As a leader, how do you sharpen your focus? The most effective leaders work on their self-development: they enhance their mindset, value and purpose. They make the most progress by cutting through the clutter, looking at the big picture and making basic, yet profound adjustments. As I wrote in a previous post, the first step…
People who are poor listeners are generally not difficult to spot. They are often easily distracted, fail to focus on the present, offer plenty of free advice, minimize the feelings of others, and are quick to fill any silence with their own ideas. Colleagues, co-workers, and even clients have labels for poor listeners. Have you…
Humans learn to sift and sort at any early age. We learn coping methods to drown out distracting movements and sounds. In the process, we often develop the habit of selective listening. As a result, we often miss important cues, or even direct communication. While the art of listening is not taught in traditional MBA…
Are you experiencing leadership drift? I wrote about this in my last post. As the word implies, “drift” is a loss of direction or purposefulness. I often encounter this in my work as a coach. Of course, any pattern of behavior that reduces leaders’ impact or influence is cause for concern. Leaders who have forgotten…
Many people agree that our culture is growing more impatient, selfish, disrespectful and ungrateful. Those who haven’t noticed are likely not bothered, and may be contributing to these disturbing tendencies. Not exactly glowing statements on our day and age. I see these attitudes and behaviors also visible in every corner of the working world, as…
As a coach, it’s easy to spot the signs of a disrespectful culture. A work environment where leaders disrespect their people has both obvious and subtle indicators. Generally, the disrespectful traits of the leader migrate down the line to the employees, since the culture is reflective of the leader. When disrespectful traits are widespread, the…
Everyone I talk with is familiar with the narcissistic type leader, but not many people understand precisely how the term can apply in both a positive and a negative sense. Mostly the term is bandied about to describe all sorts of negative and destructive behaviors. I think we can explore how productive narcissistic personalities help…
Leaders with habitual skepticism are not hard to spot: they suffer with the “not-invented-here” syndrome, habitually skeptical of the ideas of others. I’ve been writing about the types, causes, and ways to defeat skepticism. What I’ve found in my coaching practice is that the best leaders know that they don’t have all the answers—no one…
Many of us confuse empathy with sympathy. Sympathy is feeling for a person. Empathy is feeling with a person—an important distinction. When we’re empathic, we put ourselves in others’ shoes and imagine the world from their perspective. Humans have an innate ability to do this. The mirror neurons in our brains pick up other people’s…
The most challenging part of growing brilliant leaders who will thrive in 21st century business is coaching the inner game of leadership. In order to improve their ability to lead effectively, today’s leaders must adapt to rapidly changing demands in the market while continually developing their strength of character. All effective leaders learn to master…