David Dye's Blog, page 121

5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of April 11, 2016

“This is the book for the overloaded manager because it will help you create actual change in your workplace. I have read dozens of leadership and management books and can honestly say this is the first that feels as if the authors have been in the trenches themselves.” –Frank, Tampa, Florida

Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul is available now!

Thank you for your emails and messages of support! Here’s how you can help

Buy the book (click here for Amazon) from your favorite bookseller
Review the book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Share the Winning Well website and book with the leaders and managers in your life: www.WinningWellBook.com

Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.

How Did That Person Get to Be a Leader? By Mary Schaefer at Lead Change Group

As an HR manager, it’s amazing what people will tell you. Sometimes when a promotion notice was posted, employees would seek me out and ask, “How did that happen???” It was particularly perplexing when the person in question was observed to be more talk than action. Or they were unreliable in making good on commitments. Maybe they were known for creating more work than necessary.

I would get questions about how a specific person got a job with so much responsibility. I often thought to myself, “Because he or she is willing to do it when no one else is. And that’s not necessarily a good thing.” Depending on the organization, there comes a time when the peer group at a certain level is not healthy. I’ve seen this. It’s almost like the higher they go, the worse they get at being team players.

My Comment: Schaefer addresses one of the most common questions I hear from audiences of frontline and middle level leaders: “Why don’t I see healthier leadership behaviors from my executives?” She addresses some of the key reasons this happens as well as how you can safeguard yourself from similar problems. I would also invite you to become part of the solution: how can you build results and relationships in your everyday work? As you promote people into positions of responsibility, pay attention to both the results they achieve and how they achieve them. When you focus on both, you help prevent some of the narcissistic tendencies and poor behavior that happens when we look only at results.

4 Ways to Provide Meaningful Encouragement by Karin Hurt

My guess is that right about now, you could use some encouragement. Not meaningless cheer-leading, but some well considered, well-timed, well-meaning “you’ve got this and here’s how I know…” In fact, I’d be willing to bet that the next five people you encounter could use some meaningful encouragement too. No matter how confident people appear on the outside, chances are they could use some encouragement to bolster their insides.

My Comment: My Winning Well co-author, Karin Hurt, shares a powerful story where she received just the right amount of encouragement and feedback. It’s a great example of how we can support our people with what they need in order to boost their energy and performance.

5 Bulletproof Confidence Strategies from a Former FBI Agent by LaRae Quy at SmartBlog on Leadership

As an FBI agent making an arrest, success wasn’t an option — it was an absolute necessity if I wanted to stay alive. I couldn’t wait for success to show up before I became confident in my abilities. The confidence was there first; the successful arrest came afterwards. Confidence is a critical building block for a successful career because it is the one mindset that will take you where you want to go. The good news is that confidence is a set of learned skills and beliefs.

No one is immune to bouts of insecurity at work, but they don’t have to hold you back. For entrepreneurs, leaders, and business owners, it means having the grit you need to get through those times of doubt and the presence of mind to learn the lessons they can teach you about yourself and others.

My Comment: This is a fantastic read. Quy has been there and knows first hand the challenges of building your confidence. Many leaders who want to Win Well struggle with the confidence side of the confidence & humility formula. Quy gives you practical suggestions to help you get the confidence you need to lead well.

The Cup of Leadership (and the real meaning of servant leadership) by John Keyser

Leadership is a gift. It is meant to inspire others towards greater performance and to positively influence them so they are fulfilled by their work. Are we living and leading as we are called to, which is to live and lead with compassion and service for others? Helping others brings satisfaction and happiness not only to us; it impacts the spirit of those around us as well. Certainly knowing what inspires each of our team members – and it is different for each person – is the foundation for our effectiveness as a leader. This is servant leadership. Leading with humility and personal attention will significantly improve the morale and the quality of the work of our team.

My Comment: There is a very soulful focus in Keyser’s approach to leadership. Winning Well managers know that if you want your employee’s hearts to be in their work, you’ve got to connect to earn their trust and connect with them. Leadership is a gift – and so is everything your team member contributes every day.

