Leadership Flashcards
LEADERSHIP PRESENCE HBR
“my professional leadership goal is to be a genuine and emotionally intelligent manager who inspires others to excellence.”
“Although executive presence is highly intuitive and difficult to pin down, it ultimately boils down to your ability to project mature self-confidence, a sense that you can take control of difficult, unpredictable situations; make tough decisions in a timely way and hold your own with other talented and strong-willed members of the executive team. If that’s the nub of the issue, what style, what behaviors combine to signal that level of self-confidence to others?”
“Increase your emotional intelligence and situational awareness. As the job now shifts to getting more work done through others, recognize that what motivates or influences you may not be how others are motivated or influenced. In advance of important interactions or meetings, ask yourself:
Who is the other person or audience?
What might their perspective on this topic be?
How are they best motivated or influenced?
What does the situation at hand call for?
What are the optimal outcomes and tone?”
“Here are a few examples of things that can help you cultivate your own voice and listen to the voices of others:
Know what you think: If you are naturally strong at listening and hearing other’s opinions, flex your muscles in getting to your own convictions and thoughts more quickly. Before important meetings or interactions, jot down a few bullet points to yourself: What are the three to five things I believe about this topic or issue?
”
“Ask, listen, and acknowledge: Conversely, if you are naturally strong at having your own opinions, settle into a greater patience, so that you can make space to hear others. Show you are really listening by asking great questions, clarifying what you’ve heard, or acknowledging how you’re processing the information. In some cases, you might share: “With this new information, I am experiencing this quite differently. My view has changed.” In other cases, you might end up saying: “In digesting what you have shared, I am finding I just can’t get myself comfortable with that direction. Ultimately, this is coming down to a difference of opinion.”
“Bring a stable and grounded presence in the face of change, stress, or difficult news. The reality is that most of us can exude an effective presence, especially when business is going well or when we are having a good day. As a new manager, however, it’s equally important to ask yourself: What do people experience when I’m stressed out, tired, under deadline, or when someone is bringing me bad news?”
“Professor Amy Edmondson’s research finds that teams can optimize their learning and performance when there is an environment or culture—most often set by the manager—that promotes both psychological safety and accountability”
“As professor Clayton Christensen writes in his classic HBR article, “How Will You Measure Your Life?”:
In my mind’s eye I saw one of my managers leave for work one morning with a relatively strong level of self-esteem. Then, I pictured her driving home to her family 10 hours later, feeling unappreciated, frustrated, underutilized, and demeaned. I imagined how profoundly her lowered self-esteem affected the way she interacted with her children. The vision in my mind then fast-forwarded to another day, when she drove home with greater self-esteem—feeling that she had learned a lot, had been recognized for achieving valuable things, and had played a significant role in the success of some important initiatives. I then imagined how positively that affected her as a spouse and a parent. My conclusion: Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility, be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team”
“Whether you are an associate manager or a senior executive, what you say, how you say it, when you say it, to whom you say it, and whether you say it in the proper context are critical components for tapping into your full strategic leadership potential. If you want to establish credibility and influence people, particularly when interacting with other executives or senior leadership, it’s important to be concise and let individuals know clearly what role you want them to play in the conversation. It’s also important to demystify the content of any message you deliver by avoiding jargon and being a person of few—but effective—words.”
“if you are the primary authority on a topic, then it’s likely that the context would require you to lead the meeting and make any final decisions. But if you are one of several executives who might have input, then sharing your view and connecting the dots with others (rather than stealing the spotlight with your great ideas) would be your role. If you are in learning mode and are not asked to present at a meeting, then your role when it comes to communication would be to observe and listen. Knowing or finding out in advance what your expected role is in a group forum or event can guide you in determining the kind of voice you need for that particular venue and can help ensure that you understand the context before you speak up.”
“Be a visionary. Sometimes we fail to tap into an executive voice because we focus too much on our own function or role. Strategic leaders are more visionary than that, taking an enterprise view that focuses less on themselves and more on the wider organization. Another part of being visionary is developing the ability to articulate aspirations for the future and a rationale for transformation.
