Want to be highly effective as a leader? Be coachable
When moving up the corporate ladder, many leaders lose the ability to be coached. Seniority, both in level and age, impacts the level of coachability negatively. Despite having plenty of experience, this paradox makes it difficult for them to adjust and learn new things. They develop blind spots. And yet coachability is key for any leader, regardless of age or level, to be an effective leader. In fact, research by Zenger and Folkman,...
Trust and the bottom line
Sarah was frustrated. She had noticed that her team members often seemed dismissive about the importance of her work. Why are they not interested in my work? Does what I do not matter? Sarah felt angry, defensive and helpless, which made things even worse. Subsequently, she didn’t want to work with them and started to avoid them, further negatively impacting communication and team spirit. The disconnect between her and most of...
Time for some new perspective?
Are you lacking in inspiration and motivation? How much time do you spend on actively choosing new perspectives to get new ideas and delivering new innovative solutions? We are all creatures of habit; that's perfectly normal. But we can – if we want – choose to challenge ourselves to break those habits by doing something different, by seeing something different – to trigger new thoughts and ideas and force us to be more innovative and...
Your impact is your legacy
You may have a lot of strategies for the business, change initiatives, cost saving, or growth. So why not have a strategy for your impact? Do you know what impact you are having at work? Do you know what kind of ripple effect you create around you? Do you know how you make others feel? For the last 25+ years, we have worked with many hundreds of leaders around the world, and we have taken great interest in the importance of leadership...
5 things generous (=successful) leaders do
Having team members who don’t freely and generously share what they know is a challenge most teams face. And yet, a team can't afford not to share their thoughts, ideas and experience. Sometimes people don’t make the link between lack of generosity and not getting as good a result as they could have. And yet, the link is real. Workplaces need to be generous places. As a leader, you can show the way for what generosity means and what...
STOP chasing perfection
A reporter once asked a very successful businessman:“What is the secret to your success?”The man replied: “Two words”.“And they are?”“Right decisions”“OK, I see—and how do you make the right decisions?”“One word”“And that is?”“Experience”“I see, and how do you get experience?”“Two words”“And what are they?”“Wrong decisions” We love this story. In it the perils of chasing perfection are perfectly described. So many people have...
