We all dream of having an energized team, totally motivated and hitting all their goals. If you’re lucky, you may work in such an environment. Congratulations, that comes from hard work by leaders like you. For the rest of us, the question then becomes how to motivate your team to be more like that. What […]
Boss: “You’re doing a great job with your team!” You: “Thanks!” Boss: “You don’t mind if we go ahead and put a few more people on your team, right?” You: “Umm….” Whether this is a conversation you have in your head or one that’s happened to you in talking to your boss, you know the […]
What do you talk about in your one on ones? What questions do you ask in one on ones with your manager? What about one on ones with managers that report to you? It’s important to understand that your one on ones with individual contributors reporting to you should be treated differently from those you’d […]
If there’s one thing I’ve come to appreciate, it’s the absurd odds stacked against entrepreneurs succeeding; there’s just so much that you have no idea about and need to quickly learn. For everything you must get right to succeed, there are a dozen things that could undermine you and lead you to still fail. You […]
Unreliable, slow, unresponsive, inconsistent, doing the bare minimum, checked out. These are just a few of the words you can use to describe a disengaged or underperforming employee. The effect an underperforming employee can have on your team is devastating. Not only can they drag out projects, but they can consume much of your time […]
Are you managing your own team? Wondering how to advance past your team of individual contributors to leading a group of managers? If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve thought about the next big step in your leadership journey: becoming a senior leader. There’s a lot to learn to be a manager of managers. But […]
Were you a natural leader when you started your management career? Or did you need some manager training, either formally, or self-directed to be effective in your new job? Very few people know how to become a great manager on their own. Instead, it’s through a lot of trial and error, reading, listening and learning […]
“What do I do now? Where do I even begin???” If your company has a group of new managers, then it’s very likely many of them are thinking the above questions. Whether you were left to flounder when you started out as a manager, had some great help, or had never managed yourself, there’s a […]
One on one meetings are a cornerstone to any effective manager <-> team member relationship from small startups to giant companies. What you talk about, and the one on one meeting questions you ask, make all the difference in the performance of your team. It’s why Andy Grove, legendary founder of Intel and author of […]
“The difference between mere management and leadership is communication.” – Winston Churchill As Winston Churchill captures well, good communication is central to success as a leader. When your organization grows to have layers between you and other team members, the skip level meeting becomes one of your best tools for effective communication. We recently took […]