This type of executive vision helps guide decisions around individual and corporate action. You should work toward connecting the dots with your recommendations to show how your decisions affect others around the table, including your staff and the organization as a whole.”
“Stay calm in the pressure cooker. People with an effective executive voice aren’t easily rattled. Can you provide levelheaded leadership even when—in fact, particularly when—everyone around you is losing their composure? When you can stick with facts instead of getting swept into an emotional tailspin no matter how stressed you feel, you’ll be able to lead with a more powerful executive voice.”
“behavioral science is weighing in with research showing that Machiavelli had it partly right. When we judge others—especially our leaders—we look first at two characteristics: how lovable they are (their warmth, communion, or trustworthiness) and how fearsome they are (their strength, agency, or competence). Although there is some disagreement about the proper labels for the traits, researchers agree that they are the two primary dimensions of social judgment.”
“So which is better, being lovable or being strong? Most leaders today tend to emphasize their strength, competence, and credentials in the workplace, but that is exactly the wrong approach. Leaders who project strength before establishing trust run the risk of eliciting fear, and along with it, a host of dysfunctional behaviors. Fear can undermine cognitive potential, creativity, and problem solving, and cause employees to get stuck and even disengage. It’s a “hot” emotion, with long-lasting effects. It burns into our memory in a way that cooler emotions don’t. Research by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman drives this point home: In a study of 51,836 leaders, only 27 of them were rated in the bottom quartile in terms of likability and in the top quartile in terms of overall leadership effectiveness—in other words, the chances that a manager who is strongly disliked will be considered a good leader are only about one in 2,000.”
“A growing body of research suggests that the way to influence—and to lead—is to begin with warmth. Warmth is the conduit of influence: It facilitates trust and the communication and absorption of ideas. Even a few small nonverbal signals—a nod, a smile, an open gesture—can show people that you’re pleased to be in their company and attentive to their concerns. Prioritizing warmth helps you connect immediately with those around you, demonstrating that you hear them, understand them, and can be trusted by them”
“The best way to gain influence is to combine warmth and strength—as difficult as Machiavelli says that may be to do. The traits can actually be mutually reinforcing: Feeling a sense of personal strength helps us to be more open, less threatened, and less threatening in stressful situations. When we feel confident and calm, we project authenticity and warmth.”
“Good leaders face troubles without being troubled. Their behavior is not relaxed, but they are relaxed emotionally. They’re often viewed as “happy warriors,” and the effect of their demeanor on those around them is compelling. Happy warriors reassure us that whatever challenges we may face, things will work out in the end. Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas, played the happy warrior by pairing her assertiveness and authority with a big smile and a quick wit that made it clear she did not let the rough-and-tumble world of politics get her down.”
“During crises, these are the people who are able to keep that influence conduit open and may even expand it. Most people hate uncertainty, but they tolerate it much better when they can look to a leader who they believe has their back and is calm, clearheaded, and courageous. These are the people we trust. These are the people we listen to.”
“There are physical exercises that can help to summon self-confidence—and even alter your body’s chemistry to be more like that of a happy warrior. Dana Carney, Amy Cuddy, and Andy Yap suggest that people adopt “power poses” associated with dominance and strength across the animal kingdom. These postures are open, expansive, and space-occupying (imagine Wonder Woman and Superman standing tall with their hands on their hips and feet spread apart). By adopting these postures for just two minutes before social encounters, their research shows, participants significantly increased their testosterone and decreased their cortisol levels.”
“Especially when facing a high-pressure situation, it is useful for leaders to go through a brief warm-up routine beforehand to get in the right state of mind, practicing and adopting an attitude that will help them project positive nonverbal signals. We refer to this approach as “inside out,” in contrast to the “outside-in” strategy of trying to consciously execute specific nonverbal behaviors in the moment. Think of the difference between method acting and classical acting: In method acting, the actor experiences the emotions of the character and naturally produces an authentic performance, whereas in classical acting, actors learn to exercise precise control of their nonverbal signals. Generally speaking, an inside-out approach is more effective.”