The Biggest Workplace Trends for 2016 Infographic by Chantal Bechervaise

Bechervaise supplies another fascinating look at the evolving workplace including trends in Boomerang Employees, Millennial Managers, Generation Z entering the workforce, the role of wearable technology and more. It’s enough to make your head spin, but her graphic makes it digestible and less overwhelming.

My Comment: Winning Well leaders do well to stay apprised of these trends and remember that the dual focus on results and relationships built on a foundation of confidence and humility will help you through these constant changes.

David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David keynote your next event or deliver corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!

The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of April 11, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.

Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582

5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of April 4, 2016

You benefit from the moment you start reading! -Dallas, Australia

Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul is available now!

Thank you for your emails and messages of support! Here’s how you can help:

Buy the book (click here for Amazon) from your favorite bookseller
Review the book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Share the Winning Well website and book with the leaders and managers in your life: WinningWellBook.com

Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.

Do you foster a culture of encouragement? By John Stoker at SmartBlog

Stoker recounts a recent college basketball tournament game where a player played through an illness to contribute to his team. Stoker reflects on the workplace cultures, and specifically the role of encouragement, that contribute to that level of commitment.

My Comment: You get more of what you encourage and celebrate, less of what you criticize or ignore. Stoker offers several useful lenses through which you can create a culture of encouragement.

10 Signs You Really Are a Leader (and Might Not Know It) by Lolly Daskal in Inc.

We often feel that to be a leader you need to be born a leader, or be drawn to leadership, or have a leader-ly position. We think of leadership as a title that has to be deserved or earned. But leaders are rarely, if ever, born. If we had to isolate a factor that creates leaders, it’s probably some combination of circumstance and persistence. Many, many leaders walk among us–in all kinds of people, places and positions. Some of the greatest leaders you’ll ever meet aren’t even aware of their own leadership.

My Comment: If you want to have influence, Daskal’s list is an excellent place to start. If you think you have influence, but aren’t sure, honestly assess your reality against these ten traits and you’ll have a good sense of whether or not you’re leading.

5 Ways to Stop Wasting Time on Conference Calls by Karin Hurt at Careers in Government

Perhaps you’ve been on one of these soul-sucking calls. There are lots of updates, most of which don’t require any action on your part. It would be politically incorrect to bail, but you and everyone else on the call would rather be getting real work done. A direct report stops by, and, grateful for a distraction, you mouth “Oh it’s just our regular update call,” put the phone on mute and attempt to a have a meaningful conversation. Just when you’re fist-bumping yourself for being a high-energy multi-tasker, you hear your name mentioned…twice. Oh crap.

My Comment: Conference calls are a fact of life, but they can be productive. My co-author and I share some Winning Well wisdom on making remote meetings work for you and your people. We rely on productive remote meetings for a host of business needs – so we know they can work.

Why Culture Is No Longer A Nice To Have When Driving Business Strategy by Chantal Bechervaise

There are many reasons your business strategy may be stalled, but often the issue lies in a misalignment with your corporate culture. Through years of experience advising clients, it is clear to me that culture is the biggest obstacle leadership faces in executing business strategy. Your organization’s culture determines the values and habits that ultimately shape how strategy becomes a reality. If you do not have the right culture, your strategy will likely fall short. This is because, to be effective, organizations need employees to understand the company’s vision and carry it out. Even the most well thought out strategy can be derailed by not first considering corporate culture.

My Comment: Recently I’ve come across several business leaders, some in startups and some in established businesses, who are so focused on the immediate time-horizon that they consciously put off worrying about culture until ‘someday.’ The reality is, ‘someday’ never comes and you’re building your future team and results in the culture you create today. Bechervaise takes a look at Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends Report and reminds us that culture is a manifestation of how people experience life at work – and that impacts everything.

Unintuitive Things I’ve Learned About Management by Julie Zhuo at Medium

Zhuo’s article begins: I love my job. I find it hard and crazy and wonderful because it is all about people. Interacting with people. Understanding people. Getting the best out of people. Realizing that everyone is imperfect but in our imperfections, we can still come together to do more than we ever could alone.

