If I had a pound every time I heard a manager say:
‘to be honest, I think it’s the quality of my leadership that’s contributing to their poor performance’…. I’d probably have about £1.30.
Last night I submitted a story to fiftywordstories.com. A platform that only accepts stories comprised of 50 words, no more, no less.
You may think this rule restricted my imagination. But you’d be wrong. I was on fire and crafted a story in record time.
It’s uncomfortable, isn’t it? No one wants to hear about their flaws. The (not so) good news for leaders is that they are often shielded from this because people stay silent. Speaking truth to power is often perceived as too risky.
It’s often less about how safe people feel and more about how clear the team are on what is acceptable. If the team feel very safe in telling sexist jokes – we don’t need them to feel less safe, instead we need the bar raised on what is OK and what isn’t.
There’s been an influx of “authenticity” content across social media, it’s all about being your full authentic self, leaning into you, embracing your flaws – you know the drill.
I achieve a lot in my business and in life without SMART goals. I know, right. I’m a coach – I should be the number one goal setter in all the lands. But I find traditional methods make me feel crap by March because they don’t dig deep enough.
If I don’t want to work in your business there’s a good chance that Mr or Mrs Ambitious, High Potential who you’ve just interviewed will feel the same way too.
Here are the top 3 reasons I will walk away from a prospect:
I hope you are all preparing to take a break over Christmas and getting a chance to reset for whatever 2023 is set to bring you and the business. Before you start noshing on mince pies please check out my 5 steps to ultimate enlightenment*
I was working towards my Ju Jitsu black belt and started teaching self-protection classes.
I talked about self-awareness and that if they were going to fight back, they should never punch with their fist (think punching a brick wall). So they slammed their open hands & elbows into the pads and channelled their inner warrior.
2 years ago Steve decided enough was enough.
His bonsai trees needed attention, he wanted to climb more, and frankly, if Covid taught us anything, it’s that life is too short. So we planned how he could shift from hands-on MD to behind the scenes Chairman.
Natural born leaders. This month I met one.
It’s like he had leadership in his bones. You know the type; they might not even manage many people, but you can tell they have the X factor.
This was a quote from my client when I spoke to him yesterday.
But last month when he shared his diary with me it was a car crash. So how did he do it?
What colour comes to mind when I say Coca-Cola?
Nobody admits on their LinkedIn profile to being an over-controlling micro-manager and there’s only a small percentage of (misguided) managers who actively choose this style.
Imagine two people in your team, let’s call them Frank and Lucy. Frank is a serial interrupter and knows he needs to button it and listen better. And Lucy blurts out solutions instead of taking a coaching approach with her team.
He fearlessly ate her croissant crumbs, before finding another unsuspecting tourist to bother. He’d decided that she was unlikely to be a bird-eating predator and so it was worth risking hopping onto the table next to her.
Several years ago, I met a CEO who talked a LOT about their Values – I have to admit I was quite impressed. But then he dumped one of his senior execs in a way that couldn’t be described as ‘showing integrity’ or ‘putting people first’. 🤦♀️
My manager had the capacity to develop my emotional intelligence, and instead, she crushed my spirit. When I finally left the company, I thanked her for the bouquet of flowers but inside I hadn’t forgiven her.
I want to share my top 3 time management hacks – but do you actually have a time management issue at all?
There’s a myth I’m keen to debunk – but I’m curious if you agree?