“People deeply desire to be heard and seen. Sadly, as important as perspective taking is to good leadership, being in a position of power decreases people’s understanding of others’ points of view. When we have power over others, our ability to see them as individuals diminishes. So leaders need to consciously and consistently make the effort to imagine walking in the shoes of the people they are leading.”
“Everything that is said must be said in a certain way—in a certain tone of voice, at a certain rate of speed, and with a certain degree of loudness. Whereas often we consciously consider what to say before speaking, we rarely think about how to say it, unless the situation is obviously loaded—for example, a job interview or a tricky performance review. Linguistic style refers to a person’s characteristic speaking pattern. It includes such features as directness or indirectness, pacing and pausing, word choice, and the use of such elements as jokes, figures of speech, stories, questions, and apologies. In other words, linguistic style is a set of culturally learned signals by which we not only communicate what we mean but also interpret others’ meaning and evaluate one another as people.”
“Every utterance functions on two levels. We’re all familiar with the first one: Language communicates ideas. The second level is mostly invisible to us, but it plays a powerful role in communication. As a form of social behavior, language also negotiates relationships. Through ways of speaking, we signal—and create—the relative status of speakers and their level of rapport. If you say, “Sit down!” you are signaling that you have higher status than the person you are addressing, that you are so close to each other that you can drop all pleasantries, or that you are angry. If you say, “I would be honored if you would sit down,” you are signaling great respect—or great sarcasm, depending on your tone of voice, the situation, and what you both know about how close you really are. If you say, “You must be so tired. Why don’t you sit down,” you are communicating either closeness and concern or condescension. Each of these ways of saying “the same thing”—telling someone to sit down—can have a vastly different meaning.”
“Apologies tend to be regarded differently by men, who are more likely to focus on the status implications of exchanges. Many men avoid apologies because they see them as putting the speaker in a one-down position. I observed with some amazement an encounter among several lawyers engaged in a negotiation over a speakerphone. At one point, the lawyer in whose office I was sitting accidentally elbowed the telephone and cut off the call. When his secretary got the parties back on again, I expected him to say what I would have said: “Sorry about that. I knocked the phone with my elbow.” Instead, he said, “Hey, what happened? One minute you were there; the next minute you were gone!” This lawyer seemed to have an automatic impulse not to admit fault if he didn’t have to. For me, it was one of those pivotal moments when you realize that the world you live in is not the one everyone lives in and that the way you assume is the way to talk is really only one of many.”
“Many Americans expect the discussion of ideas to be a ritual fight—that is, an exploration through verbal opposition. They present their own ideas in the most certain and absolute form they can, and wait to see if they are challenged. Being forced to defend an idea provides an opportunity to test it. In the same spirit, they may play devil’s advocate in challenging their colleagues’ ideas—trying to poke holes and find weaknesses—as a way of helping them explore and test their ideas.
This style can work well if everyone shares it, but those unaccustomed to it are likely to miss its ritual nature. They may give up an idea that is challenged, taking the objections as an indication that the idea was a poor one. Worse, they may take the opposition as a personal attack and may find it impossible to do their best in a contentious environment. People unaccustomed to this style may hedge when stating their ideas in order to fend off potential attacks.”
“In the world of work, however, there is more at stake than whether the communication is understood. People in powerful positions are likely to reward styles similar to their own, because we all tend to take as self-evident the logic of our own styles.”
“we found that as charisma increased, so did perceived effectiveness—but only up to a certain point. As charisma scores continued to increase beyond the 60th percentile, which is just above the average score relative to the general population of working adults, perceived effectiveness started to decline. This trend was consistent across the three observer groups (subordinates, peers, and supervisors).”
“Highly charismatic leaders may be strategically ambitious, but this comes at the expense of getting day-to-day work activities executed in a proper manner, which can hurt perceived effectiveness. They failed, for example, in managing the day-to-day operations needed to implement their big strategic vision and in taking a methodical approach to getting things done in the near term. Further analysis showed that for leaders with lower levels of charisma, the opposite was true: They were found to be less effective because they lacked strategic behavior. For example, they did not spend enough time on long-term planning, and failed in taking a big-picture perspective, questioning the status quo, and encouraging innovation.”
