Author: Jan Hovrud
Coaching is a critical aspect of every leader’s job.
Meeting with team members provides you with an opportunity to remove obstacles to success, brainstorm strategies for improvement, identify and develop strengths, assess career direction and gage job satisfaction.
Guiding individuals to be their best involves connecting in a meaningful, supportive way.
Remember the first time you rode a bike without training wheels?
There was a critical moment where you decided to try it even though you were afraid. Most likely, there was someone nearby coaching you and letting you know you were ready.
It’s much the same with building trust into your leadership. People who trust their leader will follow him/her even when the outcome may be scary or the change difficult to accept.
Trustworthiness is developed by a number of actions that you consistently take. They need to be demonstrated sincerely and equally with team members.
William Bridges outlines specific ways to build trust in his book, Managing Transitions – Making the Most of Change.
A few years ago on vacation in Mexico, my husband and I visited a water park. There we experienced a float bridge of sorts.
While crossing the water, the bridge ebbed and flowed with our every movement. The more resistance that we showed the more the bridge seemed to want to dump us into the water.
It was clear, we learned with experience, that we needed to “go with the flow” in order to safely get across. Be flexible and we would make it.
Flexibility, as defined by Reuven Bar-On, author of the EQ-instrument, is the “ability to adjust one’s feelings, thoughts and behavior to changing situations and conditions.”
Leaders who demonstrate strong emotional intelligence are able to better build relationships, drive teams to improve performance, adapt to change and deal with difficult job demands.
In a national study of over 1000 working Americans aged 18 and over done by Legar Marketing and Multi-Health Systems, stress was found to have a detrimental effect on emotional intelligence.
Continue reading “Stress, Workplace Success and Emotional Intelligence”
Today’s workplace has a broad range of religious and political beliefs, genders, cultures, generations, races and lifestyles. These powerful aspects of others and ourselves provide daily communication and connection challenges.
Without thinking we could easily appear intolerant and insulting. Our actions can be “lost in translation” without self-awareness and sensitivity.
In the article, “Can You Speak the Language of Business with other Cultures?”, by Elisabete Miranda, the author outlines ways to support diversity and educationally grow in understanding others.
Suggested actions include:
What actions and behaviors differentiate you as a promotable employee?
Margaret Steen, author of “10 Habits Bosses Love”, outlines some of the best ways to get noticed.
Ever notice how ideas come to you at the least likely times and places? Like when you are running, in the shower or right before you go to bed? Yet when you are in a time crunch you have to try to get ideas to come to you.
In a workplace study done by the Harvard Business Review, it was found that participants were least creative when on a tight schedule — and especially if deadlines were imminent. However, since creativity stems from the subconscious you have the ability to nudge your thinking in the right direction.
Try these tips:
How big is your world? Social Responsibility, one of the fifteen competencies of Emotional Intelligence, involves being a cooperative, contributing and constructive part of a team or community.
Instead of self-absorption, social responsibility focuses on the betterment of all and interpersonal sensitivity. It has an outward focus aimed at the ability to accept others, use talents and act in a responsible way to move people/projects forward.
Continue reading “The Legacy of Service—Social Responsibility”
Leaders walk a fine line of humility. We have all known a leader who was self-centered, arrogant, egotistical or the like.
This excessive confidence can manifest itself in mistakes, solo decision-making, failure to see consequences, dysfunctional teams, and superficial relationships.
Leaders constantly must balance the confidence they need to succeed with the danger of an overbearing ego.
Networking situations cause people to stress out over what should be said. But networking doesn’t mean doing all of the talking.
The world abounds with free and interesting information if you just take the time to be seriously curious and listen. Writer Fran Lebowitz says, “The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.”
Unfortunately, many people act that way in conversations—impatiently waiting instead of listening. The goal of listening during networking is to get your partner to elaborate. This enables you to learn more and work to build a relationship.