Management Skills
When you are a leader, it can be difficult to get candid feedback from those who work for you, which is where the concept of a personal board of directors is helpful. A personal board is a group of individuals that can help you make sound decisions, give you advice and feedback, challenge your assumptions, brainstorm ideas, and generally expand your thinking. Who do you want on your personal board?
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You know you have to give someone feedback, but the idea of giving constructive feedback has you in knots. What’s the best way to say what you need to say so it is productive for everyone? Learn four frameworks for feedback conversations you can use to deliver feedback in a candid, compassionate, and productive way.
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If you can learn to see feedback as a gift, you will increase your capacity to have difficult conversations, which will improve your relationships at work, your team’s performance, and the culture of your organization.
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The higher up you climb in an organization, the more valuable feedback tends to be. The problem is, the more power you have, the more difficult it is to get honest feedback. This presents a huge dilemma to leaders who want the honest truth about where they need to grow. Find out what you can do as the leader to encourage honest, direct feedback from your team.
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We all have the same 24 hours in each day. You must use your time wisely – in a way that meets your strategic initiatives at work and your personal goals simultaneously. Creating and communicating strategic boundaries is the best way to focus your time and resources on high-impact, mission-critical efforts and activities.
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Most leaders don’t get what they really want or need from their teams because they don’t know how to ask for it. Here are nine things to consider to ensure your next request is a productive one.
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Most people think of manipulation and deceit when they think of power at work. However, power is often misunderstood – and it is not inherently bad. The more you understand power, the more power is accessible to you. Learn about 11 types of power and find tips on how to gain more power at work.
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We must cleanse our organizations of the negative stigma of direct communication, and replace it with the sense of generosity. Saying something that needs to be said is a gift that strengthens people, teams, and organizations if done with care. Here is how to balance compassion and candor in your communication.
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Self-awareness is the cornerstone to strong leadership. If you are a leader, you must be aware of where you fall short if you are to close the gap between where you are and where your organization needs you to be. Because you cannot fix a problem you are unaware of, you have to be proactive about discovering your blind spots. Here are 10 ways to gain a more complete picture of who you are as a leader.
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When most people are listening, their minds are elsewhere. By contrast, active listening is when you place all of your focus on the speaker – paying attention at 12 distinct levels. Find out what they are and how to practice them – to establish trust in your relationships, build psychological safety on your teams, and deepen your connections both personally and professionally.
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Psychological safety is the secret ingredient that sets highly effective teams apart from those that are average or under-performing and the reason some teams retain long-term superstars, while others have high turnover. Once you understand what it is and why it’s so important in team cultures, you can begin to take some steps to foster more of it in your organization and environment, and ultimately create a team everyone wants to work for.
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Moving too fast can cause errors, self-centeredness, misunderstandings, lack of innovation and strategic thinking, chaos, and so much more. Yet … it is what we do all the time. Here are six slow-down strategies for fast movers that will leave you more productive and engaged.
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How would it feel to create discipline in your life that enables your time and attention to be fiercely loyal to what’s most important to you? Let’s explore screen/life balance, focusing on long-term over short-term goals, setting boundaries, winning against temptation, and other ways to be more intentional with your attention.
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What does it mean when you hear the phrase executive presence? Find out what it takes to build executive presence, and what nine competencies are key if you want to master this important skill.
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The simple act of listening – real, conscious, active listening without judgment or advice-giving – can be life changing. Yet most people only retain 25% of what they hear. Learn how to practice conscious listening to connect better with those around you.
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It may seem liberating to live in a world where variety is abundant. However, too many decisions can negatively impact your cognitive capacity, increasing the likelihood of procrastination, making poor choices, and setting you up to be exhausted and overwhelmed.
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While the thought of waiting for something you want or need seems easy in theory, it is much more arduous in practice. The good news is that for even the most impatient people, patience becomes easier with practice. Here are seven strategies you can use to get better at being patient.
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As an ICF Certified Executive Coach, Melissa partners with leaders to develop their executive presence, strategic and systems thinking, resilience, communication skills, and influence in order to reach their goals. Melissa is passionate about supporting leaders and teams on their growth journeys toward greater impact, more collaborative teams, and stronger results.
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