If you want to be seen as a leader, you need to act like one first. Being seen as a leader is a choice you make. From the outside, leadership looks like a role or a post that your organization gives you. Nothing could be further from the truth. People in leadership roles are there as a result of their decision to be leaders, and not the other way around. No one but you can make you a leader. So,…
We’ve all seen out-sized reactions: when little incidents trigger big responses. If we’re honest with ourselves, most of us would admit that at one time or another, it’s happened to us. In an office place, out-sized reactions that can wreak havoc. In my teaching days, there was a teacher who used to throw chalk at his students when they were whispering. Eventually he threw a book and was fired. Once I saw the director of a non-profit demean his entire…
Make your message better with my new mini-course: How to Communicate Anything. No matter what you want to say, using my four-step process for clarifying and improving your message will help you communicate more effectively. As an English teacher, I taught thousands of students how to write. I started teaching at the USC Freshman Writing program when I was in graduate school, and love teaching so much that I continued teaching for another dozen years after I graduate. The more…
Everybody negotiates. Avoid these three negotiating mistakes. We negotiate the big stuff, like salaries and contracts, and we negotiate the little stuff, curfews and who will do the dishes. From my years as an entrepreneur and my coach training, I’ve honed my negotiating skills. I’m not supposed to make negotiating mistakes, but it happened to me recently. In the end, even though I got what I wanted, the whole process left me feeling that I was in the wrong. My…
There’s Positive Feedback, Coaching and Counseling When people genuinely want to do well, and nearly all employees do, a coaching approach to feedback works best. Recently my client Christina* was taking her new hire, Julie, along for a meeting with a vendor. Christina, Julie, and the vendor were on site, looking at an event space. The vendor was recommending more tables. “I think we need to do it,” said Christina, “but I’ll have to get my boss to approve it.”…