And yet, despite management being — like parenting— a certain kind of black art with no hard and fast rules, of course there are better and worse managers. A better manager gets better results. You can’t always measure this in weeks, months, or even sometimes years, but it eventually emerges clear as daylight.

My Comment: This is a great article. It’s real, based in Zhuo’s real experience, vulnerable, and has some great observations. At the core of Zhuo’s reflections is that managers are most effective when they like people – and of course it only makes sense…you’re working with people after all. Even so, this apparently self-evident maxim is frequently ignored by those taking positions or those promoting people into them. Zhuo offers several other spot-on reflections that will help you improve your management or decide if team leadership is really for you.

David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!

The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of April 4, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.

Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582

A Powerful Way to Gain the Trust of Your Team

Today I’m pleased to share a guest post from Karin Hurt, my co-author of Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul.

The Senior Vice President stood in front of my all hands meeting of 300 and said, “I was wrong.”

I’ve never heard a group that size sit in such silence. I’m not even sure we were breathing.

You see, she had been a naysayer. She knew the mission our team had been given was necessary, but she didn’t believe it could be done. This stung twice as hard because she’d been a mentor of mine for years. In some ways the mission to prove her wrong by accomplishing “the impossible” became quite personal.

And we had.

She could have chosen lots of other words to open up her talk. Words that would have saved face, but none that could have given her more credibility. “I was wrong, I didn’t think it could be done. You did it. Congratulations, and thank you.”

5 Ways to Admit You’re Wrong

The ability to admit you’re wrong is the ultimate sign of confident humility, a key element of Winning Well. It takes guts to admit you’ve made a mistake. More importantly, being vulnerable enough to admit you’re wrong makes it safe for others to do so too. Imagine a world where more people were that honest with themselves and others.

Quite frankly, many leaders screw this up. They reinvent history to justify their actions (another wrong.) No matter how you spin it two wrongs don’t make a right.

Next time you screw up, follow these tips.

1. Be straightforward

The power of her statement was that it was so blunt. “I was wrong.” She could have said something much softer with less impact, “You did a solid job,” would have been easier on her ego.

2. Explain why

Share what you’ve learned or would do differently. Articulating the lesson helps everyone learn.

3. Take accountability

Don’t be a blamer. “I was wrong, but Joe gave me bad information” or “I was wrong, but my boss had me distracted with other things” is basically saying, “Even if I am wrong, it doesn’t count.”

4. Apologize if needed

In this case there was no apology necessary, she was a leader with an opinion doing her job by expressing it. In fact, I’ll admit that her skepticism fired us up. It’s quite possible in some wacky way working to prove her wrong helped us win. But, if being wrong hurt someone, “I’m wrong,” coupled with “I’m sorry,” can go even further.

5. Follow-through

Of course the most sincere way to apologize is to not do it again. I have a friend who cheated on his wife. He admitted he was wrong, apologized, owned it… and then did it again. She left him. Those words only worked once.

Don’t be afraid to apologize when necessary. It might just be the key to winning well with your team.

Karin Hurt (Baltimore, MD) is my co-author of Winning Well. She is a top leadership consultant and CEO of Let’s Grow Leaders. A former Verizon Wireless executive, she was named to Inc. Magazine’s list of great leadership speakers.  

The post A Powerful Way to Gain the Trust of Your Team appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.

Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582

5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of March 28, 2016

David, I haven’t even finished the book yet and it’s helped me to be more productive, feel less overwhelmed, and inspired me to think again about our mission. You’re already helping me Win Well! -Stephanie in Washington DC

Join Stephanie and leaders around the world in Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul!

Thank you for your emails and messages of support. Here’s how you can help:

Buy the book for you and the leaders in your life (click here for Amazon)
Review the book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Spread the word with ready-made tweets and shareable graphics at www.WinningWellBook.com/#share

Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.

Are you addicted to being right? By Dan Forbes at Lead With Giants

Dan Forbes shares an all-too-familiar story of a young IT professional hired to lead a new product development. Faced with questions and doubts, he pushed harder and threatened his team if they didn’t get on board.

