• 6 lessons to improve your approach to servant leadership, reflecting on the topic of servant leadership, there are a six important lessons for entrepreneurs to take to heart, according to Hossein Rahnama, visiting MIT professor and CEO of Flybits. It’s important to embrace a collaborative “try and see” approach and set realistic yet challenging goals for projects.
• Prep time is how leaders rise to the top, leaders should intentionally take time to look at short-, medium- and long-term goals while being careful not to overbook their time, writes Scott Eblin. “They’d rather say no and create a short-term, small disappointment than say yes and create a bigger disappointment down the road by not being able to follow through in a meaningful way,” he writes.
• Do the opposite of this advice if you want happy employees, Bad advice for leaders includes not offering a vision, refusing to give credit or show appreciation and skipping out on one-on-one meetings, writes John Stoker. “If this is the way you lead your team, I can guarantee that turnover will be high, productivity will be lower, morale will be in the tank, and you will not get the results that you desire,” he writes.
• The First and Most Important Skill of a Manager
• The best leaders allow others to lead, leaders who rush ahead of their team miss opportunities to coach and connect with them and instead should allow them to take the lead sometimes, writes Steve Keating. “It takes an Authentic Leader to let their people be out front but out front is where the real growth takes place,” he writes.
• Inspire yourself if you want to spark others
  Inspiration starts with what you’re doing — your goals, words and attitude create the foundation to lead your team, writes Steve Keating. “Remember, your people will do what you do far faster than they will do what you say,” he writes.

• To enhance your leadership reputation, be vulnerable
• 1 Question the Best Leaders Never Ask, but Mediocre Managers Always Do
• Earning Our Wings
• Interesting People: 7 Things They All Have In Common
• How To Overcome The Biggest Problem-Solving Problem In Leadership
• How To Have A Better Relationship With Your Leader
• 5 Ways To Benefit With People You Lead
• Why You Should Never Be A $10,000 Parrott
• 5 Ways to Become an Effective Hybrid Workplace Leader
• Authentic and Vulnerable Leadership: Ways to Put it into Practice Today
• How to Commit to Success Without Being Attached to the Outcomes You Desire
• This Workplace Trend Will Instantly Point to Someone With Exceptional Leadership Skills
• The ‘Great Manager’ Checklist: How do you Rate?
• How to Keep New Hires from Failing: 6 Steps
• A sample calendar for your new hire onboarding program
• 3 reasons saying ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘Thank you’ can change corporate culture, Companies that train their employees in what is commonly referred to as “soft skills” are finding those efforts pay off in productivity and retention. People with soft skills are adept in areas such as interpersonal communication, leadership, problem-solving, and adaptability. But often still missing in the soft-skills department, some corporate analysts say that the willingness to show an even softer side—saying “thank you” and “I’m sorry.”
• 5 characteristics of an empathetic leader, epathetic leaders are self-aware, seek to understand their team, are open to feedback and concerns, but know how to set boundaries, writes Randy Conley. “When everyone has clarity on work boundaries — including rules and expectations — there is tremendous safety and freedom,”
• The Best Leaders Are Imperfect, the best leaders are self-aware, meaning they’ve come to understand their weaknesses and constantly work to improve themselves. If you’re applying for a leadership job, explain how the organization can help you achieve your leadership development goals.

Videos

• Turn This Ship Around
• Go Get What You Are Worth
• The First and Most Important Skill of a Manager
• 6 ways to make truth-telling a team norm, leaders need to create an atmosphere where truth-telling is safe, expected, and rewarded, especially on teams where collegiality prevents people from speaking up. Those unspoken conversations are opportunities foregone, ideas never brought to life, and problems that will remain unsolved.

Articles

• From Critic to Champion: 3 Soft Skills Modern Leaders Need and How To Develop Them, communication, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence (EQ) are three soft critical skills that today’s leaders need to be successful.

