Leadership Series: Negotiating
Leadership Series: Negotiating “Negotiating? Well, that’s not for me. I’m not a salesman, lawyer or politician. Surely negotiating isn’t important in leadership.” The authors or “Getting to Yes” disagree. Their best seller starts: “Like it or not, you’re a negotiator. Negotiation is a fact of life. You discuss a raise with your boss. You try to agree with a stranger on a price for his house.” You negotiate with your co-workers on where capital investment should be allocated and what new products to deploy. Or, to provide two more examples from Getting to Yes, perhaps you’re...
Read MoreLeadership Series: Emotional Intelligence
Leadership series: Emotional Intelligence Today’s topic will be introduced by a thought provoking fact: people with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70% of the time (source). Wait, you got that backward, right? So, if it isn’t smarts that drives success, what is it? Research suggests that it’s emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is “the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically” (source). This is an indispensable capability of any true leader. Leaders inspire,...
Read MoreLeadership Series: Change Management
Leadership Series: Change Management John F. Kennedy once taught an important principle: “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain the miss the future.” Inviting change, handling change and perhaps most importantly leading change are essential capabilities of influential leaders. So today, we’ll discuss five principles of what business strategists and behavioral economists have called, “Change Management.” See more at http://www.strategy-business.com/article/rr00006?gko=643d0 Address the “human side” systematically When change...
Read MoreLeadership Series: Decision Making
Leadership Series: Decision Making It’s often said that being a decision maker is a necessary attribute to be a leader. But this is only, at best, a half-truth. Why? Well, on the one hand, it’s very important for a leader to be able to move an issue forward by making a sound decision but on the other, being the one that has to make the decision could be your organization’s biggest bottleneck. If you’re making all the decisions, you’re either too involved (i.e. you don’t trust your people) or you’re just plain egotistical (i.e. you don’t think your people are smart enough to make...
Read MoreLeadership Series: Debate
Leadership Series: Debate In our most recent Leadership Series post we spoke about the importance of conflict; and today, we’ll talk about the importance of a related but unique interaction necessary for organizational/team success—debate. Oftentimes it’s said of good leaders that they’re decision makers—and this may well be true in certain cases. But decision making leaders often leave something behind. The knowledge, ideas and intelligence of everyone else. Liz Wiseman, in her best seller, Multipliers, teaches us how to make sure we’re seeking fact based, well thought through...
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