Joni showed up at her boss Bob’s office more frustrated than he’d ever seen her. Joni was a relatively new supervisor and had been developing well, but on this day, she seemed different. When Bob asked what was wrong, her frustration came out immediately. “What do you do when people don’t want to change,” she asked. Bob smiled and asked her to explain. “You know the new … [Read more...]
How Do Your Employees Feel About Returning to Work?
For many organizations, the new norm is work from home, and for many managers and employees, there is a great deal of uncertainty about if and when they will return to an office or on-site location. If you are one of them, your transition back to the office may be completely out of your hands, but one very critical role you can play is communicating with your employees to … [Read more...]
How First-Time Leaders Can Effectively Manage a Crisis
This is a guest post by HARRY HUTSON and MARTHA JOHNSON. Being a new manager or a first-time leader can be a wild ride. Some days your heart is in your throat with trepidation, and on others it is bursting with the pride of accomplishment. Day-to-day responsibilities and task assignments are in your face. No time for what-ifs, strategic thinking, or long-term … [Read more...]
Change Course After a Terrible Start to Your Leadership Journey
If you feel like you've gotten off on the wrong foot as a new leader, don't throw in the towel, says Paul G. Krasnow, author of The Success Code: A Guide for Achieving Your Personal Best in Business and Life, "When you face a setback in your life, you have two choices: remain stuck or move forward. It's that simple." So how do you recover from a bad beginning to your … [Read more...]
Combating the Comfort Zone
Sometimes it's hard to get out of our own comfort zone to really get down to it and affect change. In today's video, I'll give you four tips to help you combat the comfort zone. https://youtu.be/56Cmv2vjtnY?rel=0&showinfo=0 Combat your comfort zone by finding something better to strive for. @KevinEikenberry … [Read more...]
A Better Way to Look at Change
Change. The mere thought makes some of us want to run and hide because change almost always requires extra effort, whether that effort is to log more hours, deal with chaos for a bit, or simply change one's attitude about something. Change takes time, energy and money, and it is usually difficult. It's normal to be skeptical of change. That said, change also creates great … [Read more...]
The New Leader’s First Team Meeting
We recently received this question: Do you have any tips for communicating with my team as a new leader? In today's video, I'm going to answer this question from a slightly different angle by helping leaders lead their first team meeting - providing ideas and solutions for how to communicate and what to communicate in this very important … [Read more...]
A Leader’s Role in Unexpected Change
In my podcast, I play a game with my guests. While I will prepare them in advance for the conversation, giving them typical questions or topics that we'll discuss, I also play on their spontaneity, giving them one word and asking them to tell me what comes to mind immediately. I believe there is a lot of value in spontaneity and we've certainly heard it on the podcast from … [Read more...]
A Smart Approach to Reduce Change Resistance and Gain Buy-In
If you lead others, you're in the change business, and that means you will face your fair share of resistance. People will reject your ideas, fight the direction you want to go, disregard your expectations for new behaviors and more. Dealing with resistance is a normal part of leadership. When you initiate change that involves other people, they will inevitably ask: “What’s … [Read more...]
7 Ways for Leaders to Successfully Navigate the Unknown
Few things are certain in this world. When you take over a leadership position for the first time, you undoubtedly will face a world of uncertainty. Everything from how to motivate your team to how you will hit your goals is essentially unknown when you first take the reins. But it's not necessarily a bad thing, says Julie Benezet, author of The Journey of Not … [Read more...]