One of the most intimidating aspects of becoming a young leader is realizing many of your team members will be older and potentially more experienced than you. Some Baby Boomers may have a hard time imagining someone their child’s age is experienced enough for a leadership role. But from the Millennial perspective, if you’ve been selected and coached to take on leadership responsibilities, that should be reason enough to gain respect. The reality is, no matter how prepared and competent you are, you may have to prove yourself to some skeptical senior team members.
Five Signs You’re a Toxic Leader
There are so many scapegoats available these days that it’s easy to explain away any undesirable outcomes in business. We blame low sales on a flat economy and lack of marketing budget. We bemoan reduced training budgets and believe they are the reason for stalled career advancement and staggering employee disengagement. As turnover rates increase, we accuse Millennials of being entitled, arrogant and disloyal. But at what point do we stop pointing fingers and start identifying trends? Remember, people leave managers, not companies. The toughest trend to spot is the one we create. Few leaders lack the insight, self-awareness, and … Read More
The Tale of Two Millennials
Here it is…another blog post about millennials. Are you tired of hearing about them yet? Every day, some thought-leader is sharing his wisdom, perspective and complaints about this disruptive generation. And you won’t stop hearing about them anytime soon. Their 76 million member group will overtake Baby Boomers as the largest living generation this year; and they currently account for 1 in every 3 American workers. But when you read about millennials, does it ever feel like you’re reading the story of Jekyll and Hyde? One minute we’re frowning upon Gen Y’s entitlement issues and their desire to be rewarded … Read More
Strengths Aren’t Enough
You know what’s fun? Telling someone they’re amazing. They love the feedback and welcome it with open arms. The more positive the feedback, the more they want to hear. And you’re happy to oblige because their wide eyes, big smile, and nodding head encourage you to share more examples of the ways they are amazing. You know what’s not fun? Giving negative, or even constructive, feedback. It doesn’t feel good to hear that you are performing below average (or even average) compared to expectations. And if it doesn’t feel good to hear that feedback then it definitely doesn’t feel good … Read More
Be Contagious
Take a moment to reflect on last week. What were the high points? What were the low moments? How did you handle every day challenges? How did you interact with your team? What message did you convey? We already know that individuals who display good leadership skills have more engaged employees with lower turnover. There’s also a commonly held belief that leadership is contagious. When you display strong, decisive, inspirational leadership, others around you will also begin to display those same behaviors. Research shows there is a trickle-down effect of leadership behaviors.
Five Great Podcasts for Leaders
A few weeks ago, we shared six of our favorite TED Talks and we received such positive feedback from our readers, that we thought it would be helpful to share some of our favorite podcasts as well. If you don’t currently listen to podcasts, you are missing out on some great thoughts and conversations being shared on this unique platform. Podcasting is a popular choice by thought-leaders because, unlike blogs, they lend themselves to story-telling and conversations between multiple parties. They’re inexpensive to create and easy to share. Listeners enjoy podcasts because they can stay up to date on the … Read More