A Key Skill
One of the things I enjoy about partnering with professionals is the vulnerability with which we enter into the coaching partnership. As one client recently said, “I need a therapist for my professional life.” She is focused on ways to manage her professional life better so that it doesn’t suck her dry, while designing her […]
The Sisemic Shift
Middle management is facing a tremendous shift. Over the past year or so, I have spoken with several managers who have been struggling as they manage larger teams. The old formula had four to seven people reporting to one manager, with the ideal being number at the lower end of that range. It seems that […]
Roadblocks in leadership
When coaching a client, “Frank,” who was having trouble with another senior leader in the organization, three things became apparent. My client and his colleague are both highly emotional beings and lead with their emotions. Frank sees the world through his feelings first and is unable to distinguish between facts and emotions because his emotions […]
How challenging is this for you?
The other day, a leader told me he planned to fire someone his company had promoted just a few months ago. What struck me was how quickly someone can go from being a “rising star” to being let go. As managers, we need to ask ourselves: What role did I play in this outcome? Although […]
Does this bother you too?
We live in a dynamic time, with technological advances happening at a dizzying pace. So, why do professionals still make typos in their correspondence? I received an email where the client used “mixed” instead of “missed” and “or” instead of “out”. I had to read it twice to make sense of her communication. Utilize the […]
Why do we assume we communicate effectively?
Effective communication is much more difficult than we think. The other day, I met a colleague for coffee to discuss a project she is passionate about. “Suzy” tried to convince me to join her mission, mistakenly assuming she communicated effectively. She didn’t. She was pushy, barely let me speak, was argumentative (in a lovely, Southern […]
What is your tolerance for change?
I confess, I am a change junkie. Mistakenly, I thought everyone else was a change junkie too. What a mistake. Right now, unprecedented change is taking place, and many of us are uncomfortable with it. This change is impacting most, if not all, of my clients. One wise senior leader I have the privilege […]
This is basic, so why do managers miss it?
A few weeks ago, I ran a trust-building workshop for a team that is struggling. The team lead shared that he thought everything was fine and that the only challenge with the team was that they were hesitant to share their thoughts in a group setting. The reality is that problems on this team ran […]
Why can’t companies do the right thing?
Last week, a 27-year-old nephew called me to say he lost his job as a manager of nine in IT. After being with the company for over six years and being promoted four times, “James” was fired without warning. Called into the VP’s office on Tuesday morning, he was ambushed by HR, his AVP, and […]
How important is this to you?
In Patrick Lencioni’s famous book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, lack of trust is the #1 foundational problem on any team. It is so fundamental. If you don’t trust your colleagues, the team will accomplish a fraction of what it could otherwise. One team member I am currently working with said the team would […]