Leadership

Why are Leaders so Bad at Empathy?

At its core, leadership is a relationship. It’s no secret that connection is a key leadership skill.  If you can’t connect well, you can’t lead well.  There are many practices to strengthen connection with those you lead.  However, the most powerful is the keystone habit of empathy.  Empathy–showing people that you understand them and that … Read more

The Problem With Being the Expert

Ken has a problem. Ken’s a finance control manager within a global finance organization. Like of the leaders I coach, Ken’s very smart. In fact, when it comes to his business specialty, he’s a subject matter expert. Ken knows the work of his team inside and out. So what’s Ken’s achilles heel? Communicating clearly. He … Read more

5 Reasons You Should Admit Mistakes

Have you made a mistake at work? I’ve asked that question to numerous groups of leaders. Every hand in the room goes up. We all make mistakes. Yet why are they hard to admit? Because admitting them causes us pain. Psychologists call it cognitive dissonance: the stress caused from holding two ore more contradictory beliefs … Read more

Three Keys to Creating Candor

I work with a lot of leaders who want to be better at managing conflict. Frankly, that’s not their real issue. What they really need to do is get better at dealing with the absence of conflict. Far more teams suffer from the disease of pseudo-harmony than overt disputes. Personal attacks are quite rare. If … Read more

10 Things Jigsaw Puzzles Teach About Leading Better Meetings

Meetings. You probably spend lots of hours in bad ones. They drain time, morale and money.  It’s not just you.  A study by Bain & Company found that on average, senior executives spend more than two days a week in meetings.  In the United States,  over $25 million is wasted per day on useless meetings.  that just aren’t … Read more

Money, Power, or Freedom: Which Leads to Most Well-Being?

As a leader, you’re in the well-being business. Why? Because when people feel better (physically, emotionally, and mentally) they perform better. They’re also more motivated. Thus, it’s in your best interest to know which drivers influence well-being most. Unfortunately, the main go-to motivator in many organization is money. Now, there’s nothing wrong with money per … Read more

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