• Leaders need to be good writers, too – Being an effective manager requires strong communication skills, including writing. A few tips can help you avoid common traps and raise your game.
• Micromanagement is not the answer – Over-monitoring employees can sink productivity and engagement.  Here are three better ways to get results.
• The modern leadership style: Being, not doing
• Leadership is about people. Don’t forget that, leaders who seek to understand people’s uniqueness, emotions, needs, and potential will still face tough choices, but they’re on the path to success. Here are 10 things that every person has in common in the workplace.
• The modern leadership style: Being, not doing
• 10 questions to measure the effectiveness of senior leaders, use a survey and a ranking system to see if your executive-level leaders are communicating effectively, providing direction, and being positive role models. Just as you measure progress toward desired results regularly, you must measure the effectiveness of your executive team regularly.
• Take control of vocal delivery: Be yourself and be heard
• 3 reasons we fail at leadership and how to overcome them, research by Brandon Hall Group finds companies fail at successful leadership for three main reasons: not implementing a companywide model for how leaders should behave, confusing leadership and management competencies, and failing to scale the development of leaders. Brandon Hall Group’s Claude Werder explains how employers can implement a leadership program effectively.
• The modern leadership style: Being, not doing
• Why Leadership is about Paradoxes, great CEOs do simple but complex things like create a clear vision, instill a strong culture, and emphasize team structures. Leadership is not easy; if you understand it as a series of paradoxes, you will be better able to become the leader you need to be.

• The Leadership Development Playbook
• See what life’s like for employees and customers, CEOs can improve customer and employee satisfaction by occasionally trading places and witnessing friction points that reveal flaws in the high-level strategy. Go small, with a guaranteed outcome, then celebrate the success — and then have another group duplicate your success on another friction point.
• These 5 leadership habits are holding you back, replacing old habits of relentless work, thinking you know more than others, relying on your authority, and avoiding risk with new habits of reflection, collaboration, shared power, and experimentation. To keep up and stay competitive in a rapidly changing, ever-more-complex world, businesses need to change how they operate, and that means leaders must adapt their own behaviors as well.
• The Adaptive Leader
• How To Be A Successful Leader From Home, before the pandemic, working from home was something that a few people did, and a lot more were interested in trying out. Instead, it suddenly becomes a fact of life for entire workplaces and teams, and many of us are still working to adapt. If you’re finding it challenging to manage some elements of working with your team or even staying on top of your own workflow and habits in this new normal, here’s some excellent advice compiled from my clients who are experienced in successfully working and leading from home.”
• Use skip-level meetings to get a fresh perspective, skip-level meetings, or meetings with people two or more levels above or below you, are a valuable way for high-level managers to uncover concerns and hear the feedback they would otherwise miss.
• Should We “Defund” Leadership?

• Questions that can help your team manage technology overload

• This one question can empower employee performance, the question “Have I provided you with what you need to achieve a successful outcome?” helps managers convey that they care about employees and want to empower them with the right resources, writes Tanveer Naseer. The question also invites the employee to speak up about the situation, especially if something is lacking.
• Deliberate leaders choose their words carefully  Choose your words intentionally to give direction and encouragement to employees while avoiding any minimization of their struggles, writes Dan Rockwell. “The right words at the right time become the difference between progress and frustration.”

• Remote relationships need effort to stay strong, Texts, phone calls, and mailed notes are just a few ways to maintain a connection as pandemic-induced remote work drags on, writes Julie Winkle Giulioni. “Your authenticity, vulnerability, and willingness to share more of yourself make it easier for others to connect with you,” she writes.
• Make physical health part of your leadership plan, Being a good leader means showing up at your best, including in terms of physical and mental fitness, writes Skip Prichard, president, and CEO of OCLC. “The muscles we strengthen aren’t just physical, but the mental muscles that give us resilience and the stamina to keep going,” he writes.

• The Language of Leadership

THE ART OF GIVING NEGATIVE FEEDBACK: A 7-STEP APPROACH

Giving feedback is an important leadership task but certainly, not an easy one, especially when the feedback isn’t all sunshine.

Negative feedback requires a leader to motivate, counsel, and criticize in a way that alerts employees to where the problems lie and what must be done to solve them. Fortunately, it’s a skill that can be learned.

