A really good question is fuel for our reflection, awareness and insight. We like to solve our own problems and good questions invite us to do that
Questions are one of the most powerful tools we have in our arsenals as leaders, professionals, parents and humans. One of my favourite stories about the power of a question comes from an interview. My final interview for a job I really wanted was with the CEO of the company. After peppering me with questions,…
How do you deal with stress?
"Every day is a new day." At no time in recent memory has this phrase been more poignant. The situation has gone from one of sudden, unexpected crisis to that of chronic, daily stress. It is emotionally and psychologically exhausting. In the workplace, the pressure to make good decisions and produce good results has never…
The good news is strategic thinking can be nurtured
I once started working with a leader who suddenly found herself on the executive team. A corporate restructuring resulted in skipping a level and now she is sitting around the table asking, ‘am I strategic enough to do this job?’ Her question is not unique. Twenty years of developing leaders has taught me there are…
Seven basic management skills to motivate your workers
For over two decades we have been training leaders to manage people by empowering them. Leaders who were authoritarian, who behaved like a parent instead of a coach, were seen as dinosaurs at the end of their era. Times change. I remember how a conversation I had with a client, an enlightened and successful leader, unfolded:…
Being offered a promotion or a chance to do something new at work may be your dream come true. But is it?
Being offered a promotion or a chance to do something new at work may be your dream come true. But is every opportunity a good one? Before you jump and say ‘yes’ ask yourself these five questions. Why me? Organizations re-assign people for a variety of reasons. Brent took two back-to-back ‘Acting’ roles and was…
By being kind, we give those around us hope and inspiration
Mindfulness is a hot trend in organizational effectiveness, with employee programs popping up in innovators like Google and stalwarts like General Mills (Why Google, Target, and General Mills Are Investing in Mindfulness, Harvard Business Review). The demonstrated benefits of mindfulness practices, such as meditation, are mounting. As good and important as mindfulness is (I am…
At mid-life, as we long to reshape our lives and careers, and do something more meaningful, we could learn a thing or two from millennials
Several years ago, I had the sudden, blessed opportunity to step off my hamster wheel – the success-oriented, fast-paced career where I put my work first and tried to shoehorn in everything else. Balance was a see-saw – when one side went up, the other went down. It was a life of sacrifice and compromise,…
Change isn't difficult. What is difficult is doing things when you don't really want to
So it's a new year. The pressure to look optimistically and confidently ahead, to resolve to change old ways and embrace the new, is palpable. The media, with tiresome predictability, are chock-full of advice from the experts on how to make and stick to your resolutions. Forget it. Most people really don't want to change,…
A leader provides his team with vision, values and guidelines critical to helping people make the best possible decisions for the company
A leader I met with once said something that has stuck with me. "Most people are trying to do what they believe is in the best interest of the organization. The trouble is they may not have the same point of view on what that is. And that leads to chaos." As an example, take the…
25 per cent of people who move into a new job will fail. Paying attention to these six common mistakes will help make sure you are not one of them
What happens when leaders take on new roles or responsibilities in their company? 'Onboarding' – the process of acquiring, accommodating, assimilating and accelerating new team members, whether they come from outside or inside the company – has focused almost exclusively on employees who join from the outside. But there is usually a lot more internal…
You don't engage your employees by handing them a report card like they are grade-school students, but by helping them paint a picture of their future
The dreaded performance review is quite possibly the most detested human resources program ever invented. It doesn’t matter what process, form or technology is in place to accomplish this task, it is always bad. And it doesn’t work – ever. The reason I know this is because I spent a year thumbing through job descriptions…
How to deal with three team-member dysfunctions that can get in the way of team effectiveness
The 'team' is probably the most complex and irritating relationship in an organization. As individuals, we seem to be able to work with most people one-on-one, perhaps in groups of threes, and also as an entity of hundreds and even thousands. Where we struggle most is when there is a medium-sized group of us clustered…
Ask yourself (and maybe someone close to you) the following questions to get a better understanding of what causes it and how to handle it
Stress afflicts us all and is a common precursor to mental distress. While there is plenty of good advice about how to manage stress, I don’t think we spend enough time talking about how to anticipate, and avoid, it. It starts with self-awareness. What is your stress profile? How each of us responds to stress…
Lessons learned on the playing field have shaped many a business leader
Professional sports teams are in a unique position - their sole purpose for being is to win championship cups and their only significant advantage is people. How does that affect how teams manage their human resources? What if companies approached human resource planning and management in the same way? Business, and society, would think about…
Here’s what you're missing if you don't listen well – and how you can improve your listening skills
Last week, my friend was lamenting the fact she was away for her 16-year-old son’s first day of school and wouldn’t be there to pick him up. Obviously, her son doesn’t need his mom there. But driving him home lets her listen to him vent. It gives her insight into what he’s thinking, how he’s…