Category Archives: Leadership Skills

Podcast Interview – Learn how to Crack the Leadership Code

What’s the number one skill every leader needs to have? The ability to be a great coach to others, according to a 2018 Gallup survey. That allows them to get more from their people, helping them each to reach their highest potential and become leaders in turn.

Now, we’re going to delve into what makes a great leader. Work to model the top qualities of a leader, and you’ll see your whole team reach greater heights.

1. Trustworthiness.

To mentor people effectively, you need to create trust with them. Make sure they feel comfortable coming to you with questions and speaking to you about concerns or challenges they are facing. At the same time, you need to feel comfortable being direct with them about their performance rather than sugar-coating feedback. That straightforwardness will help them to trust your judgment and have trust in you as a leader. Give frequent … Continue reading The Top 5 Qualities of a Great Leader →

Haleigh had been working for months to enhance others’ perception of her. She felt like she was slipping under the radar and needed to increase her visibility in her organization. After taking on several high-profile projects and solving one major problem that had been troubling her boss, she knew she had met those goals. Now she found herself at an interesting juncture in her career: She was thriving in her role, and she felt certain that new opportunities were bound to open up soon. What should she focus on, now that she’d met those goals?

Perception and visibility are the two pillars supporting influence. In other words, they’re prerequisites for cultivating influence over others at work. Now that Haleigh had developed both of them, she was ready to start exerting her influence throughout her organization.

To recap on the first two components of the PVI model, ensuring … Continue reading How to Influence Others at Work →

Gregor runs a small franchise with employees that come and go.  He works hard to keep his employees, and does better than most.  Still, the nature of the business creates a paperwork chaos.

He knows his records are not in the order they need to be. As a matter of fact, they are in boxes in his garage.

A brush with litigation made Gregor realize it was time to get things straightened out. “I knew I had to manage my risk better.  If this had gone to court, I might have been in a mess just because I couldn’t find the right documentation,” Gregor said.

1. How Long Must Records be Kept?

The first step in Gregor’s risk management plan was to find out what the laws were on retaining employee records. He searched the internet and came across a myriad of information.

Hiring records? One year, … Continue reading Are Your Employee Records Keeping Systems Putting You at Risk? →

Client Ann Asks: I worry that we are not standing out from the competition. My IT Director says that we can gain a competitive advantage through information technology, but I’m not sure how to do this. Can you give me some ideas?

Coach Joel Answers: Ann, you are right on target. It’s vital that your company outshine other similar companies in order to maintain market share. You need things that help you work smarter, faster, and at a cheaper cost. Information technology can help you do all of that.

Let’s look at nine ways to improve your bottom line, support the team effort, handle paperwork, and gain more loyal customers.

When you employ some of these IT systems, you’ll feel more in control, you’ll save time, and you’ll see results.

1. Web Presence.

Help your business be easily … Continue reading Nine Ways to Stand Out From Your Competition →

Chris Asks:  My question has to do with a specific skill: multitasking. I am horrible at it. Can anyone in management still be a great leader without multitasking skills?

Joel Answers:  The value of multitasking is overrated. In fact, several recent studies indicate that it is better to focus on one task at a time. Multitasking has been shown to negatively impact memory and IQ, make it harder for you to learn new things, and even cause accidents, resulting in several states making it illegal to do two seemingly simple things at the same time: drive and talk on the phone.

Here are some of the disadvantages of multitasking:

Attention and memory loss.

People who frequently juggle various types of electronic communications and media have trouble focusing their attention, take longer to switch between tasks, and don’t perform as well on memory tests as those who … Continue reading Multitasking Is Overrated: The Disadvantages of Multitasking →

Successful leaders implement strategies that motivate and empower their employees while avoiding common pitfalls. A business leadership and motivation training course teaches managers how to do both. Managers who have strong leadership skills are able to nurture their employees’ strengths and help them develop their skills to improve their performance.

7 Leadership Mistakes Ineffective Managers Make

There are seven main traits that the American Management Association has found that most ineffective managers share. Managers who want to improve their leadership skills should strive to avoid these undesirable traits:

Not being sensitive to employees’ needs. Being arrogant or distant. Sharing information that should be kept confidential. Not controlling their ambition. Not delegating work and failing to get employees to work together as a team. Inability to choose the right staff when hiring. Inability to make strategic plans to achieve … Continue reading Are You Making Any of These 7 Leadership Mistakes? →

With the current state of the economy, the trend in the workplace is to “play it safe.” Some employees feel that if they hide in the shadows and continue to do their job without getting noticed, they’ll have a safe and secure career.

In my experience I’ve constantly seen people just do enough to keep a job. These are the same people who never see a promotion and are the first to go when the company downsizes.

Organizations look for leaders—those who innovate, think outside the box, and improve the company’s bottom line. In today’s economic culture, playing it safe just doesn’t cut it. If you can stand out, create influential relationships, and do more than what is asked of you, you’ll gain both job security and success.

Playing it safe can be detrimental to your career.

Take a risk.

If you’re looking for Continue reading When It Comes to Your Career, Playing It Safe Is Risky →

The Internet is chock full of articles on leadership skills, studies on management styles, and theories of executive efficacy. A search for a keyword as specific as “leadership and management skills” yields 15.8 million results. With so many differing models of leadership and competing management frameworks, it’s difficult for executives to know where to turn for true research-based advice.

Ironically, Google has the answers for us—but not via one of its searches. A 2011 study by Google’s Project Oxygen found that virtually all of the company’s best-performing executives demonstrated eight core leadership skills. Google’s social scientists and statisticians based their findings on over 10,000 observations across more than 100 variables. Here’s what they found:

Google’s Eight Characteristics of Successful Leaders: Be an effective coach.

Effective leaders facilitate their entire team’s success by bringing out the best in everyone and helping them work together as a team. … Continue reading Google Study Reveals the 8 Characteristics of Successful Leaders →

Leaders are everywhere–from multi-million dollar corporations and sports arenas to schools and political parties. By understanding how different leaders handle change and lead in various situations you can learn a lot about how to become a powerful leader and handle change and adversity under any circumstances.

Effective leaders understand that bringing change, reorganizing, and implementing new reforms are things that are necessary for positive transformation. If you’re a smart leader, even though you have an enormous vision and passion for change, what you propose might not be as easily accepted by your team as you might think.

Whether you lead a company, a religious organization or a sports team, if you want to learn how to become a change leader and bring transformational change start by following these five steps:

Arouse passion for your cause.

You need to hit people at an emotional level. Without inspiration … Continue reading How to Become a Change Leader & Transform Your Organization →