With respect to an issue related to COVID-19, a colleague recently emailed me “Thanks for your leadership on this.” My immediate reaction was “I don’t really feel like I’m leading anything. I feel like I am riding in a whitewater raft – and the waves are treacherous!” The current environment is a lot like a whitewater raft voyage: *Lots of unknowns – who knows what is … [Read more...] about “Leading” a Whitewater Raft
Teamwork
Compassionate Coaching for Change
At some point, one of your direct reports or colleagues is going to need to change their behaviors in order to meet a challenge or move to the next level. You have an opportunity to support and assist them using “Compassionate Coaching.” The “Compassionate Coaching” approach is detailed in a recent Harvard Business Review article* and includes the following ideas: *Spot … [Read more...] about Compassionate Coaching for Change
Retaining Your Best Talent
The continued low employment rate means that even some of your talented team members who are not looking to leave, could get recruited away. This is the topic of a recent article* in The Wall Street Journal with some suggestions on how to make sure you have given them reasons to stay. Here are some of the author’s ideas: *Improve Their Space. So many organizations have … [Read more...] about Retaining Your Best Talent
Coaching Your Team
In the olden days . . . once you were identified as being great at what you did you were made a manager. You taught others how to do it right – just like you did. It was a command and control world. As it turns out, this was never a good idea because you did not let others flourish by using their natural talents to create their own “best way” – but it is an even more … [Read more...] about Coaching Your Team
Six Collaboration Tools
We know that improved collaboration among people in an organization can increase innovation and productivity. But making that happen has proved challenging for most. But there is hope: “Being receptive to the views of someone we disagree with is no easy task, but when we approach the situation with a desire to understand our differences, we get a better outcome.”* (p. … [Read more...] about Six Collaboration Tools