Ever start a meeting and, pressed for time, you launch right into the agenda only to have the meeting dissolve into discord within the first fifteen minutes? There are certain practices whose pay off is far greater than the time invested in them. A quick check in at the beginning of a meeting or conversation is one of those.
Creating a Compelling Case for Change
Imagine this: Your team has designed an organizational change that will have significant operational impact. It’s a complex process and you’ve worked for months to get all the moving parts aligned. The deadline for rollout is fast approaching, you’ve run out of time, and you’ve pinned down the last details just under the wire. You all leave the final meeting exhausted but proud of your accomplishment.
Making a Connection: Easier Than You Think
Addiction: A Systemic Perspective
Sometimes, a piece of writing presents a view that is both so obvious yet so refreshing that it changes the way you think about an entire phenomena. Johann Hari’s recent article, The Likely Cause of Addiction, and It is Not What You Think, had that effect on me. Connection is a theme that has longstanding meaning in my life, yet I never considered addiction to be a disease of disconnection.
Self-Control: Limited but Renewable
Susan looked up at me with panic in her eyes when I walked into her office. “Oh, no!” she said dramatically. I thought she’d just heard about a major disaster. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “It’s 10:00, time for our appointment. I got in at 7:00 and I haven’t gotten anything done! I’m so overwhelmed, I can’t think straight. I was supposed to prepare for our session and I don’t even know what I want to talk about.”
“Why don’t we talk about this?” I said.
How Great Leaders Think: The Art of Reframing by Lee Bolman and Terry Deal
I'm reposting a beautifully written review by Michael Sales of an excellent and important book by two widely recognized consultants, researchers, and theorists in the Organizational Learning Field.
Leadership for Introverts
Altruistic Manipulation?
Before the holiday season is over, I'd like to share a video that left me with mixed feelings. I've always been a big fan of the work of Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield of Vital Smarts, the organization that has given us Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, Influencer and Change Anything. Their work has provided a myriad of powerful tools to improve communication and bring about behavioral change.
Holiday Greetings
Acknowledgment: A Powerful Tool for Positive Change
There is some interesting research on how people experience pain differently that has many useful implications. One comment by Dr. Robert Coghill really caught my attention.
Purposeful Procrastination
Do You Have a Model of Leadership?
Last week a coaching client told me he was in the process of creating a model of leadership for himself in the context of working on professional development goals in several key areas: creativity, proactive communication and strategic leadership.
His model emerged as we discussed what he specifically wanted to accomplish in each area.
Leverage
Here’s a quiz:
It’s Monday morning and your current to do list is two columns long. Do you…
…knock off the 5 things you know you can get done before your conference call in an hour (What my colleague Christine calls low hanging fruit) or
…create a plan to address the big challenge you’ve been putting off because it seems so daunting?
Of course, the answer isn’t clear cut.
Tone Matters
My leadership programs often include a segment on the impact of "triggers and amygdala hijacks" on one's leadership. This excellent article from Rick Hanson is a good reminder that tone of voice and body language can be big triggers and deserve close attention.
Your Brain on Purpose
Here’s an interesting fact: At least 11 million bits of information enter our brain through our senses each second. Our conscious mind, however, only seems able to process 50 bits of information per second. Most of what enters our brain happens outside our awareness. Rock and Schwartz note that in a world with so many distractions, a big challenge is our ability to focus sufficient attention on any one idea.
Three Dreaded Words
I recently had an interaction with someone close to me that resulted in some deep reflection. In order to protect the innocent, I’ve created a hypothetical scenario that captures the gist of the interaction.
You’re in the kitchen at work, eating your lunch, minding your own business. A colleague with whom you are close hurries into the kitchen and rushes over to you. In a loud voice, he says the three dreaded words: “Why did you…”
The Commitment Under the Conflict
My colleague, Cynthia Way, and I were having a heated discussion on a topic we both cared deeply about in the presence of her intern. We were doing a pretty good job of listening to each other but it was clear we had different perspectives. At the time, we reached what felt to me like an inconclusive resolution.
Many Kinds of Leadership
Enhancing Teamwork in Dispersed Settings
How is it possible to form strong teams when the people you’re leading work in different buildings, different parts of the country and even on different continents? Such teams may rarely, if ever, interact with one another physically. Communication may take place, at best, via video-conference and, at worst, merely via email.
We all have stories about the missteps that happen when we can’t pick up on voice tone and body language. Recent neuroscience research reinforces possible consequences of the reduction or elimination of physical interaction among team members.