Want to get others to act on your ideas when you don’t have the power to command them? Or maybe that’s just not your style. Rest assured, there are ways to get the support of others to bring your great ideas into existence.
It’s called influence.
Influence is the art of making your case compelling from the other person’s perspective.
Everybody in a leadership role knows the importance of delegation. If you’re doing everyone else’s work, you’re not doing your own. Plus, well thought out delegation is a surefire way to develop your people. You need to give them a chance to try new things and grow professionally.
From a purely self interested perspective, effective delegation gives you a chance to recover, work reasonable hours and get to your kids’ sports games.
If the benefits of delegation are so well understood, why is this the topic of a lot of my coaching? Why do leaders report that delegation is such a challenge for them?
Most of us have taken a workshop or read a book and gotten so inspired that we fully intended to put it all into practice. We went away determined to be a better listener, let people finish their sentences, or finally achieve the work-life balance we so desired.
Oops…fast forward a week: How many of us immediately slipped back into our old ways?
I'm finding it hard to keep an open heart these days. On so many important issues, people seem more polarized than I could ever have imagined. It seems that the chasm is rapidly growing wider and deeper. The world feels scarier and even more unpredictable than ever. “Conventional wisdom” is no longer a trustworthy indicator of how events will play out.
Many of my clients are interested in simple fixes that can enhance their interactions at home and at work.
They’re looking for small behavioral changes with a big pay off:
What if I told you there’s a simple fix that not only improves the quality of relationships but has also been proven to enhance the bottom line? It’s not a magic bullet, but there might be a ripple effect of positive results if you pay attention to this one thing.
Leaders often feel like they’re between a rock and a hard place. They want to create a workplace culture where people are motivated and engaged. They also must produce solid business results. They know engagement contributes to achieving business results over the long run. But they’re often too busy putting out fires to slow down and focus on the “soft skills.”
Does this sound familiar?
These days, conversations with friends and colleagues have a tone of concern, even anxiety. The presidential election is over. No matter which candidate you favored, it was eye opening to uncover the deep divisions in this country. Confronted with this, it’s tempting to wring one’s hands, get angry or disengage. But I recently learned something encouraging and highly actionable: Happiness spreads.
December 2001 was a time of great turmoil in the world and in my life. The world was still reeling from the events of 9/11 and its consequences. I had just learned that the nonprofit training and consulting business I ran was about to lose the majority of its funding literally overnight. I was faced with the question of whether to stay and rebuild the organization or go out on my own.
Sometimes a book comes along that causes you to fundamentally change the way you think about something familiar.
There’s a new book, TED Talks, which drove home the awesome potency of communication, something I’m afraid I’ve been taking for granted. I ran across a book review written by my colleague Dana Rubin that caused me set aside what I was doing and order it right away. Written by Chris Anderson, the Head of TED, it somehow manages to be both practical and profound.
Meet Jeanine.
Jeanine has a really big change initiative in the works. Here she is in her own words:
“This may not sound like a big deal but I need to rally my family to clean out the attic before winter comes. We’ve got 25 years of stuff stored up there: Christmas decorations, luggage, the kids’ old sports equipment, and who knows what else. We haven’t been able to move around up there for years. Plus it’s really dusty and we’ve got mice and birds in there.
I’ve tackled organizational change efforts with fewer moving parts than this one!
While this post isn’t exclusively about leadership, it does have leadership implications. Everyday life offers many relevant lessons. The natural world, in particular, provides a wealth of learning opportunities.
I don’t know how many of you are gardeners but I have a love-hate relationship with gardening. Being out in the warm weather is delightful. Watching green shoots pop up in early spring offers a thrill of anticipation…. and then there’s the inevitable disappointment.
Here’s a quiz: Without thinking too hard, how would you finish this sentence?
“Creativity is…”
Until recently my first response has been, “creativity is frivolous.” I’ve long struggled with the mental model that creativity is a pastime you pursue only after finishing your real work.
That view has changed dramatically and I’d like to tell you why.
35 years ago, an acquaintance of mine—who was an English teacher—uttered this memorable statement during a dinner in Toronto: “When you open your mouth, your mind is on parade.” I don’t remember the rest of the conversation because I was immediately rendered so self-conscious that I felt like clamping my hand over my mouth. This feeling persisted for weeks after our dinner.
“I’m the front desk person for a child protection agency. Clients come to our office after their children have been taken from them. They are angry, confused, embarrassed, and want their kids back. They don’t see themselves as responsible for what happened. In their view, our agency did this to them.
“These clients often yell and swear at me. I still need to be professional and polite. I’ve been in my job for just a couple of months and already the stress is getting to me. What can I do to defuse these hostile interactions?
