Have you ever felt like you were treading water, or maybe just floating?  You are active, maybe even busy, and you are likely meeting all of your commitments, but you aren’t making any progress, not making any new progress.  Several years ago my sister-in-law Kara stated this as being in maintenance mode.  The description seemed

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Leaders lead others, usually in groups or teams. So, any conversation about effective leadership can’t go too far without discussing how leaders help their teams. People have spent their lives studying the dynamics of teams. These studies include team interactions, how teams form and develop, and the skills needed for team members to be successful. So,

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I’m not a travel agent, and I don’t work for an airline or cruise ship company. This article isn’t about where you should vacation, what places you should visit or what foods you should eat.  For the important point I hope to make in the next few hundred words, those parts of our vacation matter

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I’m in Orlando with most my team athe American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) International Convention.  Last night, our first night here, we went to B.B. King’s Restuarant and Blues Club. Of the many cool things in the place (and how can the place not be cool if it has B.B. King’s name attached to

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Voltaire is attributed with the aphorism “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” You’ve heard others say, “Ready, fire, aim.” I say, “Messy success is better than perfect mediocrity.” And while you may be nodding your head in agreement with one or more of these statements, it doesn’t take long to think, “yes, but what about

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Let’s start with a short thinking exercise . . . Think of every new leader speech you have ever heard.  They will all include “I have an open door policy.”  Does every leader truly practice that policy? If you made a list of leadership clichés, the “open door policy” would likely make the top ten.

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Every leader has, in a formal setting or not, needed to provide feedback on performance. In workshops around the world I have asked people to give me their best tips for providing effective feedback. To a person, leaders create great lists of techniques and approaches. Yet one thing, perhaps the most powerful piece of advice,

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One of the questions I get asked regularly – and more frequently now – is “how do I lead when most (or all) of my team is older than me?” I must admit that I have personally dealt with this situation, but it was some time ago. Now, I suppose I look at this situation

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Joan received an opportunity to lead a large organization in a new industry. Her background prepared her for many of the expectations of the new role, but she didn’t have industry specific knowledge and she didn’t know the company or the people. While she is hardly the first person to be in this situation, she

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Think about your perfect supervisor/manager/leader for a minute. Build a mental list of the attributes that perfect person would possess and think about the words you would use to describe that person. Done? I don’t know what is on your list, but I’d bet the farm on what isn’t. Micro manager. I’ve never met anyone

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