Guest article by Bill Yeargin Pete, a recent MBA graduate early in his career, approached me at an industry meeting with an obvious question on his mind. He had taken leadership classes as part of his grad school program and understood leadership theories but not the pragmatic side. He wanted me to make it simple:

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Empowerment is a great thing. Empowered employees show greater commitment, stay more engaged, and create better results. Empowered employees take more initiative and get more done than employees who work in a fear-based, command-and-control environment. As a new supervisor, you may have heard and read about these organizational performance results, and then decided that you want

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Think about how it feels when you are misunderstood after communicating with someone. None of the emotions are positive, and none of the outcomes are likely very good for the communication and perhaps the relationship. Misunderstandings can come directly from our words. But more often, the root of misunderstanding is a disconnect between the sender’s

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Picture this… You’re working on a project, and you’re giving what you believe to be your best effort to get things right and to deliver the project on time. One day, your supervisor comes to you to offer some “feedback” on your performance. Where does your mind go? Do you think “great, I was looking

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You’ve got questions, and we’ve got answers. Hi, I’m Kevin Eikenberry, answering the questions that new leaders ask us. Actually, it’s our goal to help all leaders become more productive, successful, and confident. And that’s why I’m here right now. If you have to be watching us on YouTube, we’re glad you’re here. Make sure

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The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines communication as: “a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior.” The word that strikes me in that definition is “exchange.” That means that communication is more than just delivering information, it is exchanging it. And too much of the time, we

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Delivering performance feedback to members of your team is part of your role as a leader. While performance feedback is not necessarily negative, that is the type of feedback most people think about when I mention “performance feedback.” In a quick review of articles and blog posts, I found no references to delivering positive feedback

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You have to give presentations and giving a presentation or communicating one to many is an incredibly valuable and important skill, both for you and for the people you’re presenting to. It’s also something that lots of people don’t like doing, and so consequently they don’t do it very well. So when we get better

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