Dear Madeleine, Our company is providing group coaching for all managers at my level. I have never worked with a coach before, but they have given us a bunch of information so (I think) I am comfortable with what coaching is and what is expected of me. My one area of confusion is this: they…
Dear Madeleine, It’s the new year. All my friends and colleagues are talking about New Year’s resolutions. I got nothin’. I am plugging away at my work goals, but they don’t change much. I like my job. I am good at it. I am not gunning for a promotion. I go to the gym and…
Research conducted by Gail Matthews, a professor of psychology at Dominican University in California can help increase your chances of goal success from 43% to 76%. In working with 149 adults from different business and networking groups, Matthews found that Those who wrote their goals accomplished significantly more than those who did not write their goals.…
Let me go out on a limb here. You’re probably reading this article because you’re contemplating resolutions you’re going to set for the New Year, right? You don’t have much confidence in keeping your resolutions because you’ve failed repeatedly in the past (surveys show only 8% of people keep their resolutions), so you’re looking for…
Do you have fun at work? Do you try to promote a laughter-filled workplace? These are questions I ask myself on a daily basis. And honestly, who doesn’t to work in a positive, fun, happy work environment? The results are clear: Less stress, more engagement, higher commitment. Plus, when you create a culture of fun,…
“Proceed with caution in the direction of your hopes, and live safely, the life have.” —Hank Dave Locke Mediocre is a good. Moderate quality is ok. “Average is the norm,” as Yogi Berra might say. Today’s world is complicated—every segment of society is continually changing and very little seems to be certain anymore, like it…
I had a message this morning from an old university house mate. She’s just agreed to sign up for a marathon, with wine. It’s the Marathon du Médoc, in France, if anyone else is insane enough to run 26.2 miles with 23 wine stops. She knew I’d run a marathon before, and she wanted my…
A few months back, I asked a group of leaders for a show of hands on who had experienced either oversupervision or undersupervision. Almost every hand went up. But then I asked how many had themselves oversupervised or undersupervised their direct reports. Only one or two hands shyly peeked out from the crowd.
So what’s going on? Well, leaders can sometimes be unaware of what they should and should not be doing. And this lack of awareness separates good leaders from great leaders. Great leaders know that leading is a never-ending journey that can be filled with treacherous obstacles.
So what do you need to know to become a great leader?