My Comment: Nearly every leader experiences this fear-based reaction. The tips Forbes shares are helpful in overcoming this primal response to difficult leadership situations. Of particular importance: remembering the brain chemistry that takes place in both you and your team members!

9 (Proven) Ways To Influence Work Culture by Sarah Payne at Globoforce

Culture and engagement ranked as the number one trend in Deloitte University Press’ 2015 Global Human Capital Trends report. The 2016 report was just released, and interestingly, executives were asked about culture and engagement separately this year (though both rank as top trends). The reason for the separate rankings, the report explains, is because “they are different concepts…Culture describes ‘the way things work around here,’ while engagement describes ‘how people feel about the way things work around here.’” Further, only 12% of executives believe their companies are driving the right culture, and fewer than one in three executives even understand their organization’s culture.

Essentially, we know what culture is; we understand its importance; but we still don’t really know what to do about it. What actually works in driving culture change?

My Comment: One of the most interesting findings in the report is that when employees believe leaders are working to create a more human workplace, culture measurements improve. I hope this is encouraging to you: you don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to change everything. If you are trying to Win Well, it helps!

A few simple questions can help people succeed by Hal Mayer on Bob Tiede’s Leading With Questions

Mayer shares an actual example of how he uses questions to lead when people bring him their problems and ask for help.

My Comment: When someone brings you a problem and you rush to give them an answer, you’ve only taught them that you’ll solve all their problems for them. That will quickly consume all your time. Asking someone questions helps them develop their critical thinking and problem solving skills – and you’ll build a leader as well!

How to fix a terrible culture by S. Chris Edmonds at SmartBlog on Leadership

It is not unusual for organizations to have a less-than-stellar organizational culture. 64% of respondents to Tiny HR’s 2014 engagement and culture report said that their company doesn’t have a strong work culture. Certainly some organizations around the globe deserve the “toxic culture” designation. Most leaders don’t know the condition of their organization’s culture. They don’t observe, they don’t ask. When they do learn that their organization’s culture is lousy, they don’t know what to do to fix it.

My Comment: Edmonds takes a look at the recent reports of American Airline’s toxic culture and gets to the bottom line of culture change: managing by announcements doesn’t work (and never has). What does work? Clarity about what success looks like, the behaviors that achieve it, and accountability to follow through. Anything less than that is a waste of time.

Don’t blame your employees for not communicating up by Diana Booher at HuffPost Business

“Why don’t employees communicate upward in an organization?” the CEO asked with a twinge of frustration. It’s a common question in the executive suite — even from the most well-liked and brightest leaders in the boardroom. And the question deserves serious thought because typically when downward communication dominates, problems go unaddressed and innovation stalls. Eventually poor internal communication shows up to the customer as poor service or defective products.

My Comment: This is a great article by Booher and it addresses a critical problem in many organizations: the people who know the most about reality don’t get that information where it would be useful in decision making. Booher addresses the most common reasons why people don’t communicate up – and it’s not necessarily because they’re lazy or don’t care.

David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!

The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of March 28, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.

Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582

5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of March 21, 2016

Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul is available now!

Thank you for your emails and messages of support! Here’s how you can help:

Buy the book (click here for Amazon) from your favorite bookseller
Review the book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Share the Winning Well website and book with the leaders and managers in your life: www.WinningWellBook.com

5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of March 21, 2016

Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.

7 Tips for Improving the Quality of Your Feedback by John Stoker

People often ask me for tips on how to give “negative feedback”—which is something that apparently no one enjoys either giving or receiving. Constructive feedback, on the other hand, which helps people grow and improve, is on everyone’s most wanted list. So what’s the difference between negative feedback and constructive feedback? The challenge you face when you give someone this helpful feedback is to speak in a way that allows people to hear and understand your message without causing them to become defensive, resistant, or emotional.

My Comment: I appreciate Stoker’s distinction between negative and constructive feedback. It’s akin to the paradox of “constructive criticism” (I don’t believe there is any such thing.) Stoker offers seven suggestions you can use to give people feedback that’s actually helpful.