Follow this seven-step method whenever giving negative feedback:

1. 1. Tell it like it is. Don’t sidestep the issue; be straightforward and tell the employee exactly your concerns.  Example: “I’m troubled by how you deal with customer complaints.”
   2. Give feedback immediately. Feedback is most useful when given immediately after a particular incident. Effective feedback allows the recipient an opportunity to correct behavior right away.
   3. Paint a specific picture of how you view the situation. Describe what you see happening by using objective details, not subjective opinions. Example: “When you get calls from irate customers, you become short with them and don’t try to hide your irritation.”
   4. Give the lowdown of the outcome. Make sure employees understand the connection between their behavior and the negative results. This lets employees know that they can control the consequences. Example: “I’ve received emails from customers threatening to stop using our company if they continue to receive such poor treatment.”
   5. Give credit where credit is due. That way, employees will know what actions to repeat in the future. Plus, they’ll know you appreciate the effort to do it right. Example: “I know it can be frustrating, but I’m pleased to see that after you quickly pinpoint the problem, you immediately make a return call.”
   6. Reiterate performance expectations. As a leader, you must try to make employees understand what it takes for job success. Example: “Understand that good customer service begins with fielding the complaint; it isn’t just the result of solving the problem. Frustration-management skills are important in this department.”
   7. Use feedback as a means of change, not punishment. A positive reaction is a more likely result when you correct negative behavior rather than punish the offender.

Constructive criticism: 4 helpful hints

1. 1. Beware of communicating your frustration and anger. Otherwise, the recipient will likely feel frustrated and angry and less receptive to your message.
   2. Be flexible. Most situations don’t require you to dictate exactly what needs to be done or how. Giving employees room to maneuver and allowing them to make changes on their own reduces resistance to following your feedback.
   3. Make your point right away. Otherwise, you risk losing focus on the feedback with too much small talk or overwhelming the employee with too many details.
   4. Put the feedback in writing. It helps reduce misunderstandings, allows you to perfect your message before sending it, and is a smart legal move in case of a lawsuit.

4 EMPLOYEE TYPES THAT DRIVE YOU NUTS: HOW TO LEAD THEM

Most workers are relatively easy to lead: They understand that they could be replaced if they don’t finish their jobs. That’s a concept easily grasped. And they’re sharp enough to link their performance with raises, bonuses, and other goody-bag perks, like being able to work from home now and then. They balance competitiveness with civility and usually avoid making a lot of trouble for you.

But every workplace has one employee, maybe two or even more, who is downright challenging to lead. Not through a lack of productivity but through a personality that makes a leader wonder why they became or want to remain leading a team for much longer.

Don’t let a challenging employee infect your entire work group. Here are ten steps to handle all those multiple personalities at work.

Here they are:

1. 1. The entitled. This type comes in two varieties: (1) Those who believe that their skills, knowledge, or mere presence are an absolute necessity to the survival of the organization; and (2) those who have been there so long that they think they’ve earned the right to do things on their terms.

With either prima donna, you have an employee who can quickly douse workplace morale. As a leader, you must find an approach to crack down on this person, as uncomfortable as this might be. Your reputation as a leader rides heavily on it.

Here is one approach, hand out a few rote, low-level, must-do assignments to bring them back to Earth.

1. 2. The connected. Unlike the entitled, the connected pull their strength not from their misguided thoughts but from someone above their head. For whatever reason, they are liked and protected. It’s not so bad when these employees are productive, but that’s seldom the case.

Other employees are keenly aware of the corporate umbilical cord and look for you to try at least to cut it. Document shortcomings for these employees. You might be surprised that your boss will support you when you produce evidence of a genuine poor performer. The CFO’s allegiance to one of your subordinates may not be as strong as you imagine.

1. 3. The self-absorbed. The saving grace for this type is that they are most productive; the downside is that their productivity stays in their sphere.

These folks are not team players and rarely make an overture to help anyone else or see collaboration as a positive thing. Ideas are there but are hoarded, and contributions at meetings are zilch.

There’s an ego at play here. Give it to them, and help them to share their “wealth” with others. Such a person may have low confidence and a high need for recognition.

1. 4. The rabble-rouser. Otherwise known as the office gossip, naysayer, fault-finder, and comedian (at the company’s expense). This person has a magnetic personality that attracts disillusioned co-workers and other misplaced bullies.

