Building Trust How-To Video Dr. Mary Kay – About Leaders Co-Founder and Ultimate Leader Success System Creator Although the importance of building trust as a leadership tool is discussed in any number of books, many managers do not view trust as a problem-solving tool because of two factors: workplace priorities and pressure to get results.

Building Trust Within Your Team

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