Susan M Barber Coaching & Consulting, LLC

What if You Thought About Accountability in a Different Way?

Holding other people accountable can be a challenge for leaders. The leader makes an assumption that their direct reports are just like them. No one has to hold me accountable, so why do I have to hold other people accountable? Why don’t they just do the work that they have to do? Does this sound like a thought you have had or you have heard from other leaders? There are multiple reasons why holding direct reports is necessary. They don’t…
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Do You Need to Hold People Accountable?

Imagine that you and I are at a networking event and someone in the group that we are talking to says, “My company is creating a culture of accountability.” It tends to bring up a negative connotation for people when they hear that phrase. Managers don’t want to be micro-managers and employees don’t want to be micro-managed. So why would you need to create a culture that focuses on accountability? It would be necessary if you have a culture that…
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Did You Know That You Have a Choice?

Change is happening for everyone at such a rapid pace now. You may be focused on one thing and then get pulled into some other urgent request. It may feel like you are firefighting every day putting out the biggest fires first before you even can get to the smaller ones. That takes a lot of energy away from your priorities and forces you to be reactive all the time. Although many people will struggle with change, the people who like to have…
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What Do You Need to Know About Leading Change for Yourself?

I have posted articles this month on helping leaders understand what they have to do to help their team go through change. Today’s focus will be on helping the leader as they navigate the change for themselves. I talked about the stress of change on people going through a workforce reduction or reorganization, but for the leader of a team, it is even more stressful. Here are some of the reasons why and what they can do to help themselves….
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Can You See Change as a New Beginning?

Change can be scary because it is full of unknowns. You want to keep things the way they are even if they aren’t the best, because you already know what you are dealing with. It is natural to feel that way. What if you could shift the way you think about change and not see it as scary, but exciting? I found this quote from Joyce Meyer that made me think about how change could be perceived differently. She said, “Don’t be afraid…
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What Do Leaders Need To Do in the Midst of Change?

One of the biggest stresses that anyone in an organization can go through is when there are going to be layoffs or reductions. You walk into work one day and your world is turned upside down. Your first thought is, “Will I have a job when this is all over?” Unfortunately, when you are the leader, you have no time to dwell on that because your focus has to be on your team. You can almost watch the stages happen….
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What if You Chose to be Calm and Not Overreact?

Have you ever heard the phrase, “you get what you give?” In the context of communication, it means however you speak to a person, their inclination is to respond to you at the same level. If you are angry, they will come back with defensiveness and their own anger simply because that is how you spoke to them. It is a reaction that happens very quickly and without much thought. Each person continues to escalate to the next level and…
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Do People Know What You Are Doing?

One of my clients had a big event planned with her team coming up soon. She was really excited to be leading this and wanted things to be ready to go when everyone arrived. She started getting questions from the group about what they were going to do. It was surprising to her that they were asking all these questions because she had never held an event that wasn’t well thought through and planned. Sometimes we make assumptions in our head…
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Wouldn’t You Like to be Prepared and Have a Plan?

If you have ever been part of a team working on a project, you know that there is always risk. The team plans for all the possible scenarios and is prepared for what could happen. Risk mitigation is a critical part of making sure that the project team can handle the scenarios that could happen. Proactive planning gives the team time to think about it and create a plan that they are ready to execute as soon as it is…
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What Should Be On Your To Do List When You Are A Leader?

I have been leading some manager workshops over the past year to help them learn how to be leaders to their teams. There seems to be a common thought process that occurs (it happened to me too) when you take over your first team: “I am the leader of the team and I need to have all the answers.” Giving your team all of the answers is not helping them grow and it is actually the opposite of what you…
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