“In terms of practical implications, our findings suggest that leaders should be aware of the potential drawbacks of being highly charismatic. Although it’s difficult to draw a precise line between “just enough” and “too much” charisma, these are a few traits to look out for that can influence one’s effectiveness. Self-confidence, for instance, may turn into overconfidence and narcissism in highly charismatic leaders, while risk tolerance and persuasiveness may start to translate into manipulative behavior. Further, the enthusiastic and entertaining nature of charisma may turn into attention-seeking behaviors that distract the organization from its mission, and extreme creativity may make highly charismatic leaders think and act in fanciful, eccentric ways.”
“We do want to point out that we didn’t include situational factors in our study, which could influence the strength and shape of the relationship between leader charisma and effectiveness. Under certain conditions, such as in low-stress situations, this relationship may be strictly linear (“the more charisma the better”). However, we believe that high-stress and high-pressure situations are rather typical for a “normal” leadership context, enhancing the likelihood of finding a too-much-of-a-good-thing effect.6 Additional studies will be important to further investigate the specific conditions under which charisma is desirable or not.”
“When you’re young, the people you learn from are smarter than you: parents, teachers, bosses. But by the time you reach a leadership role, there’s a good chance that you’re one of the smartest people in the room. Seeing yourself this way can feel good, but it will limit your growth if you think as you did earlier in your career that only people who are more intelligent than you have something to teach you. To continue developing, seek out and listen to ideas from others, especially people whose views and background differ from your own. A humble eagerness to learn from everybody means your learning opportunities will be unlimited.
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Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“Is] leadership … radically different in the AI age? No, but there are two key distinctions. First, leaders’ hard skills will continue to be eclipsed by smart machines, while their soft skills will become ever more important. Second, while timeless leadership traits like integrity and emotional intelligence will no doubt remain important, leaders in the AI age need to be humble about others’ contributions, adaptable to the challenges that get thrown into their paths, steadfast in their vision of the ultimate destination on this path, and constantly engaged with the changing world around them.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“When you’re planning collaborative, cross-functional projects, you may focus on logistics, processes, incentives, or outcomes. That makes perfect sense. But don’t forget to consider how the groups you’re asking to work together might experience the request—especially when you’re telling them to break down walls, share information, sacrifice autonomy, split resources, or even cede responsibilities that define them. Those kinds of demands can make teams feel insecure and trigger defensive behaviors.
When you’re leading cross-functional projects, how can you help teams feel less threatened?”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“When you’re discussing people’s performance, have open conversations about what’s getting in their way and how you can help. It may be that they need you to address a bottleneck with another department or leader. Using your influence to clear out roadblocks is good for morale—and work quality.
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Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“When you’re discussing people’s performance, have open conversations about what’s getting in their way and how you can help. It may be that they need you to address a bottleneck with another department or leader. Using your influence to clear out roadblocks is good for morale—and work quality.
”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“when your employee is complaining about an issue or expressing frustration, don’t offer solutions—ask “How can I help?” This forces the person to think clearly about the problem and define it, which is the first step toward their owning and solving it.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“Research conducted by us and others shows that leaders and their teams devote too little effort to examining and defining problems before trying to solve them.… By jumping immediately into problem-solving, teams limit their ability to design innovative and durable solutions. When we work with organizations and teams, we encourage them to spend more time up front on problem-framing, a process for understanding and defining a problem. Exploring frames is like looking at a scene through various camera lenses while adjusting your angle, aperture, and focus.”
What frames could you use to see problems in new ways?
”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“Research conducted by us and others shows that leaders and their teams devote too little effort to examining and defining problems before trying to solve them.… By jumping immediately into problem-solving, teams limit their ability to design innovative and durable solutions. When we work with organizations and teams, we encourage them to spend more time up front on problem-framing, a process for understanding and defining a problem. Exploring frames is like looking at a scene through various camera lenses while adjusting your angle, aperture, and focus.”
What frames could you use to see problems in new ways?
