communications

How To Increase Trust After It Has Been Broken

I was presenting to a women’s employee resource group the other day about the impact that communication can have on an organization. Things will run smoothly when people have the right information and they can trust that what they have been given is accurate. The challenge is that not all leaders are the same. Some operate with information close to their vest and don’t want to share what they know. Others are very transparent with information to allow their teams…
Read more

Communicating with Impact

Have you ever shared a situation or story with someone and you can tell by their response, that they have no idea what you said because they weren’t listening to you? We have all experienced this at one time or another, but why does it happen? Did they not find the topic interesting, were they thinking about something else, or maybe they were distracted? Any of those may be true, but something else to be aware of is that when…
Read more

Do You Think Boundaries are Bad or Good?

Someone asked me, what are your thoughts about boundaries? Hmm…good question I thought. My initial reaction was that I know that they are a good thing now, but I used to have so much resistance to putting boundaries in place for myself. I didn’t think of them as bad necessarily, but I felt like others might judge me if I said no because they would be disappointed. I was a people pleaser who cared more about other people and their…
Read more

When Is the Last Time You Asked for Help?

It’s okay to ask for help. This wasn’t something that I believed for many years. I saw it as a negative thing. I thought you had to do it all yourself and if you couldn’t then you were a failure. I know that this isn’t true now, but back when I was still learning about being a leader, it felt true. What I didn’t realize is that it is actually a sign of strength to ask for help, not a…
Read more

How Clear Is Your Communication?

Communication is something that most people do without thinking about it. They speak in a way that makes sense to them in meetings and assume that their message is being heard. If they don’t share the information in a clear and concise way then their message may not be getting through and they have no idea. Unclear communication can create a perception among their leadership that they aren’t ready for a higher level role. Why is it so challenging to…
Read more

Simple Ways to Create Stronger Boundaries for Yourself

Can we all just stop breaking our boundaries already? I taught a class last week on impostor syndrome with an amazing group of leaders. I asked them which impostor syndrome type they struggled with the most and the majority of them chose to keep their boundaries personally and professionally. Boundaries create guidelines and rules for you and others to understand, follow and respect. You can define physical, relationship, conversational, and time boundaries for yourself. Strong boundaries help you to avoid…
Read more

The Easiest Way to Gain Visibility

I remember working for someone who wanted to know updates on what I was doing each day. It made it difficult to get anything done with all her requests and I wondered if she had lost trust in me. She was a bit of a micromanager, but I also understood that she was under a lot of pressure from our management. We were working on a high exposure program that had high expectations and impact for the organization. My manager…
Read more

Is This a Conversation That Could Change Everything?

When people reach out to me for coaching, I spend the time to know who they are and understand what they are struggling with in that moment. We talk about what they want to accomplish so we both know the outcome that they want. This is a journey that they are about to go on as a leader and we are creating a partnership together. As a part of the coaching programs that I attended, I was taught to meet people…
Read more

What Communication Approach Do You Use In The Workplace?

One of the main challenges for multiple generations in one workplace is the way that they want to give and receive communication. Each generation wants it their way and can sometimes struggle to bend towards the other generation’s method. Here is an example: Bob is a Gen X person who is leading a huge project and he works with Matt who is a Gen Y (or Millennial) and Sarah who is a Gen Z. Bob is really impressed with the…
Read more

What Do You Need to Lead 5 Generations in the Workplace?

Communication seems like it is easy to do when you are at work. You are leading a meeting to talk about projects and then everyone goes on their way. You don’t check to see that everyone is aligned and on the same page with what was discussed. There is just an assumption that everyone understood the same thing that you did. I can’t tell you how many meetings I attended that I thought the same thing. How could people who…
Read more

Are You Ready For a Transformation?

I was watching a video by Dr. Benjamin Hardy, who is the author of many books including the one that I am reading now called 10x is Easier Than 2x. His book, that he co-authored with Dan Sullivan, is focused on ways to achieve more by doing less. In the video, he discussed some of the concepts from the book, he shared that, “courage is the starting point of all transformation.” If I look back on my own transformations throughout my career, that…
Read more

How to Master Project and Program Visibility

If you have been following me for any of amount of time, you know that getting visibility for you and your team is important. However, there is also an opportunity for you to consider creating visibility for projects and programs too. Let me share an example: A client of mine shared the details of a discussion that he had with an executive leader about a project that would be kicking off soon. My client intended to walk through the proposed…
Read more

Leading Through Uncertainty: Strategies to Develop Stronger Leaders

Change is a constant, especially when it comes to business. Companies and their leaders need to anticipate customer needs, focus on internal business changes, retain employees and grow the company at a rate that is acceptable by their management and shareholders. Navigating through all of this change isn’t easy for leaders today and it isn’t going away. The Current State This quote was shared from an article on hrexecutive.com, “increasingly, employers report that new hires lack the necessary skills for the job….
Read more