As leaders, there is no situation more commonplace than dealing with the range of emotions exhibited by your team. All leaders train and educate themselves to produce, through their actions, those emotions that are “desired” (excitement, happiness, pride, joy, gratitude, interest, hope, inspiration). However, all leaders are confronted on a consistent basis with the negative results of […]
Tag Archives: communicate
October
25
Eulogy or Casket?
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
The list of phobias that plague the average human adult is an interesting study. The effect they can have on your personal life, and your career, can be tremendous. It is human to gravitate toward the comfortable and lean away from the uncomfortable, and to a large degree, that affects how we navigate life. It […]
August
24
It’s Bigger Than You
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
The other day I had the opportunity to have a discussion about conflict. The conflict itself was fairly vague and hard to define but the net effect was a professional relationship was now being challenged. Like many workplace conflicts, the likely starting point was not a clearly visible event or definable issue but rather a slow drip […]
April
05
The Secret To Leadership Isn’t A Secret
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
There is a saying that goes “Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead”. While this may be the creed of the professional intelligence officer, in the world of the leadership of human beings by other human beings, the goal is the opposite. The temptation to keep secrets can often be the undoing of […]
March
16
The Power of Perception
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
The late Steven Covey has long been considered one of the more important voices in the self-help genre over the past few decades. His signature work, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, was first published in 1989 and has sold over 15 million copies in 38 languages. These numbers suggest that Dr. Covey’s observations […]
December
31
Of Resolutions and Such, Part 2 – How Not To Suck At Email
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
According to a 2010 study, a little short of 300 billion emails are sent daily. After deducting 90% of that figure as spam, this results in about 15 emails per day sent/received by about two billion actual users (and not computer generated ED pill salesman). With the assumption that this is not the first post of […]
December
29
Of Resolutions and Such, Part 1 – Email Sucks
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
There are several interesting articles that discuss the many reasons email sucks. From ambiguous etiquette rules, to poor expression of emotion, to the permanency of your heat-of-the-moment rants, email can be frustrating to the leader and the follower alike. From a leadership perspective, email can be a time suck that delays or even defeats your […]
October
27
You Keep Using That Word – Communicating Effectively
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
Resolving communication problems can appear to be simplistic when written as a five-step action plan. In the real world, the causes for miscommunication between yourself and another, or your entire team, may be a much more difficult issue to tackle. Depending on your emotional IQ, or your teams, no one may be even willing to […]
Up The Lazy River – Leading Others
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
The Economist recently published a blog post with a theme sure to warm the hearts of anyone who recently shelled out some coin for the latest management treatise that screamed out the need to cram 25 hours into the day and simply work your competition into the ground. “In praise of laziness” takes to task the […]
When Change Hurts
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
If you take the King’s shilling, as the quote goes, “you do the King’s bidding”. When the King starts to run out of shillings, things start to happen. One of the likely and predictable consequences of having a lesser number of shillings is the possibility that there might need to be a smaller organization in […]
Leading Others – “Whom Do I Lead? – Part II”
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
Now that we have ourselves sorted out, who is next to be led? No surprises here as it is the people around you – your team, your peers, your boss, and anyone else other than you in your organization. You lead these others in a variety of ways using varying tools and skills. By using […]
Iceberg, dead ahead!
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
In this era, public service organizations devote significant time and energy to identifying and developing mission and vision statements. They also devote time to creating strategic plans that seek to translate those statements into goals and practices. What frequently proves to be the biggest barrier to carrying this out successfully, especially when the plan represents […]
Yes…you are a Rocket Scientist – Research and Leadership Effectiveness
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
>People who lead have fascinated social scientists for over a century, which has led to more research than you can read in a single sitting. The most critical finding about leadership is that it is both a science and an art. There are clear findings about what works but equally clear findings that knowing what […]
Starting Over With Someone – Managing Conflict
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
So, your boss/coworker/employee drives you crazy? Dread the email or phone call you know will come on Monday, or after you sent out a communication? Are there certain situations you avoid because of “what happened before”? Over at “Leadership Freak”, Dan Rockwell identifies the biggest obstacle to starting over with someone whom you have crossed […]
Put me in the game, Coach! – Acting as a Coach and Mentor
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
Coaching and mentoring are two skills that all good leaders practice often and well, while the leaders at the lower end of the employee satisfaction survey…well, not so much. Is there a difference between the two? For the purposes of this post, we will treat these as different levels of focus using similar skills. The […]
Let’s have a meeting! – Communicating Effectively
posted by Jeffrey Thomason
Meetings can be a Dickensian see-saw of “the best of times and the worst of times”. Chances are, if you are the team leader, you’ll need to organize one at some point. This is an opportunity to communicate in very clear terms what the future will be for anyone tapped to attend one of your […]
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