Space to Respond
Urgent issues and changing priorities – leaders often react instinctively in such moments.
Leadership
The Agility Challenge
Embracing these agility principles enables companies to innovate rapidly, meet evolving customer needs, and stay ahead of the competition.
Self-Interest to Shared Commitment
Before there can be accountability, there must be commitment. Commitment is taking ownership of a challenge, being responsible for resolving it, in alignment with your company’s goals and values. It reflects an obligation, by leader and team, to improve something that makes a difference. And because it requires the assumption of risk, commitment is much more than consensus. Commitment requires that your team grasps why a goal, strategy or action is necessary, and is willing …
Seeking Resilience
It can be challenging to find new leaders who can consistently meet performance expectations in our dynamic and increasingly complex work environment. Typical job postings cite requirements and experience levels, but rarely do they describe the behaviors necessary to achieve assigned goals and thrive in your business culture. The most significant performance differentiator is not what leaders do, but rather how they do it – their attitude, and how well aligned it is with your …
3 Questions People Ask About Their Leaders
Leaders rely on feedback from those they lead as one metric to gauge their effectiveness. Whether this feedback is derived from an engagement survey, or via direct conversation, the responses fundamentally answer these three questions: 1. “Do you care about me?” There’s an old adage which states: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Inspiring hearts and minds to invest their talent and energy relies on your ability …
The Quest for Transformation
The prime directive for leaders is to make things better – to improve results, strengthen culture, develop talent, nurture relationships. Some leaders see their mission as going beyond improvement, to leading a transformation of their operation or business. But transformation can result in a broad array of outcomes depending on multiple variables including the circumstances of the business, the impact of the culture, or the experience and vision of the leader. Some transformations are small …
Dialogue Shapes Team Accountability
The prime directive of leadership is to improve outcomes – by challenging the status quo, by refining strategy and inspiring its successful execution, by developing talent and culture, by strengthening the sustainability of the business – all to achieve goals that enable the business to progress. The leaders’ challenge is to cultivate the ownership and accountability for these initiatives with those they lead, which requires a devoted engagement with their team, and the nurturing of dialogue among its members. Dialogue facilitates positive momentum towards team commitment …
Effective Team Characteristics
Leaders may not always get the opportunity to choose their team members, but they can set the expectations for those they lead. Once those expectations are understood, leaders can shape their teams to develop the shared commitment and appreciation for each other that maximizes their effectiveness and is grounded in these three characteristics: How might clarity about your expectations, and these characteristics, strengthen your team?
Job Satisfaction Drives Progress
Leadership is a people business. Results are achieved by influencing and inspiring your people to ask why, take responsibility, and make a difference for customers, teammates, and the business as a whole. During this time of unrelenting change and adaptation, it becomes clearer that your people are your most sustainable competitive advantage. They are the face of your business, doing the meaningful work and delivering the experiences that build enduring relationships. Growth relies on these relationships. One system …
It’s Not The People…It’s The Leadership
We begin our careers by accepting an entry level job with specific requirements and responsibility only for ourself. If we do well, and increasingly master our assigned duties, we get promoted; if we sustain our high performance, then we continue to earn greater responsibility. Eventually, given our reliable performance and high mastery of skills, we’re promoted into a leadership role and required to lead others who are responsible for doing the tasks we excelled at doing. We’re …
