Where do you and your organization spend most of your time: looking backward or forward? It seems many individuals and organizations spend inordinate amounts of time and energy looking backward. Seems as if they consider assigning blame and indulging in recriminations the best use of their time. I disagree. Continue reading »
Leadership is as much about what happens before you open your mouth as about what you say after. This post is about the before part. Continue reading »
As a coach and consultant, I spend lots of time listening to people describe their situation, their problem, their frustration, etc. My clients expect me to listen and understand their challenges. In many respects, I am a “professional listener.”
Yet, there was a time where I was hard of listening. Coming from a boisterous Cuban culture, where people tend to speak over each other and finish each other’s sentences, listening did not come naturally to me. I had to learn and practice for a long time before it became a consistent part of who I am. Therefore, I know by experience that listening - wholehearted listening - is difficult. Continue reading »
Leaders like to think they are in charge of decision making. In reality, many times they are just reacting, instead of choosing. Better decision making requires you to open a space between action and reaction. A space in which you can focus. This is one secret that leaders tend to ignore at their peril. Continue reading »
Last weekend professor Sherry Turkle wrote an article for the New York Times that elicited 307 passionate responses: The Flight from conversations. Her main premise is that “We’ve become accustomed to a new way of being “alone together.” Technology-enabled, we are able to be with one another, and also elsewhere, connected to wherever we want to be. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.”
I guess she means connection only as superficial interchanges through electronic mediums. Here we differ. For me there is no “mere” connection. Connections are what keeps the tapestry of life strong and healthy. Continue reading »
Leadership today requires collaboration, teamwork, great interpersonal communications and relationship building skills, among other things. What it boils down to is that today, as never before, we need leaders with the courage to have wholehearted conversations.
I have been reading Brené Brown's wonderful book, “The Gifts of Imperfection” and can’t recommend it highly enough. My kindle copy is full of highlights and notes. A passage about courage particularly resonates with me. The root of “courage” is cor, Latin for “heart.” And in one of its earliest forms the word “courage” meant something very different than it does today. Courage meant “To speak one’s mind by telling one’s whole heart.” That’s what this post is about. How to have wholehearted conversations. Continue reading »
Many leaders don’t like the word vulnerability, because society has tended to equate vulnerability with weakness. This weekend I attended an event in New York City to listen to Brené Brown, one of my favorite researchers on vulnerability. Today I'm going to share with you what I have learned about vulnerability as the key that opens creativity, innovation, and change. Continue reading »
