Difficult Conversations
Soft Skills: Not A Vulnerability
Respect may be the most important soft skill since in many ways respect opens the door for other skills including honesty, curiosity, and feeling we can safely ask questions, learn and grow. I can’t think of a job today that doesn’t need people to help each other, trust each other, find consensus, learn from each other and even forgive each other.
Change Management: Why Transformation Efforts Fail
Your change management process matters because it will be the path everyone shares. But what model should you choose? There is nothing wrong with Kotter’s eight stages or McKinsey’s seven stages. Your choice should work IF their steps are diligently completed. That said, I do like the simplicity of the ADKAR model and how each of step unmistakably embraces that people are at the centre of change.
Disagree With Respect At Work: Part II
When you and I disagree with respect for each other it becomes and opportunity to work as a productive, creative team. Especially when stakes are high these three additional approaches / building blocks can help us have successful difficult conversations and be able to disagree with respect at work, with family and even with strangers. And don't forget to check out Part I of this series for more.
Disagree With Respect At Work: Part I
Disagreement is part of every business environment. And to disagree with respect at work is a sign we are part of a healthy business culture. Whatever we experience at work will also influence our behaviour, our relationships, and our enjoyment at home. This makes it even more important we recognize our responsibility to be part of a healthy business culture that embraces disagreeing with respect.
What Is Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement or BATNA
You empower yourself by preparing one and preferably more BATNAs (options), in advance of a negotiation. Whether you are asking for a pay increase, buying a competitor company, or deciding with your partner about where to go on vacation. And when you are done defining your BATNAs, go further and define the BATNAs of your counterparts.
Work-Life Balance Requires Respect, Trust And Choice By Everyone
So many people are asking "How do you respect work-life balance?" and "Is Work Life Balance Possible?". Organizations are continuing to struggle finding ways to address the reality that for a company to succeed, employees need to feel like their leaders care about them. The question is, "What is the balance between employee needs and business needs?"
Difficult Conversations: Never Easy – Always Worthwhile
I propose it’s better to have a conversation that will be uncomfortable in the short time and give the employee the opportunity to see you as someone who cares about their personal and professional future. By having a difficult conversation and resolving conflict you are also empowering them to decide if they would like to adjust their behaviour.
How to Have a Difficult Conversation With a Hostile or Toxic Employee
Hostile, toxic employees are a drain on morale, productivity and maybe even other great, loyal employees. The easy way to manage a hostile or toxic employee is to let them be until the pressure builds and the only choice is to fire them. Unfortunately, the damage of lost employees, clients and productively – often for years – will likely be considerable. Let's discuss a better way.
Being A Great Leader Today Takes Hard Work
Being a great leader today has very little to do with being a boss and a great deal about inspiring everyone you work with. It means creating a team out of a group of individuals while still respecting and encouraging their individuality. It impacts every conversation, every email, every meeting, every goal strategy session, every difficult conversation, and every performance review.
Honouring Our Values: Letting Values Be Our Guide During Adversity
When we know our personal and professional values and what they mean to us we can consciously use our values to explore challenging situations. Our values also help us to embrace change and grow. Our values give us clarity and confidence, because getting to know our values allows us to get to know ourselves better.
What Is Servant Leadership?
Successful leaders accept they don’t have all the answers. New technology, new ways to work, new market conditions, new employee needs and new clients constantly shift our world. Servant leaders embrace this and see this insight as a positive… a superpower that their competition may not (and often do not) have. Servant leaders empower and inspire their employees to bring their whole self to work.
The Role of Empathy During Difficult Conversations at Work
Difficult conversations are always uncomfortable for everyone involved because of feelings of stress and fear. Practice empathy every chance you get. Be intentional about practicing empathy in low stress or even very happy times. Feel what it is like to be alert and intentionally mindful of what your are needing, believing and feelings and what others may be needing, believing and feelings.
My 8 Habits of Highly Empathic People
Studying empathy is important because it is what binds us together. Empathy helps build trust and respect. And even when this process is slow, when we strive to understand and trust each other we are more likely to work together to find collaborative, mutually beneficial, Win-Win solutions. The alternative is Win-Lose, and why should we settle for Win-Lose when Win-Win is an option?
How to Practice Empathy at Work
The more experiences we have feeling and learning about emotions the more capable at managing our own emotions and being able to correctly recognize and relate to those emotions in other. As adults it can be a longer process but learning how to be more empathetic starts with recognizing the need and practicing empathy.
How To Eliminate Rude, Bossy & Passive Aggressive Email Tone
Tone is one of the most important parts of our email or text messages. There are effective ways to eliminate rude, bossy and passive aggressive tone from our messages and instead build trusting, respectful, mutually beneficial relationships. The few seconds we spend getting into the habit of writing great messages will save us time and help us build a professional brand we will be proud of.
When Leaders are Poor Communicators, Who Pays The Price? Part 1
What makes a great leader communicator? A great leader communicator starts with awareness. Studies have shown that in almost every case we will rate ourselves as far greater - or far poorer (more often) communicators than we actually are. This is backed up within Harvard Business Review articles that report 69% of managers are uncomfortable communicating with their employees.
When Leaders are Poor Communicators, Who Pays The Price: Part 2
It’s easy to get busy and see only what is in front of us, but great leaders help their team and team members also stay focused on the big picture. In Part 2 of 'Who Pays The Price', I discuss 5 of my favourite ways leaders can develop effective communication skills and therefor build an inspired, high-performing team who are loyal.
You Are Asked To Meet Unreasonable Timelines. What To Do.
As a leader you often get difficult requests being made of you / your team in the future. What are your options and what should you do when you are asked to meet unreasonable timelines?
Four Rules To Be An Effective Leader
There are many great things great leaders do. Please enjoy these four rules to be a great leader that I follow in my own leadership journey and that I share when I coach other leaders who are not leaving their leadership success to chance.
Help Team Members Be Accountable
One of the most successful ways to help team members be accountable starts with creating a corporate culture people want to belong to.