In today’s complex and fast-paced business world, the ethics of the leader cannot be overstated. A leader’s ability to inspire trust and integrity is not only crucial for the success of their organization but also for the overall well-being of their team and stakeholders. Ethical leadership goes beyond merely following rules and regulations; it encompasses

The Ethics of a Leader is What Inspires Team Trust and Integrity

Goal setting is an essential skill that separates exceptional leaders from the average ones. It is the art of envisioning a future outcome and then strategically planning the steps to achieve it. But mastering this art is no easy task. It requires a combination of clarity, focus, and determination. In this fast-paced world, where distractions

Mastering the Art of Goal Setting: Lessons from Exceptional Leaders

Increase Team Accountability Increasing team accountability is easier than you might think. It’s worth the effort considering how often most leaders are frustrated because people on their team are not practicing it. The chatter in the breakroom is that people are in disbelief the manager is not holding people accountable. And why aren’t they? Isn’t

4 Steps To Increase Team Accountability

I’ve had the opportunity to work with several leaders on having candid conversations and their overall leadership skills. One of the trends that I have noticed is there’s a tendency for leaders to put off having crucial conversations with people that are critical to organizational success. Examples include: If you are experiencing some of these

How To Easily Have Candid Conversations

I get the opportunity to help people develop their decision-making and leadership skills across a broad spectrum of industries. Their jobs are different, and their responsibilities are diverse, but one thing is the same everywhere I go: Leaders want more guidance on effective decision-making. Avoid Extremes The decisions we make and how we communicate in

When to Include Others in Decision Making

Communicating effectively when interacting with customers, people at work, and family members, you want to communicate with them in the style of communication language they process and understand. But how are you supposed to know which communication approach to use to improve your results? In How to Get People to Understand Your Message, we reviewed the

Communicating Effectively to Groups

The success story of an effective team is one where the members operate as a self-managing team. The leader allows the members of the team to establish teamwork, modify their own work processes, and serve as a communication channel to the rest of the organization. I followed up with one of our customers to see first-hand what

Teamwork: A Real Success Story

It’s essential to understand that all leaders’ communication styles are not their personality; it’s simply the way they deliver and process messages. One of these four communication styles is your language. Can you spot it? The 4 Communication Styles Usually, only two out of ten people are fluent in all four communication styles. Most of us tend

4 Communication Styles All Leaders Use

Effective leadership is all about being consistent, both in what you say and what you do. Do you ever get frustrated with those around you being inconsistent? Recently, I was visiting with several employees about the changes that they would like to see in their organization. They said, “I would just like to come to

#6 Barrier to Leadership – Inconsistency

There is a leadership saying that goes like this, ‘Be sure to share a piece of your heart instead of always sharing a piece of your mind.’ What does it mean to share a piece of your heart when you are a leader? First of all, to lead from the heart means you must enjoy

#5 Barrier to Leadership – Believe in Yourself

When I was growing up, I was a very shy person. I was afraid to ask questions, communicate what was on my mind, and most of all, didn’t want to create any waves. Today, people would say I don’t have any trouble with any of these methods of communication! Why Did I Change? Why I

#4 Barrier to Leadership – Beating Around the Bush

I once talked to a group of employees about the one leadership skill they felt was absolutely essential to be an effective leader. They said, “Handling the tough stuff – the situations that keep us from doing our job.” This immediate feedback was amazing. I was thinking, okay, the tough stuff, as the challenges managers

#3 Barrier to Leadership – Avoiding the Smelly Moose

Do you have leadership skills? Are you a know-it-all? I hope so because people that are really good at what they do have a passion for learning and sharing information about what they know. We, know-it-alls, love to tell others what we just discovered and the latest tip or secret that would make their life

#2 Barrier to Leadership – Being a Know-It-All

In a previous article, I introduced an upcoming article series titled the Top 10 Barriers to Leadership. This first installment is about Listening Strategies. By minimizing and/or eliminating the most common barriers to leadership, we can easily accelerate the growth of our personal and professional leadership skills and leadership qualities. With this goal in mind, here is

#1 Barrier to Leadership – Not Listening

Each of you, as a leader, has a passion for achieving your leadership goals and aspirations. As a member of the About Leaders community, you see the importance of taking the time to learn about other leaders and how to refine your leadership skills. With this in mind, I want to share some of the extremely

Top 10 Barriers to Leadership

Perhaps one of the best parts of being an effective leader is knowing that the work you choose to do each day is in alignment with your personal goals and convictions and values. Such internal synergy can create a sense of great calm—what I like to refer to as the ability to sleep well at

Leaders, Here’s How To Get a Good Night’s Sleep

Last week I heard a group of leaders say, “If our leaders could just engage our employees to work when they are here, we would be unstoppable!” Can you relate to this? Now, let’s think about this situation from the perspective of employees. “If we could just get great leaders to want to come to

How Leaders Engage Employees to Show Up

Think of a time when you just read a great leadership book or attended a fantastic leadership workshop and immediately put into action what you learned. Isn’t it a great feeling to uncover a solution to a problem or situation and then take action? Yes, it is fun to continuously learn and improve as leaders!

Supportive Leadership vs. Old School

Getting buy-in on tough decisions from team members is a challenge for many leaders when the change initiatives may be unpopular. For example, let’s say that a company’s owners have made a tough decision to change their employees’ health insurance carriers. This could be a real hassle for many workers—it might mean having to change

Communicating Tough Decisions to Team Members

The game of life rules provide a key and immediate benefit—one that many people do not realize—is that increasing your leadership skills will help you win. And I don’t know anyone that doesn’t like to win! It doesn’t matter what you do for a living – if you exude leadership qualities, you will outperform others.

The Game Of Life Rules — Five Winning Outcomes

There will always be employees whom you cannot reach—team members with goals that do not match those of the organization and who are unwilling or unable to change. What is a Saboteur? It’s important to point out here that a saboteur is not an employee with bad habits such as chronic lateness or inconsistent follow-through