”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“When you shift from leading a function to leading an enterprise, you must navigate a tricky set of changes in your leadership focus and skills. One change is becoming an agenda setter. You were promoted to the senior level because you could fix problems. Now, though, your task is to prioritize which problems the organization should tackle. You’ll need to delegate well, rely on your team for guidance, and use your company’s annual planning process to define key goals. But stay the course—learning to navigate uncertain, ambiguous environments can be overwhelming, and there’s no better teacher than experience.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“To trust you, people need to see you demonstrate three things:
Empathy: that you care about them
Logic: that you’re capable of meeting their needs
Authenticity: that you can be expected to do what you say you’ll do
When you wobble on one of these three dimensions, it’s harder to build—or maintain—as much trust as you could.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“How much information a boss needs about what [you’re] doing will vary significantly depending on the boss’s style, the situation [they’re] in, and the confidence the boss has in [you]. But it is not uncommon for a boss to need more information than [you] would naturally supply or for [you] to think the boss knows more than [they] really do. Effective managers recognize that they probably underestimate what their bosses need to know and make sure they find ways to keep them informed through processes that fit their styles”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“Perfectionism can hold you back from the excellence you’re striving for. For example, making decisions might paralyze you because the decisions all feel monumental. Mitigate your self-destructive tendencies by using rules to keep them in check. To stop ruminating over a decision, establish a rule that once you’ve thought about it three times, you’ll make a call and move forward. To tone down your tendency to overdeliver, decide in advance that for certain types of work, “good enough” truly will be good enough. By becoming more aware of how perfectionism becomes a trap, you can create rules to help yourself escape it.
”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“To improve your writing, put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Consider what information you’d want and what questions you’d have about the topic and let that guide you. Respect people’s time by putting important information first and keeping your message as brief as possible. As for tone, picture your audience as intelligent novices: They’re smart but they aren’t experts, so avoid acronyms and jargon, and define technical terms. Focusing on what the reader needs will ensure people understand—and even look forward to—your writing.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“Psychological safety is a core part of high-performing teams, so understanding what it is—and isn’t—is essential. There are two common misconceptions. First, it’s not about being “nice.” There are many polite workplaces that don’t have psychological safety because there’s no candor, and people feel silenced by the enforced politeness. Second, psychological safety isn’t about feeling comfortable all the time. In fact, learning, messing up, and pointing out mistakes is usually uncomfortable. But the ultimate goal is to help people take risks in a safe environment; doing so enables them to learn and grow and sets up your team for long-term success.
Have either of these misconceptions affected how you think about psychological safety?
”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“Through the ups and downs of your career, regularly asking yourself a few questions can help you stay on track with your goals and priorities. One of those questions is: How often and how well do you communicate a vision and priorities for your team? In the whirl of day-to-day activities, it can be hard to articulate the big picture and make sure your team understands it. But it’s difficult to lead people if they don’t know where to focus their efforts—or where they’re going.
Do your employees know what you want them to do, and why, and how it will help build the company’s future?”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“We all have a career-limiting habit, such as procrastinating or using our phones when we should be connecting with others. But people who overcome bad habits take control of the circumstances that feed them, according to research from Crucial Learning. One way to do this is to be strategic about “distance.” For example, if you need to overcome procrastination, do your focused work in a huddle room instead of an open office. If you want to read more industry news sites, put them on your homepage instead of in distracting social media feeds. Physically separate yourself from temptations, bring helpful things closer, and change your surroundings to support the behavior you want.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“The loneliness you might feel as a senior leader may seem like a small price to pay for the rewards, recognition, and power. But being isolated can compromise your decision-making and effectiveness. One way to overcome this condition is to recognize its existence. So regularly reflect on whether you’re starting to feel detached from others. Ask yourself: Are employees challenging your thinking, or just agreeing with you? Are you getting the full picture of situations, or just a filtered version? Are you seeking out the advice of trusted colleagues, or relying only on your own instincts?”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“Your personal leadership style has a powerful impact on your organization. One type of leadership that has positive effects on an organization’s working environment and results is the authoritative style. Authoritative leaders are visionaries who free their team to experiment and take risks. They motivate people by making clear how their work supports the larger strategy and giving feedback about how their performance furthers the vision. While the authoritative style is often effective, it can fail when a leader works with a team of experts or more experienced peers, or if their style becomes overbearing. As you lead, think about what style a situation calls for and whether your current approach is working well or may need an adjustment.
