As LionSpeak continues to grow, my team must grow also. Apparently, this presents an opportunity disguised as a challenge for me. Every time we add a new person, I’m eventually, if not immediately, confronted with my own personal leadership abilities (or lack thereof). I learn and relearn that everything they contribute which delights and pleases me is due to a …
The Space Between
I facilitate an exercise with groups where I ask everyone to write down a quote from a book, movie, play, or song that had a profound impact on them personally. We use the quotes throughout the day in a variety of ways. So far, I’ve not met anyone who didn’t have one. Mine is easy to recall because when I …
Become the Leader Others Want to Follow
Leadership is the number one skill professionals need to master to create the career and life they want. Leadership trumps every other skill you need. Everyone can become a great leader. And, it’s not as hard as you’ve been led to believe. Recently, a new dentist told me, “My father was a natural-born leader. My mother was not. I think …
Everything Else…
If we aren’t paying attention (and sometimes even if we are), there are three things that happen naturally in all companies: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Friction is a naturally occurring state that happens when you have more than one person working in a company. Hire two or more people, and at some point, you’re going to experience some friction. Friction …
Running the Leadership Marathon
If you want to run a marathon, life will not hand you the trophy. It will hand you a pair of running shoes. I read this quote on one of my social media channels recently, and it got my attention because it’s so applicable in business and in life. If you’ve taken on the role of leader in your business …
Tasks vs Results
We’ve probably all had at least one of these handed to us in our professional careers: a job description. It lists the duties we were hired to complete. A good one lists the tasks in detail and aids us in assuring we meet expectations. However, even a well-written job description is only half the information we need to understand what …
Complaining or Coaching?
“Nobody wants to work hard anymore.” “There’s no more team loyalty.” “I can’t seem to get anyone to go the extra mile.” “Why can’t my team be more self-motivated?” These statements and many more like them are ones we hear from leaders and managers all the time. They are all important. They are critical to solve. They are all true …
Moving from Pressure to Belief
Someone recently said to me, “I hate the word accountability because it seems so punitive.” They preferred terms such as responsibility and commitment because, to them, they seemed more positive. I found this sentiment interesting because it reveals an underlying belief that I encounter frequently as a leadership communication coach: the assumption that to obtain accountability from our people, we …
Tip of the Spear
You’re waiting. You just wish it was different. You wish your teammate helped out more. You wish the meetings accomplished more and were more fun. You wish you’d get a raise. You wish your office manager would let go of the one mistake that you made months ago. You wish your spouse was more romantic and spontaneous. You wish your …
A Jar Full of Love
Pet peeves. We’ve all got ’em. I hate it when guys leave the toilet seat up and I fall right into it in the middle of the night. I hate it when someone takes the last of anything and doesn’t restock it or add it to the grocery list. I hate it when the express checkout lane of 15 items …
