Personal perspectives to help others achieve their leadership goals
Today, leaders have more and more demands on our time. The work from home environment demands more from us as our calendars fill with meetings and changing dynamics at home add pressures we didn’t have before the pandemic. This can put a squeeze on accomplishing “real” work. However, we cannot put aside the development of and care for our employees. We must make a conscious effort to be generous with our time.
Continue reading “Be available”
In today’s environment, fatigue is a primary concern for leaders. The competing priorities of work and personal demands such as online schooling or elder care can tax your team. If we add other environmental challenges from COVID such as restrictions or lockdowns or wearing face masks, employees can be overwhelmed. Perhaps you, too, are carrying more stress as a result.
Continue reading “Fatigue”
People are often promoted to leadership positions based on individual performance demonstrated on the job. Success for high performers often requires a shift in mindset. Many times, these individuals are ill-equipped to lead because their mindset is centered around “doing” vice looking ahead. Today, we’ll look at why vision and building relationships are critical to successful strategic leadership.
Continue reading “Think Strategically!”
The events surrounding the death of George Floyd while in police custody impact us all. The resulting protests highlight frustration, pain, and a deep rooted desire for change. These feelings are valid even as we are dismayed by the portion of events that shifted to riots and violence. This weekend, broadcasts of these protests flashed across our phones and televisions. They sharply contrasted with those of our nation launching a spacecraft via a public-private partnership that sent American astronauts to the International Space Station from US soil for the first time in nine years.
The images of the past weekend simultaneously reveal the worst and best of our nation while we are in the midst of enduring a pandemic that has cost us over 100,000 lives. As the protests reached our region with curfews and lockdowns in Philadelphia we are reminded that racial injustice, in fact – all injustice, is not someone else’s problem but reaches and touches every one of us.
A short week ago, we honored those in the Armed Services who died for our right to be free. In honoring their memories, I wrote that we have an “unwavering commitment to form a more perfect union”.
America cannot be perfect but we can and must work towards it. We must respect our differences, set them aside, and work towards compromise in support of the common good. This work begins locally – right where we encounter the people with whom we interact most – the people we live and work with.
I encourage you to talk with each other. Some of us are angry, hurt, or sad, others don’t know what to say or are afraid what they say will ‘come out wrong’, some are realizing views they once held are shifting and, yes, some do not see a problem.
We are individuals, first. We are also a team comprised of a multitude of backgrounds, ethnicities, sexual and gender identities, religions, political views, physical, mental, or sensory disabilities, and life experiences. That diversity is what makes us good. Embracing each other’s differences, mutual respect, and the inclusiveness that comes from listening and seeking to understand each other is what makes us great. We may not always agree but we must always respect each other and endeavor to see situations through someone else’s perspective.
Some of the people we work with have become friends. Check in with them.
Some are acquaintances. See how they are doing.
Reach out to a coworker you don’t normally talk with to see how their weekend was. Take advantage of the Virtual Walks our social committee have arranged.
Open dialogue. Engage. Listen.
Starting small can achieve big things. SpaceX started with a handful of employees and has now begun a new era in spaceflight.
I’m encouraged by the family atmosphere in our department. We’ve already started small in building strong connections with each other. Let’s fortify those connections and keep it going outside of the department.
It’s a new month today, so let’s turn the page. Not to move on and forget but to dedicate ourselves to truly beginning to engage with others and to actively working on a more perfect union.
Stronger together.
Some of the first advice given to those looking to advance their careers is “Find a mentor!” Usually given by someone who could just offer to be one themselves (but don’t). How do you establish one? What makes for a successful mentoring relationship?
Continue reading “Are you my mentor?”
Everyone knows the story of the emporer who had no clothes. Think back to when you first heard that story. Most people felt sorry for the emperor even if they agree he brought it upon himself. Who felt sorry for his subjects?
Continue reading “The importance of candor”
As I began to compose this final “Leadership in Crisis” series post, I considered “care” to be my last “C” thought on leading well during crisis. After some reflection, I thought it better to illustrate connection and it’s importance in crisis.
Humans crave connection. Whether your teams are teleworking for the first time or are globally dispersed, the additional stressors of crisis require that leaders maintain and focus on connections.
Continue reading “Leadership in Crisis”
Emotional Intelligence. Relationship building. Put all the psychology, leadership trends, and buzz words away and you’re left with Care.
Over time our patriarchal society has infused the workplace with the message that caring is weakness. Terms like emotional intelligence have become popular and if it makes caring seem more acceptable, I’m all for it. Call it whatever name or phrase that you need to so that you do it. It all boils down to caring.
Continue reading “Do you care?”