Communication, Leadership, Negotiation
Do Your Words Attract or Repel Others?
To be successful as a leader, you need to be able to build relationships where people are highly motivated to follow your passion, vision, and direction. Consider for a moment the effect your words have…
Read MoreCommunication, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Leading Change
The Critical Role of Top-Down Communication
Management at all levels of an organization play a significant role in the communication that flows down to employees. Despite their best efforts, top-down communication continues to be an issue for many of the organizations we encounter….
Read MoreCommunication, Leadership, Productivity
Open Doors and Closed Minds
Many managers claim to have an open door policy. While these managers’ doors may be open, employees often find their minds are closed. Stated another way, their managers are not approachable, accessible or interested in…
Read MoreCommunication, Employee Engagement, Leadership
Are You a Leader, Manager, or Hostage?
We have come across a number of managers who fail to confront an employee’s unacceptable behaviors for a variety of reasons. Failing to hold team members accountable for their behavior results in a snowball effect…
Read MoreCommunication, Employee Engagement, Leadership
6 Steps to Building a Dysfunctional Team
If you’ve been in business long enough, you have most likely been a part of a dysfunctional team at some point. Maybe your team members didn’t communicate well with each other, or maybe they didn’t…
Read MoreCommunication, Employee Engagement, Leadership
Are You Asking the Right Questions?
My father passed away last year at 94 years-young. He was always fond of telling me, “Remember, people like you better when they’re the ones doing the talking.” Great leaders know this, and have a…
Read MoreCommunication, Leadership
The Problem with Using ‘Either-Or’ Language
We rarely consider how powerful the simplest of words can be. But the words we choose to navigate challenges in the workplace can substantially impact our successes. A manager I’m coaching recently told me, “I…
Read MoreCommunication, Leadership
How Great Executive Teams Embrace Conflict
Executive team members are not immune from conflicts with their fellow executives. How these executives choose to handle conflicts, however, is a factor that separates great executive teams from average ones. As coaches, a good…
Read MoreCommunication, Leadership
7 Ways to Effectively Deal with Constructive Feedback
Negative feedback is hard to accept, no matter who you are. As leaders, however, our ability to develop our skills and become strong, successful leaders depends on our ability to listen to feedback effectively and…
Read MoreCommunication, Employee Engagement, Leadership
What if it’s Me?
In my post Are You a Coachable Leader, I talk about how my executive coaching success rate hovers around 50%. Half of the managers I coach genuinely want to develop their leadership skills, and go…
Read More