”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“To perform at their best, people need to know they won’t be punished for errors. To build psychological safety on your team, show employees that making mistakes is allowed—and learning from them is encouraged. When your team members are struggling with setbacks, tell them about a time you fell short at work. Explain how the experience helped you develop as a leader, and what you did differently as a result. Also, talk about the fear, doubt, or embarrassment you felt after messing up, to help normalize those kinds of tough emotions. Emphasizing that failure often leads to growth will show employees they aren’t expected to be perfect”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“Losing an employee hurts morale and productivity, and replacing people who leave is expensive. One mistake that can lead your people to quit is setting inconsistent goals. When your employees are forced to choose between tasks to meet competing expectations—such as faster customer service versus logging customer information accurately—the result is a team of stressed-out people without clear priorities. Write down your team’s goals and expectations and consider whether any contradictions or overlaps exist. Next, make necessary changes and share them with the team. This exercise will give your team more stability and more control over their tasks.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“One paradox of strategy? Companies tend to favor incrementally improving their current products over creating new markets or industries. Yet the latter strategy usually provides more return on investment. Part of the problem is that we think competition is inherently tied to strategy—that outperforming rivals should be our main goal. Competition is important, but so is looking for entirely new ideas and market spaces. When you’re leading brainstorming or innovation sessions, don’t just focus on improving what you’re already doing. Push your team to find opportunities that no one has thought of yet. The best kind of competition happens in spaces where no one else is competing”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“Having a good fight on your leadership team is a challenge. Personalities can become entwined with issues, and executives may struggle to balance rational decision-making and their emotions. Help your team argue as a team by focusing on the facts and data about an issue, not gut feelings. Consider multiple options and alternatives, widening the discussion and preventing narrow, either-or mindsets. Framing strategic choices as collaborative, rather than competitive, exercises is another way to prevent conflicts from turning personal. And don’t overlook the power of simple jokes to lighten the mood—even forced humor can release tension and promote collaboration.
”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“When you shift from leading a function to leading an enterprise, you must navigate a tricky set of changes in your leadership focus and skills. One change is becoming a generalist. No one is an expert in every function; it’s tempting to overmanage the areas you know and undermanage others. But functions are distinct subcultures with their own mental models, languages, and tools. You need to know all of them—and be able to evaluate and recruit people to be experts when you aren’t. Start by building relationships with colleagues in other functions so that you can support and learn from each other, and understand what excellence looks like in their area.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“The benefits their hobbies bring are manifold, from providing lessons in humility, to strengthening their authentic identities, to helping them detach from work.
What leadership benefits do your hobbies offer you? How can you make more time for them?”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“Instilling purpose in your employees takes more than lofty speeches or mission statements. When done badly, those methods can trigger cynicism rather than commitment. To inspire and engage people, remember two things. First, purpose is a feeling. You could tell your team their work is important, but can you help them feel it? Find ways to show people the impact of their jobs, such as through customer testimonials. Second, authenticity matters. If your attempts at creating purpose don’t align with your past behavior, your message will backfire. Suddenly caring about the impact of a product on a customer’s quality of life after years of emphasizing quarterly profits, for example, could seem manipulative.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“Teams are interconnected systems of preferences, skills, experiences, and perspectives. To lead such a complex entity well, you must develop your internal self-awareness. Doing so involves reflecting on your feelings, beliefs, and values. Without that foundational understanding, you’re more likely to see your beliefs as “the truth,” and fail to see others’ perspectives as equally valid. To build your internal self-awareness, ask a few questions in challenging situations:
What emotions am I experiencing?
What am I assuming about another person or the situation?
What are the facts versus my interpretations?
What are my core values, and how might they be impacting my reactions?
