Chances are you have a personal Facebook or Twitter account, and chances are your organization has one too. But are you personally engaging with your organization’s social media accounts? Or do you leave that to someone else?While it is a good idea to delegate social media responsibilities to select employees, don’t excuse yourself from them entirely. Check in regularly to make … [Read more...]
Kevin Eikenberry Offers Small Business Owners Leadership Advice
In an interview for the Intuit Small Business Blog, Kevin Eikenberry offers entrepreneurs and small business owners advice for developing a leadership mindset. He points out three sins every leader should avoid:Micromanaging. Eikenberry says "No one wants to be micromanaged. You aren’t the only person responsible for the work. Prepare people to succeed by providing training and … [Read more...]
Tips for Taming Terrible Teammates
Some co-workers seem to take pleasure in seething, shouting or sharing snide comments. You might think their main goal is to make teamwork unpleasant and difficult, but the truth is that they may not mean much of anything by their bad behavior.Use these tips to identify and tame four troublesome types:Mr. Angry. He knows that he’s right, so he’s never willing to back down. … [Read more...]
Beware of the Disruptor: Rescue Your Next Meeting
Few team members intend to impede the team’s progress. Yet their unintentional behaviors can really slow meetings down. Here are ways to keep troublesome types in check:The clown ridicules others, making jokes at their expense. Strategy: Redirect the team member’s attention with serious questions. But don’t try to quash the person entirely—humor is a great team asset as long as … [Read more...]
Do You Want to Become a More Influential Supervisor?
The highly popular Bud to Boss Workshop, presented by the Kevin Eikenberry Group, offers these tips to make your communication more powerful, persuasive and meaningful: Speak with people, not to them. Ask more questions. Make fewer assertions. Speak with people the way that they want to be spoken with. In this case, ignore the Golden Rule. It doesn’t matter how you would … [Read more...]
What Guarantees Success?
If you don’t feel like a “born leader,” don’t worry. Great leaders have a set of skills that can be learned, not a certain personality type. In researching the leadership skills of senior executives—including 30 of the world’s most celebrated CEOs—Justin Menkes found that three sets of skills trump personality, management style and other characteristics in predicting excellent … [Read more...]
What is Your Office Telling Employees?
Scott Elbin has solid advice for new managers Next Level Blog, but one point jumped out at me: “Pay Attention to the Artifacts.” In addition to telling new leaders to do things such as listen and learn, Elbin notes that what people see in your office sends a powerful message.Step back and look at your workspace. Ask yourself whether it is saying any of these things:I’m … [Read more...]
Stop Kidding Yourself
As a manager, you might be viewing your actions differently than your employees interpret them. That’s what a recent study from Development Dimensions International suggests when it comes to innovation. Leaders consider themselves much more open to change than their subordinates do. In the study, leaders responded to a series of innovation-related statements about themselves, … [Read more...]
Build Relationships that Aid Recruitment and Hiring
During the hiring process, it often feels like you need to have the position filled by yesterday. Don’t wait until your team has an opening to start thinking about whom to recruit. Being reactive will leave you scrambling to fill the position and probably won’t result in the strongest new hires. Develop relationships early on with these four groups to make the recruitment and … [Read more...]
Wise words: Jessye Norman on Finding Balance
I’ve been thinking about work/life balance a lot lately, so when I ran across that quote from American opera singer Jessye Norman, I knew I wanted to share it with you:Finding balance can be difficult for anyone, but it’s harder when you’re responsible for many people. If you manage a team of five, you can easily be pulled in seven different directions: five for those … [Read more...]