Category Archives: Leadership Skills

When the law for paying for plastic bags came out, many people were opposed to it. Eventually the movement to reduce your carbon footprint caught on and overly critical people stopped complaining when they realized that it wasn’t too hard to carry your own bag–what were once negative behaviors transformed into positive actions.

Can the same conditioning be applied to the workplace? Is it really possible to be a leader at work and change workplace bad behavior into good behavior?

Some people might think, “Sue, she’s never going to stop complaining,” or “Max, well he’s a tough one, why even bother?” or “Who cares? Eventually, that’s going to get them fired.”

However, if you want to be a good work leader, you need to be able to tackle bad workplace behaviors and bring about positive change.

Here are … Continue reading How to Be a Leader at Work by Making Bad Behavior Good →

Becoming a leader, like many challenges people set for themselves, is not always a clear-cut process. Much of it depends on decisions made beforehand, such as what sort of leadership position a person wants or how high up the corporate ladder she wishes to travel.

Preparing ahead of time and focusing on developing the skills and traits needed for advancement can improve the chances of success.

Different Skills for Different Leaders

“Leader” is a catch-all term that can describe many different people. No one is likely to mistake the role of an assistant manager of a large department with the role of a chief executive officer. Yet both are leaders who must have specific skill sets in order to accomplish their jobs.

An August 2012 report from the leadership solutions company PDI Ninth House highlighted the traits needed for various leadership positions. For example, the survey … Continue reading Are You Climbing the Corporate Ladder or Riding the Elevator? →

Henry is in high level management of a dominant retail company.  Because it spreads nationally with global products, Henry deals with leaders on all levels.

“We’ve learned that intelligence, determination, and vision alone, will not guarantee a successful leader,” Henry says. “When we can accelerate cognitive development, we have a better chance at creating successful managers and executives.”

Henry explains that they like promoting from within. The more they can understand and accelerate the abilities of their team to grow these leadership skills, the more successful their leaders become.

“Cognitive development is a way of thinking differently,” Henry says. “How do they interact, motivate, and regulate themselves?  How do they think about themselves and to what degree are they concerned about others?”

Henry feels these five specific skills give them a higher probability of becoming successful leaders.

1. Realistic Self-Confidence.

Good leaders understand who they are.  … Continue reading Cognitive Development Skills to Accelerate Leadership →

Client Dorothy Asks:  I work in IT.  Of course I’m surrounded by a world of information. But as you know, it’s a cut-throat business with thin margins.  How can I use our information to create a competitive advantage for us?

Coach Joel Answers: It may sometimes feel like we have information overload.  However, we may lack the right information, not know how to process it, and not understand what to do with it after we understand it.

It is essential to have information based on some specific criteria to create the best competitive advantage to you. Here are some areas to consider.

Look at the trends.

First, of course, you want to examine trends in your own industry.  But you can also learn a lot by looking at factors that are influencing other industries. You may find advancement there—in technology or information processing—that you can use to gain an … Continue reading 7 Ways to Use Information as a Competitive Advantage →

Client Amanda Asks: I know the face of HR is changing. It’s really important for me to be on top of the game.  What competencies will insure my success as an HR executive?

Coach Joel Answers: You are right on target, Amanda.  There is ongoing evaluation of what an HR executive should do or be.

Perhaps one of the most innovative is the change from task orientation to influencer. Executives no longer just apply the decisions of company management, they help create change.  They strategize, and help shape the company culture.

Here are seven traits that will keep you in the forefront of all human resources executives.

1. Business knowledge.

The bottom line fundamentals of business are essential for every executive, regardless of area of expertise.  HR leaders are no exception.  You need to understand the value of your business. You must be able to explain the value and business model … Continue reading 7 Competencies Successful HR Executives Must Know →

Being able to influence upwards allows your ideas to be heard and implemented. This directly enhances your value because you are the owner of that idea. Yet how do you break through the layers of bureaucracy to find advocates for your ideas? Diane McGarry, Xerox’s Chief Marketing Officer, says, “Success at a big company such as Xerox requires an understanding of the many layers of office politics as well as the confidence to put your best ideas forward. You have to know which people you need to get your ideas in front of in order to get those ideas advanced…”

Diane knows how to present her ideas in order to get them implemented. This is a skill you need to master if you want to be an influential leader in your company. Here are seven ways to sell your ideas through upward influence:

1. Know what’s … Continue reading Seven Ways to Sell Your Ideas to Management →

Client Miles Asks: Innovation is vital to our company’s success, but creativity is extremely difficult to regulate or control. How do we encourage innovation and avoid stifling creativity?

Coach Joel Answers: Today’s corporations face a harsh reality: innovate or die. Executives’ responses to this imperative have varied widely—ranging from instituting mandatory innovation training workshops to flat out requiring employees to innovate in designated areas.  Unfortunately, some companies try to reduce innovation to prescriptive formulas.

Take Kodak. After decades of success, non-engineering executives took control of R&D priorities and shoveled almost 95% of the company’s resources into existing core products. The result? Kodak went bankrupt.

To avoid Kodak’s fate, executives should consider following these five pillars of innovation leadership:

1. Innovation takes time.

Leaders who expect immediate results from their chief innovators will be disappointed. Engineers, researchers, and others need time away from routine duties—and a lot of it. Google is … Continue reading The Five Pillars of Innovation →

Deann found herself stuck in a huge rut. As marketing manager for a major Internet company, she had always prided herself on being an “idea person.” Her team was known throughout the company as the place where creativity lived and thrived. Lately, however, she felt as though everything was turning gray. No bright ideas, no exciting new campaigns—Deann knew she had to do something to turn things around. If she was not inspired, how could she inspire her team? And they had a major new campaign to develop in the next month. No creativity = no campaign.

After a few days of wallowing in this unhappy state, Deann decided to conduct her own research project on creativity. She found an astounding number of resources and within a day or two she had come up with her own strategy for reactivating her creative … Continue reading 4 Steps to Unleash Your Creative Thinking Skill →

Bill did his best to model fearlessness, capability, and decisiveness for the people he supervised—all the qualities associated with strong leadership. In all his interactions with them, though, they seemed anxious and afraid. In meetings, he could never seem to spark a robust discussion—they would just give lip service to his questions. He couldn’t understand why they acted just the opposite of the example he tried to set.

Bill didn’t realize that his attitude of invincibility was not actually setting a good example. Rather, playing the part of the fearless leader was stifling discussion and creativity. He was forgetting that success requires risks, and when taking risks, a leader is by nature in a place of vulnerability. His attitude that failure is not an option masked the reality that we all risk failure when we reach toward high goals. Pretending he was invincible showed his … Continue reading Why Strong Leaders Have the Courage to Show Vulnerability →

A new manager, holding his first ever team meeting in a company that sold medical devices, assumed that an important matter had unanimously been agreed on when one team member called out, “Would this solution have pleased Mr. Hardy?”

Right away, other team members started jotting down notes and brainstorming more ideas.

The new manager later learned that Mr. Hardy had been part of the firm for over 25 years. He had never been a manager, and in fact saw budding youngsters with flashing MBAs get ahead of him. However, whenever a key decision had to be made on a new product or the company came up with a new initiative, he would ask, “Is this the best we can do? How can we create real change in someone’s life?”

Some mocked him, but there were those who listened. That question sparked … Continue reading How to Become a Powerful Leader Regardless of Your Position →