Dianna Booher's Blog, page 38

Team Morale: How Leaders Zap It!

What’s the WORST thing leaders can do to kill the spirit of people who work with and for them?

It’s not incompetence. Smart employees can tolerate bosses who lack the skills to do a good job. In fact, they’ll often help or “cover” for bosses they like.

It’s not disengagement. Although people prefer to work for someone warm and friendly who offers them frequent and honest feedback, they can cope with boredom and feeling disengaged. After all, many people routinely survive in family situatio...

Start the Year Strong with 3 Sound Practices for Growth

Starting a new year typically brings excitement about new plans and strategies. But never forget that solid growth springs from a sturdy platform of fundamental business practices.

Solid growth springs from a sturdy platform of fundamental business practices.
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Make Accountability More Visible and Less Comfortable

No doubt about it, accountability is great—whether it’s built into the job by specific measurements or whether it happens by confronting colleagues or supervisors t...

Giving a Data-Driven Technical Presentation

If you’re an entrepreneur, marketer, sales professional, scientist, healthcare provider, financial advisor, or HR executive, on occasion you’ll likely need data to introduce a new strategy, service, product, or opportunity. Data will help you tell a compelling story and support what you have to say—but only if you present it in a visually appealing and memorable way.

Keep these points in mind as you develop your presentation: Know your audience and why you’re presenting to them. If you ha...

Presidential Debates: What the American People DON’T Want

Have you ever counted how many times politicians utter the cliché “What the American people want is …” followed by their opinion on some issue? I’ve not actually counted the phrase myself in any two-hour debate, but my summary answer: Too many. I’m guessing that none of the debaters has actually surveyed the entire population to know what the nation wants.

But I’m going to add my own twist here. “What listeners in general don’t like to hear in presidential debates”:

Canned Comments That Do...

The Flipside of Leadership in the New Year: Followership

For more than a decade now, the call from the workplace, government, and social settings has been for leaders to step forward. All hands on deck. Engage the rest of the troops to accomplish the mission. Either develop or demonstrate the expertise that leads to success. All well and good.

In the New Year, here’s a new challenge: Leading others to follow a different leader from time to time.

CEOs, entrepreneurs, and coaches run into this challenge quite frequently. When they’ve been in a pos...

5 Reasons Leaders Fail as Communicators

The essence of leadership is communication: to cast a vision, to inspire, to collaborate on strategy, and to engage followers in accomplishing a mission. But let’s face it: Many leaders fall flat on their face when it comes to communication.

Let’s face it: Many leaders fall flat on their face when it comes to communication.
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The only thing that keeps the organization afloat and followers on target are those second-in-command people “picking up the slack” and translating for...

Punctuation: Colons Vs Dashes Vs Parentheses

Punctuation can determine the interpretation of a contract, fix the price of your product, or alter the tone of your email. Never underestimate its importance.

If you’ve ever tried to drive in Manila, Philippines, you know that traffic signals can be your friend, not your enemy. You leave your hotel for a venue 2 or 3 miles away, and it may take you 2 hours to get there because traffic signals (where they exist) carry little authority.

A common joke on the streets: “How do you identify new...

9 Ways Wise Leaders Differ From Smart Managers

Are you decisive, or do you often second-guess yourself and agonize over decisions until opportunities pass? Do colleagues and clients often ask your opinion because of your reputation for giving great advice? Do you frequently get feedback on the quality of your insights and decisions—and do those decisions produce the results you intend?

Like artists, wise leaders focus, analyze, and study a subject. Then they decide and act. And even then, as Oswald Chambers put it: “It’s never wise to...

Be Thankful If You Live in a Culture Where This Still Happens

“You have a lot of trees back here,” I said to my husband one Sunday afternoon in his backyard after we’d been dating only a few months.

“Yep.”

“I thought you were going to be moving shortly?”

“I probably will.”

“So how long does it take them to grow—won’t you be moved before they’re big enough to give you any shade?”

“Probably. But somebody’ll enjoy them after I’m gone.” He moved the water hose over to a new base of roots. “I always plant trees wherever I live. Did I tell you about the ma...

Conversation Killers and How to Avoid Them

Your relationships are formed through conversations stacked end to end. So it pays to get rid of the mechanical things that cripple them. For starters, consider these four:

Pet Words and Phrases

Some people use favorite words out of habit—regardless of whether they’re appropriate in the context: Awesome. Absolutely. Sounds good. Right on. Right. Fabulous. Fantastic. Cool. Wow. Darling. Honey. Lousy.

Diego: We’re planning to go to a movie tonight.

Kim: Awesome!

Diego: We may grab a bite t...