Blog

In more than twenty years of coaching senior leaders, I’m clear on the answer to the question, “What is the #1 mistake leaders make?” Most Leaders Think They’re Giving Their Team Members Enough Feedback  But that’s not so. A friend who’d recently moved into a GM role hadn’t had feedback from her boss. She wasRead more

I’m speaking to female leaders, in particular, here… You don’t need to settle for anything less than being totally inspiring and sought-after. Being an OK leader isn’t good-enough. You don’t need to be anything less than your ideal. Your first step in moving towards being the leader you want to be is to figure outRead more

Here’s another Seth Godin beauty… “Better than it needs to be. Why not? Why not make it more generous, more fair, more insightful than it needs to be? Why not deliver the service with more flair, more care and more urgency? Why not do it because you can, not because you have to…” Just imagine,Read more

There’s a lot of research these days about how important it is to your leadership success that you think and speak optimistically about your future and the future of your organisation. But so many glass-half-empty leaders are unwittingly derailing their teams. Richard E. Boyatzis (Professor of organisational behaviour, cognitive science and psychology) is an expertRead more

Great leaders create team members who go the extra mile—and stay with the organisation, right? The results of the Corporate Leadership Council’s 2004 employee Engagement Survey indicate just how important this is. (This isn’t a minuscule survey: 50,000 employees, globally, responded.) Two of the key highlights of the survey are… Highly committed employees perform 20%Read more

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is the ability to notice and influence one’s own and others’ emotions. It involves competencies such as emotional self-awareness, self-regard, empathy, assertiveness, stress tolerance, flexibility and optimism.   Recently I was told about two senior executives who, in a meeting with their team members, declared that they didn’t have high EQ. One ofRead more

Brilliant leaders think differently to not-so-brilliant leaders. This is good news if you want your leadership to be more brilliant than it currently is—given that you’re 100% in control of the way you think :-). But let’s be clear about this: In the short-term, controlling the way you think is simple, yes—but it’s not particularlyRead more

You know that “squinty eyed” feeling you get when you’re talking with someone you don’t entirely trust, don’t you? You put so much energy into figuring out where they’re coming from and what they really want, you’re not entirely listening to what they’re saying. Because you’re busy trying to guess their end-game you’re: Not fullyRead more

There’s been a significant shift in the leadership world, during the last decade in particular, hasn’t there? The days of steep hierarchies and leading in a command-and-control fashion have long gone. But there’s another subtle change in exemplary leadership practices that’s having a massively positive impact in organisations… These Days Great Leaders Create Great Leaders—RatherRead more

I’ve loved receiving your comments and feedback on my Leadership Blogs throughout the year. Thank you for your thoughts and for your appreciation :-). You’ve indicated that the most valuable Leadership Blogs in 2017 have been the three I’ve linked below… How To Put Things Right When Someone’s Peeved With You   You so oftenRead more

Have you ever worked for a leader who put most of their energy into what they do—things like strategic planning, motivating the team to produce results, following up on commitments, and so on…… ……rather than who they are as a leader—things like always being authentic and personally disciplined and oozing emotional intelligence?   “Statistically Speaking,Read more

There’s so much talk about the importance of being “authentic”—the value of telling the truth about your thoughts and feelings. Why is authenticity such a big deal? Reflect on leaders you’ve been exposed to—who was great, who was not as great? I’ll bet the great leaders you’ve known were authentic and the not-as-great weren’t asRead more

Susie was clearly disturbed as she described one of her peers, Belinda. Initially, Susie had attributed Belinda’s behaviour to the fact that Belinda was quite new. She’d only been with the organisation for six-months—she’d come from an entirely different culture and her team was twice the size she was used to. Susie. who works closelyRead more

Seth Godin got me thinking, again, when he spoke about the choices we make. He said…… “Attitude is the most important choice any of us will make. We made it yesterday and we get another choice to make it today. And then again tomorrow. The choice to participate. To be optimistic. To intentionally bring outRead more

With great regularity, team members tell me they’re not receiving enough feedback from their leaders—which means the team member’s not getting the support they need to do a great job. Most people are somewhat in the dark when it comes to knowing enough about where they’re right on track and where they could be more on track. AndRead more

Here’s what Seth Godin said: “We spend a lot of time talking about celebrities and how attractive they are. Paul Newman’s blue eyes, how tall is Jake Gyllenhaal, how fast is Usain Bolt. Most of the time, though, our success is based on something we have far more control over: Our emotional attractiveness. People who areRead more

It’s a challenge if you lead a team that’s been told their expense budget has been slashed and that their headcount is now frozen. To achieve your business goals, you’ll therefore need every team member to work smarter, faster, harder and longer, won’t you? Ah! That’ll mean they need be engaged, at a heart level,Read more

Feedback and comments I’ve received throughout the year (thank you) tell me which leadership blogs you liked the most. Check out these four that won the “most useful” award. I’m pretty sure you’ll find it helpful to reflect on their messages so that you’re closer to your peak in 2017….. 1.  Fast-Track Your Leadership Part wayRead more

I’m curious, how well do the leaders around you display the three tell-tale signs below? More importantly, how often would your team members, your peers and your boss see you displaying them? 1.    Great Leaders “Rock The Boat” They always: —Pass the “lean forward” test. They care about what’s going on. And so noticeRead more

Let’s face it—the better you are as a leader, the more productive your team is. And that increased productivity directly impacts the bottom line. Some leadership practices and behaviours are downright demotivating for their team members. In fact, Gallop’s research tells us that a leader has a whopping 70% impact on how motivated their team membersRead more