Why leaders should pay attention to character by Art Petty

The best managers are devoted students of the art of character study—not out of some desire to play armchair psychologist, but rather out of the desire to help. These managers are keen observers of how people perform and conduct themselves across a range of situations.

My Comment: I completely agree with Petty’s suggestion that the most effective managers are careful students of human character, strength, and values. When you learn these aspects of your team, you don’t have to motivate – you cultivate an environment that releases their strengths, talents, and energy toward your mission.

6 Ways to Stay Productive When You’re Completely Overwhelmed by Karin Hurt

Have you ever looked at your to do list and just laughed? You think, “Oh right, that’s not happening,” and then moments later, you realize that none of the tasks on your list are really an option. Perhaps that’s the point that your nervous laughter turns to tears.

My Comment: In this vulnerable and very real post, Hurt gets real about when life gets overwhelming. She shares some practical and helpful Winning Well advice to stay healthy and productive when there’s too much on your plate.

8 Ways to Become a More Genuine and Authentic Person by Joel Garfinkle

Authenticity stands in contrast to the “fake it until you make it” philosophy or the “act like others expect you to” way of fitting in. Is it your best option to be authentic or genuine in the workplace? The truth is, people recognize a fake. Customers, co-workers and bosses feel the insincerity on a conscious or unconscious level. Can’t you tell the difference between a pasted on smile and a genuine smile? People create a dissonance when their words or actions are not genuine.

My Comment: Leaders who want people’s heart to be connected to their team and their work do well to be authentic and real themselves. If trust is the currency of leadership, then authenticity is the bank. Garfinkle gives you several ways you can build up your trustworthiness and likability.

What Leaders Need To Do To Help Their Employees Succeed by Tanveer Naseer

Passion is like a flame flickering in the wind, and that sense of uncertainty about how long it will last is what makes it such a powerful motivational force at the beginning of any new pursuit. At the same time, though, it’s that sense of immediacy that passion creates which also limits its endurance over the long run.

My Comment: In this compelling article, Naseer shares two examples of the role purpose plays in making passion meaningful. As leaders, he underscores the need to help people tap into more than just passion, but into the purpose and meaning in what they do.

David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!

 

The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of March 21, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.

Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582

5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of March 14, 2016

Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.

5 The Employee Engagement Problem No One Is Talking About by Jacob Shriar in B2Community

The number is now hovering around 32%, which is better than 30%, but still nothing to cheer about. To make matters worse, these numbers haven’t changed much in 15 years. So what’s going on? Do too many companies have old-school thinking leaders? Are the initiatives most companies put in place a waste of time/money/energy? Is there something deeper going on? Most employees are simply not engaged at work. Companies are obviously not creating an environment where employees can really shine.

My Comment: It’s one of those bedeviling questions: if it’s important, and if we know how to improve it, why aren’t we doing better? Shriar focuses on the important role manager’s play in employee engagement and it’s a vital focus. Another point he makes which I find needs constant emphasis: don’t do surveys unless you are fully committed and articulate (before launching the survey) a feedback plan. How will you respond to what you learn? If you don’t do anything as a result of the survey, it’s far worse than if you did no survey at all.

Trust is the secret ingredient for successful leadership by Randy Conley at Chief Learning Officer

What if successful leadership isn’t really that complicated? What if there is just one thing — not a title, power or position — that determines whether people followed a leader? What if one aspect of leadership is a non-negotiable, must-have characteristic that needs to be in place for people to pledge their loyalty and commitment to a leader? What if one single element defines how people experience working for a leader? Can it really be as simple as one thing? Yes. And that one thing is trust.

My Comment: Conley’s point – that trust is non-negotiable and the foundation of all your influence – is so vital, yet often ignored. I’ve heard leaders say they “won’t trust easily,” and I understand where they’re coming from, but their lack of trust comes at a high price: their own influence suffers.

Managers and workers disagree completely about what makes a good office culture by Justine Hofherr at Boston.com

What does it take to create a great workplace culture? If you ask managers, employees, and human resource professionals, you’re bound to get very different answers, according to a new employee engagement survey. Kronos asked over 1,800 workers separated into three groups — HR professionals, people managers, and full-time employees — questions about various aspects of workplace culture and employee engagement, such as, “Who defines workplace culture?” and, “What culture attributes matter most to employees?” Kronos found the three groups disagreed on almost everything.

