I have felt confused and disappointed for the last three weeks, when I wrote the 3-part series on how to clear the air with “I feel…when you…because” statements, and when I did not get any comments from readers; because I feel like this method offers so much value, yet your collective silence made me wonder … Continued
Dang it was a hard week. On the last day of the prior week, at the end of a wonderful time at Lake Michigan, I threw out my back (doing yoga, of all things). Crooked, bent and thus more than a little irritable, I returned to Berkeley to welcome and teach forty-two 30-and-40 year old … Continued
Last week’s Read2Lead post promised to tell you “how to take a leap forward in leadership effectiveness.” In the post, I was reveling in how I had received specific coaching from a student. His feedback was entirely new to me and thus promised me – and I think it is delivering – behavior that will … Continued
I sincerely believe I am going to leap forward in my teaching-leadership this week, because I got a great gift a week ago. The context for the gift was my sending students an email last weekend. In it, I told them that I was seeking a few individuals who would take turns offering me coaching … Continued
Everyday Leadership means you don’t need no stinkin’ boss to tell you what to do. You have your own value and values, your own initiative and instincts. Sure, the boss is “above” you, but they may not be smarter, kinder, or more effective. And even the owner . . . don’t own you! They should … Continued
I led a workshop last week in San Francisco for the Institute for Management Studies, and I was reminded again about how bosses can make their people miserable. This is about how not to do that! Among the 40 or so participants there were about six ghosts, managers the participants had left behind at their workplaces, … Continued
You can make the same shift as 99 students of whom I am greatly proud. They inspire me to make the same choice that I commend to you today. They chose to improve, rather than to prove. I’ve had a 100 undergrads this semester. I required that they take the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (360), … Continued
One of the favorite classes I teach is on giving feedback. It’s an art. And it’s a science, whose inner laws were taught me by my friend and mentor Mary Ann Hastings. I keep learning to “paint” with the feedback brush and to refine my understanding of the scientific laws of feedback. Last week I … Continued
My friend Miss Take – the professor of the school of lessons-from-experience — taught me a good one again this week. It was a “dad mistake,” but reminiscent of “boss mistakes” I’ve seen and boss mistakes I’ve made. In short, I forgot that central authority figures speak with a megaphone, even when they think they’re … Continued
This marks the final column, and to me, the most interesting data from our mini-research inquiry on managerial coaching. While the first two were about how frequently people would like to be coached, today’s data is about the what – On what do we like to be coached? Before we jump to the findings, however, a … Continued