“Hey, I need a sounding board. Can I run something past you?” This is pretty typical at work, especially if you’re a leader. But what if you’re not in a position of titled leadership? If you’re an individual contributor, congratulations! Somebody sees you as a trustworthy confidant. Should you offer advice or coach them? Is there…
Leadership
4 Ways to Gain Team Input
So I’m sitting at a large round table, talking with a team of eight senior-level leaders who work for a large corporation. These are smart, sophisticated people, who have both street cred as field operatives and many years’ experience leading various types and sizes of work groups. We’re discussing the best ways to gain team…
Leadership by Ranting is No Way to Inspire People
It’s tough to respect a leader who’s always losing his cool. Case in point: during college, I worked in a family-owned Italian restaurant whose proprietor had a fiery, larger-than-life personality. When he was frustrated, ‘Tony” was prone to emotional outbursts. One day, I received this upbraiding for not setting up the salad bar correctly: “You…
My Must-Attend Conference of 2017 #workhuman
This time each year, many people peruse their industry’s conference offerings to decide which ones to attend. If you’re in the human resources, talent management, organizational development or leadership functions in your company, I suggest the WorkHuman 2017 conference. Now in its third year, the conference—sponsored by technology solutions provider Globoforce—seeks to help companies build…
Author Q & A with Bill Treasurer
Next month, one of my favorite leadership authors, Bill Treasurer, releases a new book, A Leadership Kick in the Ass: How to Learn from Rough Landings, Blunders, and Missteps . Read my book review here. As part of the book launch, I was lucky enough conduct an email interview with Bill. Here are excerpts from…