Communications – Page 3 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

Don’t Pay It Back: How Positive Influence Leaders Pay It Forward

August 31, 2020/0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Career, Communications, Leadership /by Ryan Shaw

Positive influence leaders make a big impact on the people they encounter and the outcome of that positive leadership is to pay it forward and help others.

Today’s post is by Glenn Parker, author of Positive Influences.

Singer/songwriter Taylor Swift donated $1 million to the V Foundation for Cancer Research, but she also gave $50,000 to the nephew of one her backup singers who was being treated for cancer. It’s clear that people who have benefitted from a positive influence in their life tend to be a positive force in the lives of many of the people they encounter.

Research indicates that some people take their experience of being on the receiving end of a positive influence leader and look for opportunities to have a similar impact on people they encounter in their work life. They can point to specific people they have impacted and the positive outcomes of those encounters. We also found that others have adopted a more generalized approach to people that seeks to have a positive influence on everyone in their orbit.

How well do people in your organization take ownership for problems or issues?

August 27, 2020/0 Comments/in Communications, Leadership, Poll, Training /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: How well do people in your organization take ownership for problems or issues?

Extremely well: When people see a problem, they actively make sure it gets fixed no matter what. 7.70%
Very well: People work to fix most problems and own issues pretty well. 36.60%
Well: People take ownership of bigger issues, but smaller ones tend to slide by. 20.28%
Not very well: People infrequently take ownership of issues and tend to pass the buck. 27.27%
Poorly: No one wants to own anything, and they work hard to pass things to others. 8.15%

Less finger-pointing. While 65% of you indicate people in your organization do a decent job of taking ownership for problems, the 35% who say it doesn’t happen is a significant portion of respondents. Ask yourself how you can change that dynamic as well as how you might be causing some of it. Do you take ownership every time for every issue? Do you set a good example? Do you blame others when there are issues? Your people take their cues from you. If you complain about other departments not doing their job or you tell your team members to just let another group handle things, you might be feeding into this culture. This doesn’t mean you have to own the full resolution of every problem that comes your way, but you should consider taking an active role in moving it forward toward resolution. Culture is the sum of our daily behaviors over time. Are your daily behaviors creating the accountability culture you want to have? If not, change the behaviors.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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How Great Stories Create Great Performance from You and Your Team

August 24, 2020/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership, Sales, Upcoming Events /by Ryan Shaw

Here are six great ideas to move performance from good to great. From the stories you tell to your own bold moves others will be telling stories about for years to come, you can build perseverance, passion, and engagement.

Today’s post is by Paul Smith, thoughtLEADERS instructor and author of Sell With a Story.

Here’s an easy way to learn some new leadership skills – in easy-to-digest 10-minute podcasts you can listen to at your convenience.

These podcasts are based on interviews with 100 executives and leaders at dozens of companies around the world. Each episode brings you an important leadership lesson through a single compelling story.

These next 6 episodes will help you learn to do remarkable things other people will talk about, lead your team to love what they do or find the perseverance to press on even in the face of defeat or ridicule, move their performance from good to great, and learn 5 steps to giving more effective feedback.

Staff meetings your employees won’t try to crawl out of

One of the perhaps less-than-obvious ways to help the people who work for you to find passion for their work, is to remove the things they’re decidedly dispassionate about – starting with your staff meetings.

Perseverance: The Pringles Story

Perseverance in the face of defeat is a required character trait in sports and politics. You have to lose a few games and races on the road to the Super Bowl or to Washington. Here’s what it looks like when you demonstrate perseverance in business.

The Jittery Compass: Moving your performance from good to great

What are your expectations of team members when it comes to their development?

August 20, 2020/0 Comments/in Communications, Leadership, Poll, Training /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: What are your expectations of team members when it comes to their development?

They are 100% in charge of their own development. 5%
They should drive their development, and I provide some resources. 41&
We should partner equally on their development plans and actions. 51%
I should drive most of their development efforts with their assistance. 7%
I am 100% responsible for their development. 1%

Individuals drive their development. 92% of you state that the individual needs to drive their own development with some assistance from you. While they’re responsible for driving it, be sure you give them the resources they need to do so. Guidance on skill gaps, suggestions on ways they can fill those gaps, access to training, funding for coursework, time away from their desks to develop, and growth opportunities in their roles are things only you can provide. You can tell them they need to drive their development but if you don’t support them with appropriate resources, they’ll get frustrated, disillusioned, and eventually look for a leader who will invest in their development. There are more opportunities than ever to help people learn – guide them to those options and put the conditions in place where they can take advantage of them.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

The last time you provided difficult feedback, how did it go?

August 13, 2020/2 Comments/in Communications, Leadership, Poll, Training /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: The last time you provided difficult feedback, how did it go?

The reaction was much better than I expected. 36%
The reaction was about what I expected. 54%
The reaction was much worse than I expected. 11%

It’s not as bad as you expect. While many of you got pretty much what you expected the last time you delivered difficult feedback, more of you were positively surprised by the reaction than negatively surprised. That’s not surprising. Giving feedback is a stressful process. We don’t like delivering tough messages and we mentally prepare ourselves for conflict going into the conversation. Recognize that people appreciate being told when something isn’t going well. The vast majority of people want to do better and are happy to hear ways they can do that. To get more comfortable with delivering tough feedback, use a standard feedback model that provides facts first, then interpretation, then a call for action. By starting with the facts, you remove emotion from the situation and people are much more willing to hear what you have to say rather than getting defensive and debating it.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

August 10, 2020/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Ryan Shaw

Emotional intelligence is no longer a ‘nice to have’ in the workplace, but a ‘must have’ to be effective in the modern workplace.

Today’s post is by Asha Tarry.

Emotional intelligence skills are those important soft skills that are now reaching the desk of more and more leaders. It used to be targeted as a set of skills that belonged to customer-driven and service industries. However, we are learning there are people who are inept at having those important, emotional, human skills which connect people and build strong teams. That is why emotional intelligence is now being considered an important asset for employees.

We need to reevaluate how we review resumes. It matters that employees have a good grip on soft skills. For example, being an effective communicator, and being able to adapt to the different styles in which people work, should become required skills. Most people want to avoid certain emotions at work, but that is where they spend most of their time. That is why emotional intelligence should not be limited to helping just customer-driven industries or education workers.