, 2011Many CEOs and leaders handle the urgent and important parts of their role effectively – like seeing an opportunity that has a short window to take advantage of and going for it. It’s when a situation is important, but not urgent that there’s procrastination. For example, you realize that your market is changing and you know that you need to meet with your team to assess your current strategy, but there’s so much going on that you just keep putting off the planning session. Now your procrastination may be for a good reason like “We need to address this other challenge first, it’s time sensitive…” And, here lies the danger.... read more
Change: Who moved my equipment?
Thursday, March 31st, 2011“Who moved my equipment?” I demanded to know. It was hard enough to wake up this early in the morning and put on my sweats. When I walked into the gym, all the equipment was changed around – topsy turvy – with the free weights where the squat racks used to be. The regulars and I kept bumping into each other and the equipment as we attempted to recreate our usual routines, to no avail. As we all complained to each other about the new layout, I suddenly started laughing. I realized how much I sounded like the now classic mouse line of “Who moved my cheese?” In this case, I was the mouse who didn’t want her cheese moved at all.... read more
Develop Detachment to Improve Your Leadership
Monday, February 14th, 2011One of the hallmarks of effective leadership is the ability to distance oneself from a work situation and to look at it with detachment. By “helicoptering” over an issue, problem or decision, you as a leader can be more objective because you can see the situation from a less self-centered view. When you look at what’s going on from a distance and minimize the “it’s about me” factor, you can improve your critical thinking skills and often find new and creative alternatives. ... read more
Start The New Year With The Gift Of Your Presence
Thursday, January 13th, 2011The new year has begun and many of us have spent the last several weeks searching for appropriate gifts to give people we value and care about. Our normal multi tasking seemed to go on steroids as many of us tried to balance all the things on our to do list with the festivities and obligations of the holiday season. I’d like to remind you of one of the most powerful gifts or presents you can offer those you lead and work with to get your year started off right. ... read more
Everyday Heroes
Thursday, November 18th, 2010When Luis Urzúa Iribarren bowed from the waist at the webcam in the mine, I felt tears welling up. Some of you might have noticed that Luis was the last of the Chilean miners lifted up to safety after the 69 day ordeal. Luis was the shift supervisor of the miners trapped and he took that responsibility very seriously. He was instrumental in helping them stay resilient and organized during their excruciating wait. Luis insisted on being the last one out. He wanted to make sure that all were brought up safely before leaving the mine. Luis models true leadership– inspiring others to be their best, even under dire circumstances; and serving others and the greater whole before helping himself.... read more
Customer Effort Counts
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010By Mary Key ... read more
Intentional Leadership
Friday, July 9th, 2010Organizations invest their time, money and resources in developing leadership skills and competencies. Executive development programs emphasize the importance of being strategic, collaborative, and decisive, among other attributes. Although developing leadership skills and competencies are important, it’s essential to be intentional.... read more
Leaders Struggle with Meetings
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010One of the frustrations that people at all levels in organizations express is the negative impact meetings can have on their ability to get work done. In our last newsletter and blog, we talked about the importance of paring down priorities to create better focus and improve productivity. The same principle applies to attending meetings (in person or virtually).... read more
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