Once a year our society forces us to think about love and relationships. Valentine’s day is supposed to be about heart. Today I want to show you that leadership should also be about heart. Leading from the heart is the best way to lead. Continue reading »
Many look up to leaders as people that have all the right answers and know what they are doing with certainty. The reality is that if you think you know it all, you stop learning and growing and will eventually fail.
Uncertainty. . . Being willing to doubt, can be a good thing for leaders. A few years back there was a book by by Gail Blanke called "Between Trapezes." The metaphor of the trapeze aptly applies in leadership, and in life. To be uncertain requires that we leave behind our personal and professional certainties.
Living in the gap, between two trapezes, is the chance to find out who we truly are and who we can be. It is the need to let go in order to grab something else. This could be very frightening. Nobody likes the idea of falling, of “humiliation,” of others looking on and discovering we are not sure if we can breach the gap.
That moment of uncertainty can also be a moment of exhilaration. A freeing space where you don't have to hang onto any certainties. It's a space where you can be creative, wildly alive, with your eyes in the next adventure, ready to grab what comes close to you.
The worst thing you can do when stuck is to focus on how stuck you are! It's best to use your brain and energy on devising and carrying out a plan to get unstuck.
Focusing only on all the reasons why something doesn't work sucks away every body’s energy and doesn't help to move things forward.
Here are seven behaviors that I teach my clients for gaining momentum and getting unstuck.
I’m often called to help when individuals or organizations are trying to change something but feel they are stuck. You know the feeling. It’s like those nightmares where you want to run but your feet can’t move.
They know what needs to change. They have a plan for change. They have a clear vision about how it will look after the change is implemented. But nothing is happening. Are you stuck?
According to the Harvard Business Review, 71 percent of senior executives in major global companies ranked horizontal boundaries as their biggest challenge. Chris Ernst says that working across barriers of function and expertise, rather than above or below them — were the main worry of senior executives.
For leaders, during a merger, in coordinating disparate functions, in integrating a foreign division, a conversation across the fence was more effective than a "do it or else" series of commands to subordinates.
Seems that "Silo busting" has become crucial for success in today’s business world.
This week I have been conducting a workshop about transformative conversations. We talked about instances where people feel energized and more productive, as opposed to feeling stressed and not productive.
As a leader, your conversations become relationships. Taking responsibility for your thoughts, emotions, and for the message you need to deliver will allow you to speak with clarity, conviction, and compassion. How people feel after a conversation with you will determine if they will want to develop a relationship with you or not. It also affects the trust that develops. When relationships are on the line, there are no trivial comments.
