By Guy Harris When you move into a leadership role, you gain two related roles: supervising and coaching. While they are not mutually exclusive skill sets, they are different. Supervising demands performance while coaching gains commitment. Supervising defines goals while coaching helps others set goals. Supervising gives direction while coaching helps people … [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...]
Why Now Is the Right Time to Focus on YOUR Development
"Work from home" may be in place for much longer than originally anticipated for many organizations, and that could be by choice. Many leaders now see the value in allowing employees to telecommute. Others, who pivoted quickly and shored up their organization's IT capabilities and security so that they could operate virtually, may not be so quick to rush back to the office, … [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...]
Get Comfortable With Employees’ Mistakes
One of my favorite leadership anecdotes involves my daughter when she was just learning to drive. Several years ago, my daughter and I had to drive about thirty miles on county roads through rural Indiana. Snow was not falling on the day we made this drive. However, there was plenty of snow in the fields on either side of the roads and the wind was blowing. Under these … [Read more...]
Coaching is More Than Just Sharing Your Knowledge
You have likely risen to your current role because you have some expertise. That expertise could be in the technical nature of your team’s work, for example, you were a great sales person, so you were promoted to sales manager, or you were the top engineer so you were promoted to chief engineer. You may have proven to have superior leadership skills so you advanced, or you may … [Read more...]
What to Do When Employees Mess Up
No doubt it's frustrating when an employee does a lousy job on work you assigned him or her. As the manager, you often have to spend time revising the work, cleaning up your employee's mistakes and taking blame for the unsatisfactory work from your own boss. That is why so many first time managers refuse to delegate. After all, it's easier to just do the work yourself … [Read more...]
Become a Strong Delegator (And Take Back Your Time)
Delegation is something that every leader has feelings about. Some feel they do it well. Some don’t even know where to start. Some have seen a good example of it. Some feel like every time someone has “delegated” to them, it felt like they’d just been dumped on. Some think it is something they should do. Some resist it. Regardless of your feelings and experiences, there … [Read more...]
Analyze Yourself and Others. Just Don’t Forget This Critical Rule.
As leaders, sometimes we have to put ourselves under the microscope and analyze our behavior and qualities. Unfortunately, when most of us do that, we focus on the flaws, the things that we see that need improvement. Sometimes, it's superficial. We would like a smaller nose or less gray hair. Want to lose a few pounds or tighten up some wrinkles. What I am talking about … [Read more...]
Your Role as Mentor is Critically Important
Whether you’re an official mentor or not, the way you treat your employees can play a large part in shaping their careers. Are you building their confidence and helping them learn from their mistakes? Or are you doing the opposite? While this is probably most pertinent to your youngest workers, the way you respond to all employees can affect their future success or lack … [Read more...]