My Comment: Perhaps unsurprisingly, each group thought they have more impact than the others, but the most telling question to me was how the there groups answered “What kills a positive workplace culture?” If you lead a team, pay attention to the answer to the answer employees share. I’ve observed the same realities in many, many clients’ workplaces.

10 Steps for Ensuring You Don’t Set Your Leaders Up to Fail by Edward Brown at ThoughtLeadersLLC

You’re a CEO whose star salesperson just surpassed all records again. When he did it last year, he asked you about moving up the corporate ladder, and you did not discourage his ambition. Clearly, it’s time to promote him to sales manager, so you do. Six months later, you’ve got a problem. Monday/Friday sales meetings are perfunctory affairs, the sales manager is back on the road calling on his old accounts, sales positions linger vacant, veteran salespeople have quit, and two big deals were lost to competitors you usually beat easily. Who is at fault? You. You knew sales manager was a vastly different job from salesperson, but did you make sure your guy was prepared for the differences?

My Comment: One of the most important decisions you’ll ever make is who to promote into positions of leadership and responsibility. Brown gives you a solid checklist of leadership skills to ensure you set your leaders up for success. In addition to this list, I would encourage you to pay attention to both: the results they achieve AND how they achieve them. Both are important.

The Future of the Employee Voice Is Social by Thomas Buus Madsen on HuffingtonPost

There are plenty of companies out there whose idea of an employee voice is still just the annual engagement survey. In many places, a once a year tick box exercise. Questions constrained by the employer, with a nod to letting people have their say with a couple of open ended options at the end. What do you most like about working here? What is the one thing that you would change if you could? This doesn’t really cut it in today’s world, and it certainly won’t work in 2025. It’s just too slow. Who wants to wait a year to share their opinion when they can send a tweet in seconds? The speed of technology development makes more specific predictions difficult. But the need for an employee voice will not diminish. If anything, the changes to our culture mean it will become more and more prevalent. More and more immediate.

My Comment: Madsen underscores something I’ve believed for a while now: the increase ease of communication and transparency of information mean that employers who don’t lead and manage well will be at a distinct disadvantage in the labor market. When people can readily (if not easily) become their own boss, or go across the street to a known better situation (or even to another department within your company), why should they stay with you?

Winning Well is available now from your favorite bookstore! (click here for Amazon).

“Winning Well challenges the common win-at-all-costs mentality, offering specific tools and techniques for managers to achieve lasting results while remaining a decent person. This is a practical resource for inspiring teams and developing leaders.”

-Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals

“I’d choose Winning Well as the top leadership book for the 21st century, full of actionable insights, practices, and principles for your lasting leadership success. Take charge of your team, your career, and your results. Read Winning Well with a highlighter and pen in hand, and then buy a copy for everyone on your team. Yes, it really IS that good.”

-David Newman, author of Do It! Marketing

“The best managers know that short-cuts often lead to short-term results. The authors offer up a better solution, providing practical tools to help managers get results that last by helping people realize their potential to be amazing.”

-Shep Hyken, New York Times bestselling author of The Amazement Revolution

The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of March 14, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.

Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582

5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of March 7, 2016

Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.

Winning Well is available for pre-order, but not for much longer.

Be sure to request your free custom, hand-signed book plates!

How to reduce the sugar rush of organizational life by Jennifer V. Miller at SmartBlog on Leadership

It’s a familiar lament at work: We can’t get anything done because we’re all so busy interacting. Open-office plans, project teams and the incessant ping of our devices lay siege to any possibility of extended mental concentration. The modern workplace, with all its interruptions and distractions, is like an unruly kid on a sugar high at Chuck E. Cheese’s, moving frenetically from one activity to the next. It’s all fun and games until the inevitable sugar crash.

Organizational leaders are both peddlers of the sugar (forwarding countless texts and emails to team members) and overwhelmed kiddos (being summoned yet again to lead a time-suck of a project.)

