The Shocking Trait That Undermines Your Leadership Credibility

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Credibility is the foundation of effective leadership.

Today’s post is by Alain Hunkins, author of Cracking the Leadership Code (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Clint is the co-founder of a software company that’s experienced rapid growth over the past three years.  He’s smart, outgoing, and great in front of customers.  In fact, Clint is the sales team’s go-to to close big accounts.  The sales team has nicknamed him Midas, because everything he touches turns to gold. On top of all that, Clint’s a genuinely nice guy.

However, for all of his strengths, Clint has a tragic flaw.  He’s consistently late for meetings.  Ten, twenty, thirty minutes late is par for the course with Clint, and sometime more.  Clint is also the master of coming up with reasons why he’s late—this customer meeting went long, that operational issue needed his time, the traffic from the airport was atrocious.

However, as much as Clint tries to explain each instance away, his team’s not having it anymore.  Clint’s invisibility is having a visible impact on engagement and morale—from the top straight on down.  Whether he realizes it or not, Clint’s been shooting his credibility in the foot.  It’s hurting his leadership and having an impact on the company.

If you want to be a great leader, and have those you lead perform at their best, the onus is on you to create an effective leader-follower relationship. You set the tone. You lay the groundwork of connection for what that relationship will become. The first step on that journey is establishing your credibility.

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Leadership the AirBnb Way

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Sometimes the best leaders are the ones at the back of the pack, helping to drive everything forward and sometimes they are out front, and other times it benefits to be both, just like AirBnb.

Today’s post is by Joseph Michelli, author of The AirBnb Way (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Around 2007, Simon Cooper was the CEO of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, where I was working with their senior leadership team. Simon and I were exploring how Ritz-Carlton could adapt to meet the needs of changing luxury travelers without losing the company’s legacy customer base. Simon offered an example of the challenges faced by the luxury hotel company in 2008, “I had a guest complain to me that he saw one of our bartenders serve a young guest a bottle of beer without a glass. When I looked into it, I informed the complaining guest that the service was a result of the young guest having asked for his beer to be served that way a day before. That is the challenge … to customize the experience to the guest, ensuring that traditional and new-generation guests are each treated respectfully in accord with their wishes.”

In that same year, two men in San Francisco (Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia) were facing a very different accommodation challenge. They were trying to make rent for their apartment after a third roommate moved out. Since Brian and Joe had recently graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and given that a design conference was coming to San Francisco, the roommates decided to create a make-shift website targeted to conference attendees. They planned to place three air mattresses in the spare room and offer breakfast (in the form of uncooked pop tarts) for $80 per night, per guest, for the duration of the conference. A little over a decade later, that air mattress bed and breakfast arrangement has turned into Airbnb (a company that lists more than seven million properties on its well-evolved digital marketplace – 14,000 listings are tiny homes, 2,500 are tree houses, and 5,000 are castles).

In my book, The Airbnb Way, I detail the business strategy that fueled Airbnb’s meteoric rise. For the purposes of this article, I’ll focus on the three elements of leadership, which set the foundation for Airbnb’s impact on the hospitality sector. Those three components are:

Identification of a Disruptive Gap and Innovation to Fill It

Open Mindsets of Founders and Leaders

Clarity of a Branded Experience

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Burn Out and How to Recover Faster

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20200219 Match Burnout

Career burnout is in no shortage in America, catch it early and recover quick with these tips.

Today’s post is by thoughtLEADERS principal Jon Wortmann.

How tired are you? I ask because even if you practice the best self-care, set boundaries with your time, and manage your exposure to the inevitable conflicts and stress of working with people, you get tired. Performers, leaders, and managers who want to succeed and win will inevitably have tired days. The problem with tired is that it can also go too far. Are you so tired you are burned out?

I have had the privilege of working with diverse school districts and education leaders over the past decade. In preparation for one of my workshops I came across this study. Summary: 93% of the elementary school teachers surveyed were stressed, couldn’t cope, and felt burned out. Only 7% of the cohort had low stress, high abilities to cope, and a low experience of burnout. Is it the same in every industry? At every level of organizations? Do professional athletes and musicians experience the same struggles? It doesn’t have to be.

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How and Why You Should Prepare for More Women in the Workforce

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More women in the workforce will impact your culture and leadership. Understanding the needs of this new model will put you far ahead of your competition.  

Today’s post is by Andreas Wilderer, author of Lean On (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

The number of women in the American workforce has now edged past the number of men for only the second time ever, according to a recent Washington Post article, and we have reason to believe this trend is here to stay. In fact, in 2016 and 2017 the number of women receiving bachelor’s degrees surpassed men by 14 percent.

Meanwhile, over the last 30 years, the percentage of stay-at-home dads has also risen. In the U.S. these numbers have steadily increased from 4 percent to 7 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. In Canada reports show that fathers account for 10 percent of all stay-at-home parents. This is undoubtedly another clear indication that times are changing and that families are beginning to embrace non-traditional roles. The question is, is everyone else?

In my book Lean On, I tell my story about being a stay-at-home dad, married to a successful female executive. Having been in the stay-at-home-dad role for 13 years, I have experienced what it is like for those living in a non-traditional family model.

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5 Skills to Master High-Stakes Communication

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Communication is not only a necessary skill, but it can be the difference between getting the job, saving your company millions, and ultimate workplace harmony.

Today’s post is by Katy Kvalvik.

To be an effective leader, you must be an effective communicator. To be an effective communicator, you must believe in the value of every conversation. Improving the way you communicate can evoke a greater connection in all of your personal relationships and have a positive impact on your professional interactions. According to a new worldwide survey, communication is one of the most highly prized soft skills for talent today.

When the stakes are high, solidify your role as a team player, problem-solver, or indispensable leader by honing these five essential communication skills:

Listen and Be Present

In order to communicate effectively, it is important that you have genuine respect for the other person’s view of the world. All people have different ways of experiencing life and the world around them (different beliefs, values, filters, etc.). By listening deeply in order to understand and respect these differences instead of judging, better and more efficient communication will occur. Effective, deep listening promotes better understanding, reduces conflict, and enhances relationships.

You can improve your listening skills by practicing Objective Active and Intuitive Listening. Objective Active listening is being in the moment and completely focused on the other person. You’re getting the facts versus getting all the details of a subjective story. It’s very effective for problem-solving. Using it in a professional environment helps the listener see facts clearly and arrive at timely, accurate solutions that maximize results.

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Why Authentic Leadership Matters

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The difference between a good leader and a great leader may be their ability to be authentic.

Today’s post is by Katy McQuaid, author of Everybody Loves Grace (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

If you’ve ever worked with an authentic leader, you understand how empowering it can be.  Authentic leaders aren’t very common and once you’ve worked with one, you’ll never want to work with anyone but an authentic leader again.

Why is that?  Because authentic leaders are self-aware, genuine and they lead from the heart – they bring out the best in people. Most importantly, they can be counted on to do the right thing because they know their core values and live by them.  Authentic leaders create an environment where their values are known and they are willing to be held accountable to them; they are transparent.

Ultimately, an authentic leader inspires trust, loyalty, and confidence within their workforce which drives optimal results, mission success, and personal growth. They create an environment where employees can grow and learn by taking risks.  In addition, the authentic leader understands the need to focus on the long-term.  He or she will not sacrifice their long-term vision for a short-term quick win.

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