There is a lot of good literature on how to develop a high-performing team, e.g. The Wisdom of Teams by J.R. Katzenbach and Gordon K. Smith. In this article I focus on five essential steps you need to take to ensure your team is moving in the direction you want it to. Step 1 Make…
Category Archives: communication
7 Success Tips for Communication
Since we influence people through our words or actions, our communication style plays a big part in our effectiveness as a leader. In this blog article I outline seven ideas that come up time and again in my work with leaders. Tip #1 There is an “I” in Leader Clarity is a hallmark of good…
The Top 10 Mistakes Leaders Make Developing their People, Part 2
Mistake #6 Micro-management beats trust Some leaders unintentionally take a leaf from Lenin’s playbook (“trust is good, control is better”) and control every single step their people take. While this strategy has its place in an early phase of development, it is counterproductive with good and experienced people. With them you need to agree the…
Delegate tasks effectively – a quick guide
You got to where you are because you’re excellent at what you do. Now you face the challenge that you have more to do than you can deal with, so you need to delegate tasks to other people. People who may not match your skill and enthusiasm levels. In his book The Tao of Coaching,…
How to Give Feedback
This is a refresh of the article Giving Feedback that I blogged back in 2007. Giving feedback is a lot more challenging in practice than it seems. It requires attitude, timing and technique. Let’s look at attitude first: What’s the purpose in giving someone feedback? To let off steam? Then, I button my lips. To…
The Leadership of Letting Go, Part 9
The second path to curiosity for leadership is to view things from another person’s perspective. It’s a common pitfall not to do this. In a recent coaching conversation, a manger was telling me about how one of their direct reports had turned hostile and rude. They couldn’t understand why. As we talked further, it became…
The Leadership of Letting Go, Part 8
Managers have answers; leaders ask questions. Lawyers only ask a question (in court) when they already know the answer; leaders ask questions to which they don’t have the answer. They are curious. This curiosity pays dividends. By asking questions, leaders engage their followers and tap into the knowledge and experience of their team. They have…
Leadership Lessons from a Presidential Campaign Manager
David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign, addressed the German Project Management Forum in Berlin yesterday via satellite. I was busy translating for colleagues who couldn’t keep up with his (for non-native speakers) slightly too fast delivery. I’d no time to take notes, so this is just a a rough summary. The speech…
He wants Subjects, Verbs and Objects
Nice interview with Richard Andersen, CEO of Delta Airlines, in today’s NY Times, “He wants Subjects, Verbs and Objects” . He talks about the importance of communication skills and the dangers of Powerpoint –people get used to talking in bullets and begin to lose the ability to formulate complete sentences. Another interesting snippet is about…
No Agenda = No Meeting
Seth Godin recently distilled a great list about getting serious about your meeting problem. It highlights the problem that many people in companies face: being in meetings all day. If you’ve wondered when the work gets done, for some people the answer is that they have forgotten what work involves. The day is taken up…
