Beware the 30-minute meeting—or the 60-minute meeting. Setting up time blocks that go straight into the next block’s beginning have these results for the heavily-scheduled: No time for a restroom break, so when you take one, you’re late. Growing apprehension that you’re missing an urgent voice mail, email, or progress update. Rushing from one room … Read more
At the Business Record’s “90 Ideas in 90 Minutes” event from September 2017, Miriam De Dios of Coopera made a case for organizations of any size to implement “Personal Development Plans for All.” Most organizations do some kind of development plan for people in, or preparing for, leadership roles. But what if everyone had a plan? People on … Read more
If we’re not careful, we might let debate become about winning and losing. And when that happens, we are distracted from finding the truth and end up in a political battle.
People who offer more praise look for opportunities to compliment others and recognize their contributions. Some leaders think that praise is a waste of time, or that good work is enough of a given that praising good work will make it seem like acceptable performance is somehow exceptional. But this flies in the face data … Read more
A way-too-common leadership behavior is the opposite – maintain harmony. “I don’t want to sweat the small stuff.” “I hate confrontation.” “They’ll figure it out eventually.” “Maybe a gentle all-staff email will help.” Great leaders develop fantastic relationships and address problems as they occur. A true story, from a tall building in downtown Des Moines: … Read more
Sometimes we know we should invest a lot of time in year-end evaluation, but we’re overwhelmed or tired. Here’s an idea to make it both easy and productive: Top Three/Bottom Three Gather your team, or just your calendars, and pick one of these areas: Initiatives Events Projects Customers Clients Weeks Months Pick your top three, … Read more
Early in my teaching career, a guidance counselor gave me brilliant advice when exploring the reasons why someone made a decision. It was counter-intuitive: Resist asking “why“. He explained the reasoning by asking me to think about what “why” opens up – the prepared answer, the agenda, the (by definition) inner thoughts and motives that … Read more
Last week, I shared some ideas from one of the speakers at the Des Moines Business Record’s “90 Ideas in 90 Minutes”. This week, I’ll do the same with Bob Riley, the CEO of Riley Resource Group, which is an interesting organization in its own right. Here are some of my favorites: Hire disruptors with … Read more
Non-profits often have the challenge we explored last week: constraints. Constraints include lower budgets, impact of economic downturns on funding and volunteer efforts, and cycles driven by major programs. For these reasons, they come up with creative ways to maintain success and engagement. Even if you don’t lead in a non-profit, many of their ideas … Read more
When I was a band teacher, we experienced a staff cut. In 10 years, the department went from 7 teachers serving about 500 students to 5 teachers serving 600. The superintended gave us that left-handed compliment that’s supposed to reassure us while also keeping us quiet: “If anyone could do this, you can. We believe … Read more