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 [...]
I’ve always believed that challenging experiences help us to grow. From that perspective, 2020 offered us a learning opportunity like no other. I don’t know about you, but I really hope 2021 involves a little less learning. So now what? While it’s tempting to block out the whole year and focus on the future, I [...]
It’s safe to say that leadership training and professional development look very different today than they did in February. (Apparently pandemics have that effect.) But as I switched my keynotes and presentations to a remote format during the last six months, I have made some important discoveries. Here are a few things I’ve found that [...]
As someone who coaches, advises and speaks to leaders for a living, I do my best to arm them with insights and strategies to handle our volatile, uncertain, and always-on world. Now, with leadership conferences and workshops cancelled due to the global pandemic, it’s time for me to demonstrate that I practice what I preach. [...]
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 [...]
I’ve noticed something interesting lately in my conversations with corporate leaders. Naturally, there are a few common themes: increasing demands and endless meetings that suck up valuable work time. (I’m guessing you can relate to that.) But when I ask these leaders how they personally contribute while in meetings, I almost always get an answer [...]
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 [...]