Posts Tagged lead

Leadership: Don’t Leave Dead Bodies In Your Wake

April 27, 2011 at 3:29 pm · Filed under Coaching, Etiquette, Executive coaching, Meetings, presentation skills, public speaking, Workplace, Career, Business, Communication, Professionalism ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Leaving “dead bodies” is no way to lead, build relationships and reputations — or get results.

Yet, all too often,  it happens. 

Stressful situations (and that seems to happen daily in our frenzied, wired 24-7 workplace), exacerbates a situation which occasionally leads to inappropriate behaviors.

Although I coach people for a variety of reasons – leaving “dead bodies” is frequently a concern. What are some techniques to use, to avoid this?

1)      Recognize. The behaviors and identify what triggers them.

2)      Own the impact of lashing out, ordering around, insulting, etc.

3)      Catch yourself when you feel the adrenaline surge – at that point, make a decision … is it worth it?

4)      Take a deep breath, take a walk, pinch yourself. In other words, get some time, space and perspective.

5)      If you ended up lashing out before you caught yourself, go back to the person (people) and apologize.

Ultimately, leaving “dead bodies” is not a path to effective leadership or long-term success.

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Effective Meeting Strategy #4 – It’s Time to Land

March 15, 2011 at 5:22 pm · Filed under Coaching, Executive coaching, Meetings, presentation skills, public speaking, Workplace, Career, Business, Communication, Professionalism ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you’ve been using the techniques for more effective meetings that I’ve been sharing here the past few weeks (Pre-plan, launch & navigate), you probably are already seeing improvement.

The next phase, “land,” helps the group members reach an agreement and make decisions.

Here are a few techniques that you can use:

— Negative Poll: A tool used to wake people from the typical head nodding that happens in meetings, and make them think about their response. With it you are asking for those that do not agree, rather than those that do. Some examples of this technique are. . .

*Who can’t agree to strike this idea from the list?

* Who is not able to live with this solution?

— Both/And: Sometimes groups get stuck in making the final decision because they feel they must choose between two options. Using this tool, you can suggest adding two ideas together to make one, or doing both ideas rather than choosing between the two.

— Build Up/Eliminate: This tool is used to negotiate agreement when you encounter resistance from one of more participants. You ask the question, “What could I add to or take away from this idea that would make you more comfortable with it?” Often, you’ll find that small adjustments to an idea can make a huge difference in getting others to agree.

— Voting: Many groups use this as a decision-making tool. If your ultimate goal is build a collaborative environment, voting is not a tool that BRODY recommends. With voting, there are winners and there are losers. It can be a method that alienates others. However, there are times that voting can be effective, here are a few:

*When the topic being considered is not controversial

*When the need for buy-in is low

*When the group involved in the decision making is large and unwieldy (ex. political elections)

Stay tuned for next week’s blog on the Post-Land step to making meeting more effective.

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A Look At Leadership: Interpersonal Communication Still Key

March 16, 2010 at 6:40 pm · Filed under presentation skills, public speaking, Workplace, Career, Business, Communication, Professionalism ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you Google the phrase “leadership, definition”, you will see more than 81,500 entries.

Obviously, there isn’t one universally accepted definition for leadership, and clearly, there isn’t one right way to lead.

So, is investing in leadership development still important in our age of cutbacks and shrinking budgets? Yes.

Paula Ketter, editor of T+D magazine, reminded readers of her March 2010 column that  “experts agree enlightened leadership begets engaged employees.”

She suggests we do it right and look at what’s missing to help corporations:

Ketter stated, also in her March 2010 column, “Leadership development should be created around an organization’s culture and should mirror the values and the goals of that culture.”

She also said, “High potentials tend to have the business and technical skills needed to create successful organizational strategy, but many are lacking the interpersonal skills to motivate employees and communicate effectively.”

What so often is described as “soft skills” are the very things that are critical for moving an organization and driving hard results.

What are you doing for yourself and for your employees to enhance your interpersonal and communication skills?

There are many free tips and techniques on our website that will help you communicate with clarity and conviction. Give us a call today and we can craft a communication solution for you and your team.

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