As I work with frontline leaders in our Bud to Boss workshops, I frequently hear this concern after we discuss a coaching approach, change management strategy, or communication technique: “Guy, I hear what you’re saying, and it all sounds great. I just can’t do that with my team.” It is not always verbalized the same way. It is the same basic … [Read more...]
Coaching Leaders of Hybrid Teams
by Guy Harris Coaching team members can be challenging even when everyone is in the same place. Coaching a team with everyone working remotely introduces additional challenges. And coaching a team with some members working in the office and others working remotely (a hybrid team), introduces still more challenges. Coaching a hybrid team of leaders who also lead hybrid teams … [Read more...]
Putting Out Fires: Stop, Drop and Role
I’ve worked with well-meaning, highly-principled leaders and managers for years. When the topic of coaching and developing their employees comes up, I often hear that they know coaching is important, they want to coach more, but they don’t have time because they are too busy “putting out fires.” Right now, that probably has never been more true. The pandemic put many leaders … [Read more...]
Encourage Employees to Take More Initiative
Empowerment is a great thing, especially during times of change, upheaval and disruption. Empowered employees show greater commitment, stay more engaged, and create better results. Empowered employees take more initiative and get more done than employees who work in a fear-based, command-and-control environment. As a new supervisor, you hear and read about these … [Read more...]
Being Thankful for Criticism
Thanksgiving is Thursday, and today I am asking you to choose to be grateful for something that you may have never said "Thanks" for: criticism. Especially criticism that comes from your employees. When you are a new leader, I know it's hard to hear that you aren't doing well or that your ideas are flawed. Hearing that from people who report to you can be infuriating. … [Read more...]
Showing Appreciation Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
Employee recognition is an essential element in the effort to reduce employee turnover in any organization. It is pretty obvious that everyone enjoys being thanked for the hard work and contributions they provide to their organization. So why is it that employee recognition seems so scarce in today's workplace? Don't get me wrong … I'm not trying to say that all managers and … [Read more...]
To Terminate or Not to Terminate That Employee?
I don’t think firing employees comes naturally to anyone. Many new leaders avoid making this tough call. But keeping a poor performer on staff is detrimental to your bottom line as well as your team’s productivity and morale. Your staff knows when a teammate isn’t pulling his or her own weight, and that can lead to laziness (“If she can get away with that, why am I working … [Read more...]
Building Confidence as a Coach
Your role as a leader, new or otherwise, includes being a successful coach. And like anything else in life, when we are more confident at something, we are better at it. So in today's video, I am going to give you specific, practical and proactive strategies to help you be a better coach. https://youtu.be/tuH78sq4Dus?rel=0&showinfo=0 Tweet it out: Confidence helps … [Read more...]
Making Hard Decisions
Decision making is a perennial topic for leaders. It is one of those skills that we all use every day, yet we know it is sometimes hard, and we could probably be better at it. So how can you more confident when you have to make a hard decision? Science to the rescue! Today I am using science (yes, real science!) to help you make decisions more easily and more … [Read more...]
Making Feedback Timely
We were recently asking the question, How do I make feedback timely? And it's a great question, but before I can answer it, we need to define the word timely... Check that out and the answer to the question in the video below. https://youtu.be/DYu3S1wevdA?rel=0&showinfo=0 Make feedback more timely and it will be easier to accept and apply. @KevinEikenberry … [Read more...]