risks

The 24-Hour Rule

I have been lucky enough to have some new opportunities come my way. I was obviously pretty excited about each of them. My first impulse was to just say yes immediately. If these were things that I had been working towards, then saying yes would have been absolutely the right thing to do. But these opportunities came out of the blue. How do I decide whether or not to take them? I have a rule that I use…
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What will your leadership legacy look like?

As I read the article, The Leaders Imprint by Scott Mabry, it struck me how much every decision and action we take as a leader can leave in Scott’s words, an “Imprint” on others who work for us. Being critical of our team members on a regular basis has a lasting impact on them. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, people don’t leave organizations, they leave managers. Being too critical causes people to doubt themselves, shut down, become disengaged or…
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Are you ready to flex?

The beauty of having a diverse team is that each person brings different experiences to their unique roles. They also have different perspectives and leadership styles. As the leader, you need to find the best way to motivate the team to accomplish the goals. So how do you do that? This was my dilemma about 16 years ago. I had a team that was made up of internal employees, external contractors, differing levels of expertise and different leadership styles. Did…
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Are you one of the many leaders who has had an accidental career?

When you think about your career, have you planned it all out or has it been mostly accidental? When you are asked to take on a new role, do you consider whether the role is a good fit for you or do you just agree to take it? Many people just take it. Why is that? Maybe you are flattered that someone picked you for the role, you are ready for a change, you are happy to learn something new or you…
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What do you do when you get stuck?

One of my favorite quotes is “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great” by Zig Ziglar. Have you ever struggled to get started on something that was new to you or you held yourself back because it was out of your comfort zone? What causes this hesitation? Is it fear, a lack of confidence, the fear of failure, the concern about what others may think or just the uncertainty of not…
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Networking Unlocks New Opportunities

Does the word networking have a negative connotation for you? For me, it triggered me a bit. It was like that uncomfortable feeling on the first day of school. Do you remember that moment? You walk into the classroom, without knowing anyone yet and you must find ways to make friends. I don’t know if it was any easier back then, but we all figured it out somehow. Networking from a place of scarcity. Connecting with new people was still…
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Three Things That Leaders Need to Focus on Each Week

I met with a Director about the results of a leadership assessment that she recently completed which included direct feedback from her peers, direct reports and management. In that conversation, we also talked about the feedback that her manager had shared with her… she wasn’t communicating or acting like a Director. She was obviously concerned about the feedback and couldn’t understand what she needed to do differently. We talked about what she was focused on and she shared some of…
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Your Imperfections Are What Make You Perfect

We have all grown up with programming and messages from our families, teachers, media, society, culture, etc. that tell us what we are “supposed” to do in our lives. Some of these messages may include: get good grades, go to a good school, get a good job, get married, have children, save for retirement, follow the rules, don’t talk back, respect your elders, etc. You get the gist of the messages that we have all heard and internalized over many years. Those messages…
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