I did some impromptu soul-searching recently when Drew McLellan posted this prompt on social media: “I got a note…from a 17-year-old entrepreneur from Scotland, asking me what I wish 17-year-old entrepreneur me had known. “I am certainly going to offer him my advice, but I’d like to share yours as well. “What would you want … Read more
A client, Ajit, turned me on to a great resource for understanding logical fallacies. I had been talking about biases and fallacies recently, an area that has interested me ever since my friend Nick loaned me the most accessible book I’ve seen on the subject, You are not so Smart by David McRaney. In my … Read more
Curtis H. sent me a question via Linked-In: “As a previous leader in my fraternal organization at University, I found staying positive and bottling complaints overwhelming at times. If leaders shouldn’t show insecurity or vent around their followers, then is there an appropriate way to relieve those feelings?” Excellent question, Curtis. There are definitely inappropriate … Read more
I recently read an article by Scott Warrick containing a practical model for looking at trust development. It’s helpful, and I’m highlighting the coolest point. “Seek out points of disagreement with people, then make the disagreement safe.” I’ve written about the importance of making discussions safe, but Warrick’s point is to find small things to … Read more
In Westernized societies, we have quite the bias toward extraversion, and this can hurt organizations. My assistant (an introvert) and I (an extravert) recently had a conversation about extraversion bias we thought we’d share with you. Extraversion and Leadership DeAnne: It’s interesting to me how, during a session when you ask people about the qualities … Read more
You’ve read a lot on this blog about feedback and how to give it. I’ve often reiterated how the old “compliment sandwich” is tired, transparent, and holds the possibility of backfiring. First, let’s review what a compliment sandwich is and isn’t. The compliment sandwich is an attempt to give tough feedback between two bits of … Read more
My sixteen-year-old daughter made an observation during a trip to Disney World that may be helpful to you. She believes the phrase “you too” is a frequent automatic response to parting words from service people. Some phrases, however, don’t work well with this automatic response and leave the customer feeling awkward. Examples of accidentally awkward … Read more
In a recent team-development session, we made some important growth happen. Growing as a team isn’t arbitrary, and it doesn’t happen without real, hard work. And it especially doesn’t happen when the team lacks vulnerability-based trust. As with building trust in any type of relationship, trust doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, building trust is a … Read more
New to conference calls? Intimidated by the video that went viral a while back? Seven tips for better conferencing. First, restrict small talk to the first few minutes and be ready to get down to business. Second, outline the agenda with quick bullet points. Identify who will take the lead on each topic. Third, early … Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I was challenged to provide five minutes of content that would make a difference for leaders. Because of the power of questions, I decided to come up with three questions that are easy to explain but would have a lot of power. Here’s what I presented: Leaders move fast and … Read more