In his book The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier suggests using the following seven questions to become a more effective coach. These questions work with anyone: colleagues, bosses, and family members. Ask them in order, one at a time.
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Proper delegation has a small sweet spot with two spectrums. You might under-delegate when you micromanage a delegated task. Or, you might over-delegate when you delegate projects that are too difficult or lack sufficient instruction.
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Deciding what to do is straightforward. So is figuring out how to do it. But knowing when to do it is really hard. Effective leaders develop a sense of when.
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One of my goals this year is to write a handbook on leadership. I’m woefully behind, so this article is an attempt to force some progress. I’ve spent a good bit reading about and taking notes on leadership over the last year. As of now, I think effective leadership is made up of four core elements: personal credibility, self-confidence, judgment, and an ability to inspire and sustain cooperation. What am I missing?
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When expectations are not met, great leaders do not withhold constructive criticism. They provide people with the feedback they need to make necessary adjustments. But, they do this in a thoughtful way. They’re real without being rude.
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There are few forces more powerful than incentives. Incentives drive thinking and behavior. To understand someone’s thinking, you must understand their incentives. When you encounter a behavior problem, trace the incentives and you’ll often find the root cause. Incentives are the invisible cause and behavior is the visible effect.
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Sometimes deciding not to decide is the right decision. Decisiveness doesn’t always require you to make a decision to act. It can also mean choosing to delay. What you want to avoid is the infinite deliberation that exists between these two choices. That’s no man’s land.
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In The Psychology of Human Misjudgment, Charlie outlines 25 human tendencies that can lead to poor decision-making. To combat these tendencies, he recommends making a checklist you can reference when you’re making an important decision. I’ve converted my notes to this simple checklist. I hope it helps me avoid bad decisions by helping me become aware of how these tendencies might be affecting me.
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Want to help someone? Try acting like a dummy.
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We all have scars. They are evidence of life, mortality, and learning. Visible outside is experience and vulnerability. Hidden inside is wisdom.
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As a leader, it’s important to be self-aware. But every time I think I’ve figured myself out, someone exposes a blind spot.
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I’m beginning to form an opinion of what characteristics make up the ideal leader. The image is still blurry, but it is looking a lot like what Jim Collins refers to as a “Level 5 Leader”. Here’s a matrix to visualize how I’m thinking about this.
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When attendees don't agree on the purpose of a meeting, bad meetings happen. Perfect conditions brew for impatience and unhealthy conflict. Attendees try to complete competing objectives and nothing gets done. If you’re having unproductive meetings, attendees may be working toward conflicting objectives. Try stepping back and getting everyone to agree on a clarified purpose for the meeting.
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People say patience is a virtue, but I find it more useful to define it as a skill. Patience is the ability to wait for something without becoming frustrated. Sometimes exercising patience is difficult. When we’re forced to wait, we become impatient. When we’re impatient, we expose our frustrations via body language, words, and actions. Our emotions take control. Why do we become impatient and what purpose does it serve?
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There are times when teamwork is easy. Teamwork is easy when all team members are aligned and share a common view of the outcome they’re trying to achieve. But much of the time, teamwork is hard.
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Humans are social bonding mammals. We bond as friends, lovers, communities, teams, and organizations. We bond to feel safe. We bond to procreate. And we bond to achieve great feats. We build our strongest bonds with a skill called empathy.
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Experts believe trust is the core foundation of strong interpersonal relationships, teams, and organizations. There are many loose definitions of trust. But if we are going to increase trust, we need a precise definition to work from. After reviewing hundreds of different explanations of trust, I propose we use this definition.
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