My Comment: I love Jennifer’s characterization of workplace distractions as a sugar high. I’ve worked with many leaders and managers who cite this as one of their biggest challenges. Jennifer’s suggestions will help you return to healthy and stop the inevitable crashes.

The Question No One Asks Leaders  By Dan Rockwell at Leadership Freak

It was a moment of authenticity that I’ll never forget. I was shocked when General Dempsey, retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “The question I wish people would have asked me is, ‘How do you feel?’”

My Comment: Dan’s post is an incredibly important observation about the role of feelings and emotion in leadership. He starts with the leader’s desire to have their own emotions acknowledged, then continues with a poignant observation: “Leaders who don’t have feelings look down on those who do.”

3 Ways to Rebuild Trust by Marlene Chism

Building trust is a foundational skill of successful leadership. Wherever you see lack of initiative, low morale, or no engagement, ask yourself if the root problem is really a lack of trust or a lack of leadership integrity. Here are three ways to shore up your integrity to start rebuilding trust.

My Comment: I shared this article under the title ‘Building trust means being willing to say you’re sorry’ and I believe that’s true (spoiler alert: it’s also one of Marlene’s top 3 ways to rebuild trust.) If you’re lacking trust from your team, start here (and then check out Winning Well where we give you dozens more ways to build trust.)

7 Leaders vs. Managers: 17 Traits That Set Them Apart [Infographic] by Lisa McKale at ResourcefulManager.com

Let’s set the record straight. Everyone who is a great leader isn’t necessarily a great manager. And great managers aren’t necessarily great leaders.

So when it comes to the Leaders vs. Managers debate, where do you land? Here’s a list of 17 traits that separate the two. Go down the list and check off which ones match you. Most of us have some qualities of each. For example, do you have 10 Leader traits and 7 Manager traits? Or the reverse? Are you happy with the answer?

My Comment: In my experience, the most successful frontline and midlevel supervisors both lead and manage. They have a robust set of tools and are able to use different approaches when circumstances warrant.

Deadlines and Dinosaurs: Leading Accountability by Mary Kelly, PhD.

Why do professional, smart, highly motivated, ambitious people need other people for accountability?

Because we do.

Our Paleolithic, survival-motivated, dinosaur brains tell us that life is short, so enjoy today. Don’t do anything difficult right now because you might need that energy to escape the dangerous wooly mammoth that is chasing you. Conserve your energy. Why stand up when you can sit? Why sit when you can lie down? Take it easy. Whatever you need to do can probably be done tomorrow.

My Comment: Paradoxically, a common problem faced by highly driven leaders is that they fail to give their people clear due dates. Their internal urgency says ‘I needed this yesterday’…but not everyone has that same clock. Be clear about finish line and energize your people!

—–

Time’s Running Out

For every copy of Winning Well that you pre-order, we will send you a hand-signed bookplate with your custom message!

Simply order Winning Well from your favorite bookstore (click here for Amazon). Then go to www.WinningWellBook.com. Click on THE BOOK, then on CUSTOMIZE YOUR BOOK, and submit your message in the form. When the book ships, we’ll send you a custom, hand-signed,  adhesive bookplate that you can put inside the front cover.

Even better, there is no limit to the number of bookplates you may get. Get this valuable customized resource for yourself and for all the managers in your life!

“I’d choose Winning Well as the top leadership book for the 21st century, full of actionable insights, practices, and principles for your lasting leadership success. Take charge of your team, your career, and your results. Read Winning Well with a highlighter and pen in hand, and then buy a copy for everyone on your team. Yes, it really IS that good.” -David Newman, author of Do It! Marketing

—–

David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!

The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of March 7, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.

Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582

Leaders Who Can’t Be Questioned

Group photo with Jon Acuff & my co-author Karin Hurt

When Leaders Can’t Be Questioned

Last week I was privileged to hear Jon Acuff, author of Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck Again present at the National Speaker Association’s Winter Conference. Check out his book and his thoughts on how you can best respond to the different types of change you’ll encounter in life. It’s well worth your time!

