Leadership Development Carnival

Leadership Development Carnival – August 2022

I’m honored to host the Leadership Development Carnival this month, full of great wisdom from leaders around the world!

Robyn McLeod of Thoughtful Leaders Blog presents You Think You’re Listening, but You’re Missing So Much. Here’s What to Do About It where she shares three simple steps for strengthening your “listen completely” muscle. You will learn that the more you truly listen, the better listener you’ll become and the more benefits you’ll reap.

 

Know the difference between giving advice to a colleague and coaching them. In Should You Give Advice or Coach? Jennifer V. Miller gives three ways to help reach a meaningful outcome.

When a leader needs to inspire people – or move them to action – nothing compares to face-to-face communication. This more personal method of communication sends a message before you say a word. From strengthening relationships to gathering employee feedback, here are six good reasons from David Grossman for leaders to make the time to communicate face-to-face.  Face-to-Face Communication: 6 Benefits of Leading in Person

From Diana Peterson-More: The Zenger Miller principles are intended to build trust and motivate others. All are vital; however, the first one sings to my soul: “Focus on the issue, situation or behavior, not the person.” Learn why this is a critical communication tool, how it allows for addressing thorny issues in a constructive manner and read a workplace story detailing what went wrong and how it might have come out differently.  “Focus on the Issue, Situation or Behavior, Not the Person:” How a Zenger Miller Principle Informs Consequential Communication

Every business has its underachievers. But today’s post by Steve DiGioia, Drop the Cute Puppy and Let Your Stars Shine, is not about them. It’s about those precious, and few, overachievers. You know, that one or maybe two, star employees who always seem to find a way to prove their value and serve your customers better than anyone could have expected. Here’s how to let them shine!

From Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE: Lessons from a Disruption – Learn how a 50-minute virtual keynote to some 1,000 people around the globe went wrong and how the client’s team jumped in to save the day! The resilience skills of adaptability and agility came into play. And laughability? Well, I told the listeners I was a six-foot blonde!

Neal Burgis, Ph.D. encourages us to Think the Opposite to Do the Opposite. Doing the opposite is a strategy you do – thinking the opposite of others in order to achieve unique results. Most people don’t think about thinking in another way, in a new direction. It’s where opportunities are.

Make it a great day or not; the choice is yours to make. Is it your choice? We are at times not in control of all of the actions which interfere with our day, but we are still in control of the choices we make in how we respond. Choice is how we begin to work on the earned life. More from Brenda Yoho in Choices We Make.

Marcella Bremer asks, Is a positive organizational culture “woke”? Aren’t wokeness and #ESG inherently good? It depends. Wokeness should not lead to a cancel culture. A positive culture is open and results-oriented at the same time. Bring your opinions to work. Engage in actionable dialogue to achieve more together.

It takes a conscious and concerted effort to be a person of integrity. Frank Sonnenberg provides 10 hallmarks of an honorable person — with suggestions to help you stay on course.

Sitting in a variety of challenging roles applies pressure that results in professional growth. It manifests in dealing with difficult people, striving for seemingly impossible goals, taking on a challenging assignment, or managing environmental uncertainty and ambiguity. Priscilla Archangel gives advice in Tackling the Hard Assignments.

Talking with team members about their performance challenges typically falls in the category of “least favorite” managerial tasks, but it’s a critical aspect of being an effective leader. In this post, Randy Conley shares 8 steps that will help you get employee performance back on track.  8 Steps for Dealing with An Underperforming Employee

From Dana Theus: Much is written about how few women make it into the top leadership positions. But I consistently find several mentoring tips for women both maximally effective and minimally understood when I talk to women pursuing leadership positions: DO HARD.  On its face, this advice is pretty simple: stay in your stretch zone and learn to master feelings of uncertainty, discomfort and periodic failure while you learn and grow. But what’s less often explored is WHY it’s so important for women to overcome their culturally ingrained reservations about taking on big challenges, and how to do it authentically in our modern business culture.  Do Hard: The Most Important Mentoring Tips For Women In Leadership

According to Julie Winkle Giulioni, the ‘givens’ of days gone by – those moldy mental models and myths – must give way to today’s ‘ungivens’ and the reality of the 2022 workplace. And until we confront these outdated assumptions, we may continue to grapple with untenable levels of attrition.  Today’s ‘Ungivens’: Confronting Outdated Assumptions that Undermine Retention

Companies around the globe are short-staffed. Leaders have tried to boost hiring through higher wages and even bonuses, but staffing shortages continue. The problem? Many business leaders want to return to the “old normal” but employees and candidates don’t want “old normal.”  Chris Edmonds shares more in his Culture Leadership Charge: How Does Your Culture Rate?

