Leadership

How Can We Stop Comparing Ourselves All The Time?

Comparing ourselves to others is something that everyone has done. We all grew up being compared to each other in school, in sports and at home. Statistics were tracked about grades, sports achievements and you may have felt like your parents were keeping track of what you had done vs your siblings. Fast forward to becoming an adult and the comparison continues. People are rated in companies on their performance and potential. Employees are rated in comparison to their peers? …
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Monday Morning Leadership Q&A – 2/20/17

I am going to start using the Monday blog to share questions that I have received or case studies. My intent is to be able to help others who may be facing similar challenges. Feel free to send me questions or situations that you are facing and I will include them in future blogs. Today’s question: “My team works in various locations and in multiple time zones. What is the best way to stay connected with them and provide the…
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What Does Integrity Look Like to You?

How do you know if a leader has integrity? A simple way of defining integrity is that they “consistently act with an internal moral compass that guides them and they do the right thing even if no one else is around.” What are the main characteristics that come to mind when you think about leaders that you have worked for who demonstrated integrity? Although this is not an exhaustive list, these are the 5 ways that leaders demonstrate integrity to…
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Will You Choose What Is Right Or What Is Popular?

Integrity is one of the most important qualities that I respect in a leader. It is defined as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” Why is it important? To me it comes down to knowing that the person who is making decisions is doing it for the right reasons and you can trust them. They are making decisions that are best for the company, not for themselves. I have seen plenty of leaders over my career…
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Fantastic Leadership Resource Summary – 02/03/17

Every week I find articles, quotes, etc that I save and share on Facebook or re-tweet on Twitter about leadership. I also have a theme day in my Facebook Group for leaders called Fantastic Resource Friday. I thought it would be helpful to share these articles, links to Ted Talks, Quotes and my Creating Leadership Connections blogs with you each week in an easy to read summary format. Each Friday, I will create this summary including the links and a…
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Do You Know When It Is Time To Ask For Help?

When I started working many years ago, I showed initiative, solved problems and got things done. I was rewarded for it, so I continued to work a lot of hours and do those same things throughout my career. When I started to lead a team, I should have realized that my job had changed and I needed to do things differently. This happens to a lot of new leaders, but even to…
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Help! How Do I Make This Decision?

I have talked about trusting your gut in some of my other posts when it comes to decision making. There are times where you are dealing with such an ambiguous situation that you may not have anything else to go on. We even had buttons in our office that said “ambiguity is my friend” on them because we had to deal with so many unknowns. These type of situations will force you to make decisions with what you know at the…
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Your Leadership Moment: Will You Choose to be Calm?

If you have ever seen a picture of an iceberg you know that there is a portion of it that rises above the water and the rest is below the water. This is the perfect metaphor for a leader. Above the surface it is calm and everything appears to be good. Below the surface, however, there are the unknown things occurring that we can’t see. I have been told that I am a very calm person. I try to be calm…
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Do You Want to be a Leader or a Director?

For the rest of the week, I am going to dive a little deeper into the leadership traits that were covered in the post that I did yesterday. If you missed it, you can read it here. Initially, there were two leadership traits that were very challenging for me to learn. This could be because they seemed to be in direct conflict with leading to me. What I didn’t realize then was that instead of “leading others”, I was actually…
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What Does A Confident Leader Look Like?

My first role with direct reports was a new role that didn’t exist before. I had three direct reports and oversight of the daily activities of 22 indirect reports. It was a little overwhelming at the time. The great thing was I got to make up what the role would do, how it would work and define it all as I went along. For a first time leader of people, it was a little scary. There was no one else…
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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…
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What If You Could Accomplish Multiple Goals at Once?

How do you accomplish your goals? Do you plan everything out or work with your team to do it? I know for me and my team, we would put together a plan for the goals. We would start by determining the outcome that we wanted for each goal, break the goal down into smaller milestones, determine resourcing needs, focus on making progress each month, and ultimately reach the goal. I know that sounds like it is so easy to do,…
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The Visibility Factor Book is One Year Old Today!

One year ago today I launched The Visibility Factor book out into the world! I thought you might like a peek behind the curtain at what that day was like for me! It was like giving birth to a child (without having to go to the hospital, the pain, having a crying infant, and the getting no sleep part) where everyone was excited that this “baby” called The Visibility Factor had been born! It was a celebration that included, phone…
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