Leadership Coaching
Living Systems and High-Impact Listening
A living system is any group of people who spend time together and therefore become “emotionally wired together.” A Living System is the people and the stuff that connects the people in a defined group.
Read MoreVulnerability and the Johari Window
Remember the Johari Window? Many of us were introduced to the Johari Window in the chapter on Feedback. If you went back to your slides, you would notice that there are 4 quadrants. In the upper right is the “I know, You know” box. In the lower right is the “I know, You don’t know”…
Read MoreWhy Feedback Is Uncomfortable — and What To Do About It
Many people struggle with giving negative feedback because they don’t want to hurt the other person or strain the relationship. But plenty of people struggle with giving positive feedback to others.
Read More“The Emperor’s New Clothes” and the Need for Feedback
It’s easy to laugh at the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes and at how ridiculously the characters behaved, but I believe that we live out this story every single day.
Read MoreAn Unfair Advantage, Part 2
(This post was first published here on May 29, 2017.) Last week I shared some observations I’ve noticed over many years of studying leaders regarding what gives some of them an unfair advantage over others. Here’s a reminder of what I shared: These leaders don’t worry about who gets credit for significant accomplishments. These leaders…
Read MoreBeing a Follower Worth Leading
Yes, I wrote that correctly. Not only do we need to be leaders worth following, we also need to be followers worth leading. It takes two to tango, so if there is a leader, there is also a follower. Of course the great majority of what we do is focused around what it takes to…
Read MoreCircle of Safety
Three years ago I read Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek and enjoyed many aspects of it. One concept that stirred me up was his contention that people need to work in a “circle of safety” where they don’t ever have to worry about being fired. Sinek’s belief is that people who are concerned about…
Read MoreThe Three Ears of Great Listening
Great listening is hard work. When done well, listening will yield huge dividends. If you are not fatigued after a period of focused listening, there’s a pretty good chance that you weren’t listening as well as you could have been. When we covered high impact listening in LEAD 365, we did so in the context of…
Read MoreThe Care and Feeding of Leadership
Take your time. It is the fastest way to achieve your goal. At the end of LEAD 365, many of you were given a bonsai tree. We gave you the tree to remind you that leadership takes ongoing care in order to flourish, much like the tree. But there are even more parallels to great…
Read MoreThe Common Phases of Growth
As I age and become more aware of people over 60 I see two kinds of older people: those who are curmudgeons and those who are amazing. My theory for why this happens is that real, deep change is hard, and I suspect that it gets even harder the older one gets. Those who refuse…
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