It’s that time of year again – the first half of 2022 is already over. We’re at half-time, just like in a football game. This is when the coach takes the team to the locker room to examine how they’ve performed so far, give some leadership inspiration, and reinforce the plan to regroup and outperform the other team in Q3 and Q4. Jon Verbeck cheers us on in Second Half Baby – Let’s Go!

While the realities facing new leaders are unprecedently novel, challenging, and anxiety-provoking, the meager amount of support and training that has historically been provided to new leaders remains sadly unchanged. Learn what you can be done to support a new leader in Supporting a New Leader, by Bill Treasurer.

On a recent trip with his wife to Lake Como, Italy, Art Petty had the honor of officiating the wedding of their son and his beautiful bride. Now that the big day is behind us and I’m free to do what I always do, which is look for the leadership lessons in my life’s experiences, I’m happy to share some thoughts. Instead of describing our specific event, I’ll emphasize the parallels between officiating and leading.  Leadership Reminders from My Summer Vacation as a Wedding Officiant

Regardless of the obstacle or circumstance we are not alone in our journey. Most leaders would benefit from being more vulnerable about their struggles with worry. More from Ken Byler in When Leaders Worry.

From Bev Kaye: Creating a Developed Culture: Three Crucial Roles – Career Mobility is essential for individuals at all levels. Each one of us needs to exercise agility and resilience that stable workplaces did not require. No longer is mobility just about physically moving to another building or town. It’s more than getting promoted. It’s sometimes just being willing to continue to learn and grow and stretch. It is about flexibility and agility. Career Mobility involves a rich mix of experiences, roles, assignments, and options.

Performance, productivity, and … proximity bias? Leaders navigating hybrid work environments have new risks to watch for when trying to level up their leadership skills. Here are Five Tips for Leading a Hybrid Workforce from Jon Lokhorst to help you level up your leadership now.

When was the last time someone asked you how you prefer to learn? Has someone ever asked if you need assistive technology? As a trainer and facilitator, I definitely miss the mark sometimes on inclusive training. It’s hard. There’s no way around it; it’s not easy to design or deliver training in a language, structure, platform, etc. that works well for every learner. It’s hard, but it’s so important to try.  Read more in Inclusive Training by Jillian Miles Massey.

You probably haven’t heard of the most devastating fire in American history. There’s a lesson there.  The Peshtigo Principle by Wally Bock.

From John Hunter in Using Customer Feedback to Drive Continual Improvement: The impact of creating systems that continually improve the value provided to customers is still very much underappreciated. The Deming Chain Reaction is such a powerful concept that allows us to create more value and reduce costs over the long term.

From Sean Glaze: Would You Rather? questions help by inspiring laughter and conversation at work. The interesting discussions and debates between coworkers that result from introducing these “forced choice” options can increase employee morale and strengthen connections.  Take a look at this Fun List of 31 “Would You Rather?” Questions to Inspire Laughter and Conversation at Work.

Jim Taggart gives us something to think about in Rethinking Teams and Teamwork: Getting Over the Guilt Complex. To most people working in organizations, private and public, the reflex is to refer to one’s ‘team’ when discussing co-workers and work issues. What’s happened over time is that the use of the word ‘team’ has greatly diluted what teams and teamwork are really about.

When your team or supervisor thinks of you as a negative person, you’re less likely to be invited to conversations where you would have valuable contributions to make. You’re less likely to receive recognition for your work and your odds of promotion go down. If you often hear that you’re too negative, learning how to be less negative is a critical skill to master—and fast.  David Dye guides us in How to Be Less Negative – and Still be Yourself.

And finally …

It’s often challenging to deal with difficult people. One of the hardest parts is feeling blindsided by conversation tactics that don’t serve the dialog or the relationship, especially if you are trying to address a sensitive topic. It helps to educate and prepare yourself ahead of time so that when those types of conversations occur, you are ready to handle them wisely and respectfully.  I give guidance in How to Cope with Toxic Conversation Tactics.

Thanks to all these great leaders for their helpful insights!

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