Silliness is one thing, but you need to move in fast to stop the rabble-rouser from forming a destructive peanut gallery that thinks everything is a joke: the organization, the policies, their co-workers, and yes, you.

Now isn’t that enough to make you want to turn around and show them who’s boss?

3 MAJOR HINTS THAT POINT TO A LEADER PEOPLE WILL FOLLOW

Leaders who motivate and inspire others typically demonstrate three things.

In the constantly evolving business landscape that we find ourselves in after the pandemic, it becomes crucial to determine whether a leader possesses the skills necessary to thrive. Research and best practices suggest that leaders who are often referred to as “servant leaders” tend to excel in such situations.

Irrespective of the label used, leaders who can motivate and inspire others to exceed expectations typically demonstrate their effectiveness through their actions and behaviors, which stem from their character and integrity. Leaders do not seek personal attention; instead, they divert the spotlight onto their employees and willingly share their power to benefit those under their care.

To delve into practical aspects, here are three of the most prominent leadership behaviors such leaders exhibit.

1. 1. They are selfless. When placed in the privileged role of a leader, the best of them realize that leadership is about meeting the needs of people. In turn, they go against the age-old protocol of most top-down, command-and-control management styles: putting profits ahead of people.
      
      In bottom-up servant leadership cultures, such leaders demonstrate selflessness by putting followers’ interests ahead of their own. This is no small feat, but doing so leads to an unprecedented competitive advantage.
      
      There are several ways leaders can display selflessness in action, including giving their time, energy, wisdom, and knowledge to others; and pouring into people’s growth to make them better, which makes the leader better.
   2. They are exceptional listeners. Active listening is one of the skills that lead to great work relationships and equally great business results. Let’s face it, effective communication these days isn’t just about talking. You need to be able to park your thoughts and be 100 percent present with the other person, free of distraction.
      
      Most people believe they listen well but find it hard to avoid interrupting others while they are speaking or jumping in and to finish someone else’s sentence. This is far from active listening.Active listeners listen intuitively to the other person’s story, ask questions with great curiosity, and search conversations for depth, meaning, and understanding with the other person’s needs in mind. Refer to item No.1.
   3. They serve their employees.  To elevate your impact and influence as a leader, you must remember that leadership is about service and improving those around you. To assess where you are against the high measure of a servant leader, ask yourself, What am I doing every day to improve an employee’s life? If you desire to place others in the position to be their very best, you are well on your way to becoming an exceptional leader.

EVERYONE WANTS 5 THINGS

At the core, everyone wants five things. The only difference is how we describe and pursue what we want.

1. 1. Everyone wants to feel good about their life.

      You might feel good about your life because you feel superior. You’re prettier, thinner, more intelligent, or more successful.

      You might feel good about your life for noble reasons. You care about people, or you show up to serve.Even Stoics, who believe the good life is about logic, feel good about the logical life.

1. 2. Everyone wants to enjoy their work.

      I know you want to enjoy work when you’re frustrated that you hate work. One reason you change jobs is the desire to enjoy work.

1. 3. Everyone wants to matter.

      You didn’t get up this morning thinking, “I hope I don’t matter.” One reason people contemplate suicide is they feel they don’t matter.

1. 4. Everyone wants fulfilling relationships.

      When you feel joy, you want someone to share it with. When you feel angry, you want to tell someone who understands.

      You want people to know your name and understand what matters to you.

1. 5. Everyone wants to achieve something.

      Gamers want to win. Managers want results. Parents want to raise happy kids.

Do you want to dive deeper into better leadership? Become involve in Online-PMOs Community to Excellence (CTE) for Leadership. With your membership and registration into the CTE Leadership you Connect, Learn, Exchange and Share.

Get in touch with others who are experiencing the same thing as you.

• Connect, join like-minded people who are in the middle of creating transformational change at their companies, people who are looking to create positive change for the better.
• Learn, gain new impulses, ideas and strategies. Gain access to readings and exclusive offers as well as all of our downloadable goods.
• Exchange, with other Leaders
• Share, your experiences and hands-on practices with others