At the first signs of trouble, the first steps you take are the most important steps you’ll take as a leader. This is called “walking towards the barking dog”, and it’s a principle that can make or break your effectiveness as a leader. When confronted with an actual barking dog, the instinct is to move…
4 Ways That Exaggeration Can Damage Your Leadership
As a leader you must certainly project optimism. But when you cross the line into hyperbole, your leadership is facing significant risks. Recently, a leader in my orbit described a meeting as “Quite possibly our best meeting ever!” Right away, the thought flashed through my mind, “I need to keep watching my own communication for any signs of…
3 Ways to Leverage Process To Unlock Progress
In leadership you can’t have progress without process. If you are finding progress is getting stalled on an initiative you’re trying to move forward, check to see if process has been violated along the way. As a much younger and inexperienced leader I found myself serving on the board of our church, and along with…
How “I Hate Meetings” Can Be Hurting Your Leadership
When you say, “I hate meetings!”, your team could be receiving a message that might be damaging your culture more than you ever realized. In recent years a virtual “movement” has sprung up in leadership circles where it has become increasingly fashionable to announce, “I hate meetings!” Often this sparks a dialogue that sounds something…
3 Ways That Speaking Truth is the Kindest Form of Leadership
“The kindest form of leadership is the truth.” – Jack Welch The ability of a leader to speak the truth is not opposed to the idea of being kind. In leadership, speaking the truth is the very essence of kindness. When leaders shrink back from speaking truth in the name of “sparing their feelings”, they are,…
