Good leaders need to be reasonable managers, able to make sure the important stuff gets done from day to day, but a true leader’s potential is discovered and exercised during times of business transformation. It is in those times that the leaders truly change the world.
Lessons for leadership. The holidays are a stressful time for all of us, when we struggle with work-life balance (or not) and work to serve our business and our families with equal gusto, too often at the expense of ourselves. This month when things are so crazy, I’m reminded that the holidays are...
A PRIME is a pattern or principle that reliably comes into play when people gather in a group. This observable pattern – once named and shared with the group – goes from being an unconscious pattern to a manageable dynamic. Use the PRIMES to increase your team’s power. A powerful group makes a more powerful leader.
Throughout my career I’ve had experiences with government, nonprofit and corporate cultures, and I’ve noticed a leadership pattern in all three that leaders can learn from. Consensus means different things to different people. Be brave. Do Your Job. Don’t take the ”easy” path. The word consensus...
In a recent leadership development workshop I facilitated, one woman bravely spoke her truth about the reality of the toxic corporate culture they all worked in. It was dysfunctional. Managers were petty and their pettiness was only overshadowed by the pettiness of the leaders above them. All...
To everyone but us, we were a power breakfast. Meeting early at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington DC, we were strategists behind an international organization representing 160 of the biggest companies and Non Governmental Organization (NGO) nonprofits in the world. The Director, on a trip...
What does it mean to be IN power when you’re working for yourself? The answer to that question, I believe, is meaningful for all of us – even those with bosses who climb the corporate ladder, live in cubes or on airplanes, slogging away on either side of the glass ceiling (which is there for some...
I just read a great article by Richard Boyatzis detailing the brain science behind “emotional contagion.” I find this particularly interesting in the context of corporate culture, having observed some pretty toxic bosses “infect” their staffs and encourage cultures where competition, backstabbing, emotional abuse and just plain incompetence were so rampant that you could feel the powerlessness and despair when you walked in the door.
The good news is that the ability to emotionally infect your staff and teams can be used for good by leaders who understand their responsibility to foster a positive environment and culture where others are in their power and able to perform at their best. To be a good leader, then, you need to…
Buddhists and psychologists alike tell us that non-attachment to outcomes is the key to success. There is tremendous value in thinking this way - and it's a key component of my executive coaching work on speaking truth and building your internal power. Non-attachment from the culture around you is...
Even when I left Corporate America, I didn't leave. For at least a few years I think I was still caught in the corporate culture trance as I contracted in semi-permanent positions. It was lucrative and fun, but I didn't really experience the freedom of the outside until later. Freedom can be...
