Some thoughts on growing great teams and the leadership ideals that can inspire them: One person who embodies the leadership qualities of growing high performing teams that contribute to developing a Level 5 culture is General (retired) Colin Powell. I had the privilege to serve on his personal staff when he was the Chairman of … Read more
In my ongoing multiple series of blogs, I’ve described the importance of developing leaders in your organization, with the goal of reaching Level 5 leadership. However, there’s an important distinction between Level 5 leadership and a Level 5 culture. Just because you have a corps of strong individual leaders, it does not mean that they are … Read more
You may have encountered this situation before: you’re in a meeting, and the team leader seems to be using it as an opportunity to remind everyone who is running things, dominating the conversation and setting the agenda without any consultation. Maybe you haven’t been part of a situation quite as severe as that, but it … Read more
Listening can feel harder to do than ever. There’s always going to be outside distractions. Emails, texts, meetings, presentations, it can seem to go on and on. It can be easy to get lost in a sea of noise. How do we become better listeners? One tool to do so is called the backbrief. The … Read more
Moving up the ladder of an organization can sometimes feel like you’re leaving others behind, especially if you’ve grown to become friends with your team members. If you are now in a leadership position over former equals, how do you remain objective? How do you avoid moving too far out on the “thin ice of … Read more
One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned as a leader is embodied in The Big Six® principle, “Trust and Empower.” It wasn’t that I didn’t want to empower others; yet, I always seemed to drift back into being more controlling. And, throughout my career, I had to continuously step back and try to see myself … Read more
