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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Today’s article was written by Mona Reiser, a guest contributor and one of my former managers. (You can see more about her at the end of the article.) She is one of the smartest leaders that I know and I am so honored that she is sharing one of her stories on my blog. I was a part of the organization that is discussed in her article. I took many lessons from such a great management team and applied them…
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