Last month I wrote about the way we tend to make things personal when we run into conflict or challenges at work. This month, I want to offer a simple tool for understanding and addressing those sorts of breakdowns. It’s called the Waterline Model, and I have found it extremely useful over the years in…
“Presence” is a buzz word in the worlds of leadership and executive coaching these days. A simple Google search will yield dozens of blogs and coaching sites and articles on the topic, some interesting, some little more than fluff. But what does “leadership presence” really mean? Why does it matter? And how do you cultivate…
About 15 years ago, back in my dancing days, I attended a workshop led by Frankie Manning, considered one of the founding fathers of lindy hop. Manning danced and taught his entire life, and was probably in his early 80’s at the time of this workshop. Despite his age, his mastery and energy were on…
One of my recent clients, whom I’ll call Mary, complained that she couldn’t count on her team to produce the work she needed from them. She said that every time she gave them an assignment (for example, producing the budget reports she needed for year-end reporting and planning), she wasn’t satisfied with what they delivered.…
If you look, you can find myriad articles and books in the leadership field about the importance of paying attention. (Try a quick Google search using “paying attention leadership” if you don’t believe me.) Different authors enter the subject through different doors – the focus might be on skillfully managing the constant flow of email…
A few months ago I wrote about three fundamental leadership skills: taking clear stands without steamrolling, staying connected to others, and managing your reactivity. Lately I’ve begun to think that I missed one, that there’s a fourth skill that leaders have to have to be truly successful, and it has to do with learning. Why…
As I’ve written before, one common challenge many teams face is the endless loop of discussion that never leads to decisions. No action will take place without that first step. Even when teams succeed in making decisions, though, there’s another common obstacle to effective action, and that’s lack of follow through. Do you know what…
One of the more common complaints I hear from leaders and teams alike is, “nothing ever moves forward around here.” People describe how discussions go on and on, or get revisited in meeting after meeting, without ever leading to a decision. (Or, decisions get made but there’s no follow through. I’ll cover this in an…