Before you landed your supervisory position, you could seek advice from, vent to and share ideas with just about anyone. As long as you trusted the person and valued his or her insight, any colleague had sounding-board potential. Now your situation is more complicated. On the one hand, you have a lot more on your plate, meaning a lot more you want and need to talk about. On … [Read more...]
7 Fundamentals of Successful Problem Solving
Everyone has problems. Big problems, little problems, work problems, relationship problems. Pick an area of your life, and you probably have at least one issue you are dealing with. When you step into management, you pretty much become a professional problem solver. And if you haven't received any kind of training on the subject (like many first-time supervisors), the role … [Read more...]
Find Balance When Work and Home Are in the Same Place
When you work from home, the “workday” becomes a slippery slope—especially when you’re constantly interrupted by your kids, pets, neighbors or spouses. If you’re not careful, meeting your work demands in this chaotic environment can crowd out your other priorities. Below are some healthy habits to help you take back control and protect your work/life balance in these unusual … [Read more...]
6 Ways to Stay Calm and Keep Stress Under Control
No leadership job is without stress, and when it hits, you can either spiral or figure out a way to stay calm under pressure. Diana Hendel, PharmD and Mark Goulston, MD, authors of Why Cope When You Can Heal?: How Healthcare Heroes of COVID-19 Can Recover from PTSD offers this advice to better manage your stress: Do frequent self “check-ins” When you’re busy and under … [Read more...]
Inner Peace Is the Workplace Skill Everyone Needs Right Now
No doubt about it: The world is loud, chaotic, and outright scary. And with a pandemic piled on top of political/social/economic upheaval piled on top of “normal” disruptors like AI advancements that change everything about the way we work, it’s only going to get more so. Here’s the question: How do you get heard above the chaos? Do you shout louder? Work harder? Bulldoze over … [Read more...]
Should You Ever Be Silly?
As leaders, we're often convinced that we need to be serious and put together all the time, but is that realistic or even recommended? I believe a certain amount of silliness and playfulness belongs in leadership. In part because being a great leader requires you to be transparent and real. All real human beings laugh, are playful and have fun sometimes, don’t they? Have … [Read more...]
7 Old School Workplace Strengths that Are Now Weaknesses
Ed Hess, author of Hyper-Learning: How to Adapt to the Speed of Change, says that many of the skills and mindsets that were once prized and sought after have actually become liabilities. Here he identifies seven skills and attitudes that not long ago might have gotten you a corner office—but may now get you fired: Command-and-control leadership style Expecting people to … [Read more...]
Make Your Own Luck
"The harder I work, the luckier I get." I agree with that thought. I just don’t think it tells the whole story. For example, these actions can help you generate some luck at work, at home or in any part of your life. Say “Go for it” more, and “What if it doesn’t work?” less to yourself and those around you. Learn from and even celebrate mistakes. Read … [Read more...]
How to Build Your Brand as a Go-To Person
This is a guest post by Bruce Tulgan author of The Art of Being Indispensable at Work. You need to grow to make yourself even more indispensable, by steadily increasing, expanding and professionalizing your repertoire of specialties into areas beyond your job. The more specialties you have, the more of your time you’ll be able to devote to high-impact value adding — working … [Read more...]
Motivate Yourself With a New Routine
Things have been hectic, full of uncertainty and pretty scary for months. Now, the days of summer are here, beckoning us outside. Even the normally super productive and focused leaders among us are struggling right now to manage all the change and emotions. So, if you are like so many people right now who are feeling some unease and distress, it could be because your daily … [Read more...]