How to influence and impact others virtually. In the past year, I’ve shared plenty of content about how to lead remote teams. It was an important topic before 2020, but the pandemic made it mandatory. What I haven’t talked much about is how remote team members can stand out from their counterparts and become more [...]
In 2018, we made the decision to remodel our kitchen. Now we’re in the middle of another renovation…but not by choice. As I’m sure you know, Mother Nature was not kind to those of us in Texas last month. Ice. Snow. Prolonged periods of subfreezing temperatures. (I’m trying to avoid the word “unprecedented,” but it [...]
Please join me in welcoming two guest bloggers, Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel. Kevin is a leading authority on leadership and has twice been named by Inc.com as one of the top 100 Leadership/Management Experts in the World. Wayne is the co-founder of the Remote Leadership Institute and author of several books that demystify communicating [...]
It happens all the time. I introduce myself in a social setting and share my name. Seems pretty straightforward, right? Unfortunately, no. Here’s how the exchange usually goes: "Hi, I’m Sara Canaday.” “Sara Kennedy?” “It’s Canaday with a C.” “Are you from Canada?” (usually accompanied by a chuckle and a wink) “Well, no. But it’s [...]
Last week while having dinner with a group of friends, our discussion turned to work. What came next was an interesting conversation about why anyone today would even want to be a leader. One friend shared that she was utterly exhausted by the endless cycle of new demands and the constant flood of in-box messages. [...]
I recently listened to a Harvard Business Review podcast called “The Anxious Achievers.” (Wow, there’s a phrase I can relate to!) Besides loving the title of that program, I have been drawn to the idea that we need to change the way we think about managing our stress and anxiety. Steve Cuss, author of “Managing [...]
While speed and efficiency are necessary leadership traits in our always-on, do-more world, there’s also a point of diminishing returns. If we let agendas and clocks dictate all of our meetings, we could be undermining our own efforts to encourage meaningful collaboration and innovative thinking. Consider the unfortunate impact. Many people are reluctant to speak [...]
We leaders are, by definition, doers. We finish. We deliver. We get results. And we love the feeling of accomplishment that comes with crossing things off our “to-do” lists. The tougher the task, the better we like it. We revel in being the person others come to with impossible tasks, and we somehow make them [...]
Sometimes we get into the habit of doing the same things we’ve always done. Personal and even workplace habits that once served us, can become stale and even obsolete. I’ll use my own father as an example. Since I can remember, Dad has kept a handy little logbook in his glove compartment to document the [...]
Avid gardeners know from experience that accelerating the growth of a tree…requires pruning it. To make it grow bigger, you have to cut it back. That counterintuitive principle also applies to professionals. If we want remarkable business growth, we need the courage to prune things back, our schedules, our projects, and our commitments. We must [...]