I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase: God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason – to listen first, then talk! So, as a leader, how good a listener are you? Many people take their listening skills for granted. We often assume we’re listening and others know they are being heard. But many …
Professional Development/
Leadership Skills
How to Start Your Private Peer Coaching Group
Introduction Purpose of This Information The following information and resources are focused on the most important guidelines and materials for you to develop a basic, practical, and successful PCG. The information is intended for anyone, although it helps if you have at least some basic experience in working with groups. All aspects of this offering …
Understanding collaboration begins with the definition of the word itself. Collaboration requires more than telling each other what we are doing (communication), is more involved than planning our work together (coordination) and it is also different from its most common substitute, cooperation (working or acting together for a common purpose or benefit). The definition I …
“I’ve fallen into this trap too many times. In my mind, I tell myself if I’m busy, I’m adding value. The reality is that we can be busy with the wrong things. And, if we don’t discipline our lives, we’ll find ourselves investing a lot of our time with little impact.” Some leaders have this …
Last week I had the opportunity to hear Thomas Lockwood speak about design thinking at the ODN Conference in Baltimore. His ideas support those of others writing on this topic as well as Cairn Consulting’s Situational Thinking. To start let me reinforce his comment that design thinking is not the same as “design,” the former …
“When I gave them their marching orders and they were nodding their heads, I figured they knew what to do and were going to do it.” I recently heard this from a healthcare manager who was not too happy when the project got behind schedule and the blame game took over. Managers can’t mandate employee …
A major difference between leading and facilitating is that a leader often tells; a facilitator always asks. In my book, The Secrets of Facilitation, I described how I learned what I call the fundamental secret of facilitation. I began understanding the secret during my career with the management consulting division of what was then one …
“I hate meetings…they are a waste of time. We just talk, talk, talk…nothings gets done!” Are you in charge of leading meetings? If so, what are your meetings like? Does real work gets done or is it just talk, talk, talk? Here are the top three questions that I’m frequently asked by team and project …
