Asking questions is a valuable leadership skill, and it trips you up. Some challenges that I’ve heard other leaders say about asking questions: What questions do I ask? I’m not sure that they are meaningful enough. But I know how to solve the problem – why wouldn’t I tell them what to do? I feel … Continued
Image In a workshop, I was approached by a new manager who said, “I am new to managing, and managing people is one of my weaknesses – what can I do?” I shared that Managing People is Everyone’s Weakness …. and below are 8 ideas I shared for leadership. Managing People is Everyone’s Weakness There are … Continued
In the middle of a meeting with an executive leadership team, the COO yells, “we need to state our company’s goals clearly; only then can the staff have the motivation to complete their work.” This is true and not true at the same time. Much of the leadership development and planning literature states goal setting as … Continued
Managing Up is a leadership skill that you must develop “Contrary to popular legend, subordinates do not, as a rule, rise to position and prominence over the prostrate bodies of incompetent bosses. If their boss is not promoted, they will tend to be bottled up behind him. And if their boss is relieved for incompetence … Continued
Solution-Focused Leadership Coaching – Stop the why ‘Why’ is an instinctive question. Asked hundreds of times daily in organizations, much of it is helpful. It is essential to understand why a manufacturing process has failed, why a car broke down or why your fire alarm went off. It can be enlightening to see why people … Continued
At any given moment all of us, whether in work, personal relationships, or anywhere else in life, are Rote Copying, Surface Understanding, and Personally Mastering many things and many times at many levels.
“… why does a subject need a Master to assume their freedom? Does such an assumption amount to the kind of pragmatic paradox wherein the very form (a Master gives me freedom) undermines the content (my freedom)? Should we not rather follow the well-known motto of all emancipatory movements: freedom cannot be handed down to us … Continued
Leadership coaching can have many areas of focus. I feel a significant focus ought to be what the coachee’s direct manager wants to see different and how the manager will know that these differences have happened. You may choose not to involve the coachee’s immediate manager in the coaching; I think that is … Continued
A client using the SOLVED solution-focused cards called me and had some questions. He was unsure how to use the cards in coaching himself through a challenge. That presented an opportunity for us to use the SOLVED coaching process and see what happens. The image above is the six SOLVED questions he randomly pulled, plus we … Continued
Core Values of an organization – Are all the meetings, time, flip-chart paper, and boredom worth it? When I began a recent contract, Human Resources told me, “We have no core values, and that is tearing this company apart.” After holding 40+ one-on-one interviews and sitting through 55+ hours of meetings, I knew it had … Continued