Pausing to reflect and consider possible responses can help you engage thoughtfully and productively”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“Reward output rather than hours worked. Promote employees based on who produces the best results, regardless of how long they’re at their desks. Next, foster deep work. Free up employees’ time for high-value projects by delegating or eliminating their low-value tasks. Finally, model the right behavior. The best leaders aren’t those who never leave the office. They’re the ones who know which work matters most—and let themselves sign off when it’s done.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
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“The more powerful you are, the more you need humility, since it can stave off power’s corrupting effects. To build humility, you can do a few things. First, make it acceptable, even desirable, to say “I don’t know.” Admitting you don’t have all the answers builds trust and credibility and opens the door for employees to offer their expertise. Second, establish ways to get honest input from your people. Whether through team meetings, “ask me anything” forums, or frank one-on-one conversations, you need robust ways to get employees’ unvarnished views. Power can insulate you from those you lead—don’t let it.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“Through the ups and downs of your career, regularly asking yourself a few questions can help you stay on track with your goals and priorities. One of those questions is: How are you spending your time? If what you’re doing every day doesn’t align with your major priorities, that’s a problem. It’s also a problem for your team, since employees take their time-management cues from you.
Which of the activities you’re doing truly need your time? Which could be delegated to free you up for higher-value work?”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“Your to-do list has both important and urgent tasks. It’s easy to work on what’s due soonest, but sometimes the important projects need your attention more. To prioritize what matters most, try scheduling it. There are many methods, such as setting aside a daily time slot or even an entire day for strategic work, or closing your email for a while. The point is to decide in advance when you’ll do the task, and then protect that block of time as if it’s an important meeting you can’t miss. And don’t let unexpected demands interrupt it—because something will always come up.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“It’s generally good when your employees feel a personal connection to you, but sharing too many of your thoughts and feelings can undermine your authority. Evaluate a personal comment by considering how you’d feel if your boss said it to you. For example, telling employees you’re in a bad mood because you’re having a lousy day is probably fine; telling them you’re in a bad mood because you had a big fight with your partner this morning probably isn’t. If you wouldn’t mind hearing a certain comment, chances are your team will feel the same. Otherwise, err on the side of caution.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“As a leader, you probably tend to think you’re a good coach. But some leaders overestimate their skills—by a wide margin. The problem? Deep down, they’ve decided on a way forward before they even talk to the employee. A better approach starts with you listening to the person, asking questions, and withholding judgment. Try to draw wisdom, insight, and creativity from the employee, with the goal of helping them learn to solve problems on their own. This approach to coaching can be challenging if you’re used to telling people what to do. But it’s highly energizing, and more effective, for the person being coached”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“No matter how great your expertise, eventually you’ll be promoted to a level where your team members know more about a business problem than you do. Don’t try to master a new topic overnight—expertise is built over the long term. Instead, shift your role from providing solutions to empowering your team of experts. Take a big-picture view of the business problem, ask questions about facts and assumptions, and ensure your team is framing the issue correctly. You still play a vital role even when you aren’t the smartest person in the room. Be the leader your experts need”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“Anxiety can zap your energy and drive you to make poor decisions, but it can also help you react quickly to threats and get more comfortable with uncomfortable feelings. To start channeling your anxiety effectively, notice when it manifests and how it feels. Observe your physical reactions, such as a churning in your stomach, and your emotional ones, such as feeling overwhelmed or panicked. Keep a journal to become more aware of these reactions over time. Once you know how your anxiety feels, you can spot when it’s appearing, cuing you to pause, calm yourself, and prevent the anxiety from taking over.”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
“New ideas are exciting. Whether you’ve thought of a product, a process improvement, or an expansion of the strategy, you may feel ready to charge ahead and implement it. But no one person can anticipate every potential problem, threat, or opportunity. So take the time to get perspectives from your colleagues—especially those from other departments and backgrounds. Ask them six questions:
What stands out to you?
What’s missing?
What would our critics say?
What would it look like if we failed?
What would customer-facing employees say about our idea?
What shortcomings would please our competitors?
Use the responses to hone and iterate on your idea.
”
Excerpt From
HBR Daily Leader
Harvard Business Review
This material may be protected by copyright.
