I was in a CEO’s office recently when she told me something startling. Tina confidently informed me that she had checked in with her direct reports and they had assured her that company morale was high.
Her message surprised me because I had spoken to several people on the front lines of the company who told me the exact opposite. They were frustrated about a perceived lack of communication and clarity.
The CEO of a tech company was under pressure to make the presentation of his life.
Despite the company’s success, it was at a pivotal moment in its history. Company leaders felt they had created a transformative new product, but they had to get the rest of the world to agree. The CEO was about to deliver a keynote address to reveal the product to shareholders and customers, and he knew he had to nail his pitch.
Then, he did something unexpected.
A couple of years ago, my then-coach Dawnna was guiding me on growing the speaking side of my business. She asked me, “What have you done to educate yourself about the speaking business?”
I listed the numerous workshops I’d attended and books I had read on the topic. It became immediately clear that the knowledge I had taken in far exceeded the results I had achieved up to that point. She stared at me for a moment, and then said, “The first thing you need to do is stop reading books until you actually apply what you’ve already learned.”
How can I use my authority without being perceived as authoritarian?
In my work with executives and managers, I’ve encountered variations of this question frequently. It’s a common scenario for thoughtful leaders who must make decisions that could adversely impact others.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about what really creates employee engagement.
According to Gallup, companies with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 147%. Engaged employees are generally more committed, productive, and likely to stay with the company, leading to improved performance and reduced turnover costs.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how right-sized confidence can be the difference between failure and success.
One of my coaching mentors used to be a confidence coach. He would meet with people and try to help them become confident in one session, hoping they would leave ready to boldly venture where they had previously feared to go.
Of course, these sessions had their limitations.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the leader inside all of us. Occasionally, people tell me that they “aren’t leader material.” Sometimes this idea comes from false humility. Sometimes it is an expression of the residual trauma of working for a poor leader. And sometimes it’s simply a failure to recognize the ways in which that person is already leading.
Lately, I’ve been contemplating a recent study about employee turnover. A report by the Corporate Executive Board found that companies with strong career development programs had a 20% lower turnover rate compared to companies with weak or no career development programs..
That got me thinking about the difference between leading like a chef and leading like a gardener.
If you took every business conversation about remote work and extracted the essence, you’d find something like this…
Company Leaders: We want people back in the office.
Team Members: Umm, not so fast…
Warren Buffett said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.”
Most of us would agree with Buffet’s line of thought, but that doesn’t make it easy.
When you are conditioned to live in the land of yes, no feels confrontational. It feels like a fight.
But no is the vanquisher of burnout.
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