So you’ve overcome your own discomfort about giving feedback…but then you are faced with someone who takes everything as a negative, someone who thinks you are picking on them. How do you address that? First, look to yourself. How objective are you being when you give that feedback? In other words, what real-life example are
For leaders
Get rid of your apprehension about difficult conversations once and for all
There is something really fundamental that we need to grasp if we are to change our behaviors around giving feedback. Recognize that without feedback, transformative change is impossible. The other person cannot read your mind. In fact, leaving things unsaid, both positive and constructive, leads to a gap that your people will fill. They will start
Taking the Leap
Today’s post comes from Penny Gundry (who also wrote A different kind of resilience). As you read this, don’t automatically think about changing roles (though that might be right for you); think more broadly about the change you might need to instigate for yourself. Penny writes… I was talking to a woman the other day
Engaging People. Driving Value. Not Quite a Social Experiment.
Today, we are honoured to have a guest blog from one of our company’s UK People Oscar Winners, Abidemi Ogunbowale-Thomas. Abidemi writes….Even within the hedges of pragmatism, the ability to pay attention to detail and a ‘respect for the art’ are two key traits that drive me to do things properly or at least with a certain level of
A different kind of resilience
This blog post comes from a coaching friend of mine, Penny Gundry. She specialises in resilience, and in conversation the other day, we were talking about how there are periods in our lives when we have lots of energy and can push ourselves, and there are times when we have so much “stuff” going on
Nobody is perfect – not even you
Note to supervisors: if you are expecting your people to be perfect, look in the mirror! Are you perfect? No. Well, nor are they. And your job is to help them to get closer to high performance (notice I don’t say perfection there, as that’s not terribly measurable – let alone achievable). Stop thinking that
Holding supervisors accountable for developing people
Following on from Kings and Kingmakers, and Supervisor and Supervisor-Makers, let’s see what the research says… Bersin research shows that organizations in which senior leaders “very frequently” hold their direct reports accountable for helping middle managers achieve goals have much better business results. They go on to say that: Senior leaders need to ensure that their direct reports are
Supervisor and Supervisor-Makers
Today’s post relates directly to that sentiment from Kings and Kingmakers, that every leader (at every level) should be developing leaders in their team. I heard a story the other day about people being promoted to BIG supervisory roles with little or no previous experience of supervising. What I mean by a BIG supervisory role is
Kings and Kingmakers
I came across a company the other day, which offers a program called Kings and Kingmakers. It struck me as a perfect analogy for what we need to do in business. We have lots of Kings – leaders at all levels. What differentiates the best kings/leaders (in my view) is whether they bring their people
The David Brent Effect: managers think they are better than they are
I read this article this week, and it reminded me why asking for feedback is so important, to give us a reality check. Take a read, and see what you think. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9241721/The-David-Brent-effect-managers-think-they-are-better-than-they-are.html Do you think you are better than you are, as a supervisor? Or are there things you could do differently, better, more of, less
Get the monkey off your back
I want to offer you a challenge…to change one small supervisory habit. You may have read my post about keystone habits – those habits that have a ripple effect on other habits, and on the people around us. Ok, so what is the habit? It’s about being “Quick to Ask, Slow to Tell”. So when
Building Collaboration Muscle
We all know that it takes frequent and consistent effort to build our body’s muscles. It’s the same with habits. We need to practice new habits frequently and consistently in order to see different results. So when I decided that I wanted to become better known as a leadership and coaching expert in the external
Feisty Feedback
Hop on over to 3dCoaching, where I have written a guest blog this week about Feisty Feedback. It’s getting some great feedback!
Keystone Habits for supervisors?
Charles Duhigg, in his book The Power of Habit, writes about keystone habits….those habits that have a ripple effect into other parts of our work and lives. I am working on a project to identify the keystone habits for supervisors, and I’d love to hear your perspectives. So how do we identify a keystone habit?
Structure, Stimulation and Strokes
I’ve been reading (and have shared some via twitter if you want to check them out) a lot of blog posts in the past few days about New Year’s Resolutions. Anyway, in a similar vein, I’d like to encourage all of you supervisors out there to adopt a New Year’s Resolution to give your people more structure,
To Coach or Not to Coach
To wrap up our coaching success stories, we are lucky enough to have a guest post from Tom Rausch, who helps us to figure out when to coach and when to use other leadership styles. Tom writes: Many leaders new to coaching struggle with the decision about when to coach and when to employ a more