During his program, Jon said something that stuck with me and is a core element of Winning Well:

Leaders who can’t be questioned do questionable things. -John Acuff

Behind every leader who has self-destructed, repeatedly made poor decisions, and lost their influence in disgrace, there is a person who could not hear feedback.

I’ve sat with some of these leaders in the aftermath of their collapse. They shake their head in bewilderment and ask, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Even worse, some of them truly believed that they were open to feedback. But when you observed their interactions, they cut off people they didn’t want to hear from, encouraged those who agreed with them, and slowly built an ‘echo chamber’ where they couldn’t be questioned – not in ways that mattered.

What’s Your Leadership Core?

It’s easy to wag a finger at ‘those leaders’ – but how open are you?

Leaders who practice Winning Well lead from a core of confidence and humility.

With confidence you:

Know your strengths and use them
You stand up for what matters
You speak the truth

That confidence produces amazing results when you pair it with humility.

With humility you:

Have an accurate self-image (don’t believe your own press release!)
Admit mistakes
Invite challengers

When was the last time you invited someone to challenge your thinking, didn’t get defensive, and thanked them for their feedback?

Your Turn

How do you maintain clear communication and invite challenging feedback from your team?

Leaders who can’t be questioned do questionable things. Be confident, stay humble, and…

Be the leader you want your boss to be!

David Dye

P.S. To celebrate the launch of our new book, Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results — Without Losing Your Soul, Karin and I are offering you a special gift:  A custom bookplate with your requested message.

Simply order Winning Well from your favorite bookstore (click here for Amazon). Then go to www.WinningWellBook.com. Click on THE BOOK, then on CUSTOMIZE YOUR BOOK, and submit your message in the form. When the book ships, we’ll send you a custom, hand-signed,  adhesive bookplate that you can put inside the front cover.

Even better, there is no limit to the number of bookplates you may get. Get an affordable, customized resource for yourself and for all the managers in your life!

“Winning Well challenges the common win-at-all-costs mentality, offering specific tools and techniques for managers to achieve lasting results while remaining a decent person. This is a practical resource for inspiring teams and developing leaders.” -Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals

The post Leaders Who Can’t Be Questioned appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.

Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582

5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of February 29, 2016

Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.

Get your free Winning Well books customized book plates

More details at the end of this week’s articles…

Five Reasons Remote Teams Fail by Wayne Turmel in Management-Issues.com

Leading a remote team can sometimes feel like an entirely different kettle of fish to leading a co-located one. But actually it’s the same fish, just a different kettle. If we think about what teams need to do (and leaders need to help facilitate) – share information, collaborate, offer assistance to each other – the job is the same whether our desks are adjacent or thousands of miles apart.

My Comment: Turmel shares some of the most common pitfalls you face with distributed and remote teams and suggestions of how to keep these mistakes from sinking your team.

How to Build A Mentally Healthy Workplace by Thea O’Connor

The mounting social and economic costs of poor mental health highlight the need for business leaders to play their part in meeting this complex challenge.

My Comment: O’Connor writes from her perspective in the Australian workplace and the principles she shares are important and applicable everywhere. As a leader, the more mentally healthy your workplace, the more productive you will be and better quality of life everyone will enjoy.

How Leaders Can Develop Their Skills With One Simple Habit by Matt Tenney in Tanveer Naseer’s Blog

If your schedule is anything like mine, finding time to consistently devote to your own leadership development is likely quite a challenge.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have a well-rounded leadership development program that didn’t require you to add anything to your schedule? You can. In fact, research in neuroscience suggests that you can transform simple, daily activities – like brushing your teeth, commuting to work, and preparing coffee – into opportunities to change both the function and structure of your brain in ways that improve both business acumen and emotional intelligence, two key drivers of leadership performance. All you need to do is change the way you do things you’re already doing each day.

My Comment: Tenney’s focus on mindfulness is very helpful to aid you in creating the behaviors you want to undertake. The greater your self-awareness, the more effective your leadership.

Leadership Caffeine – The Human Cost of Mismanaging Change by Art Petty

As a business speaker, Petty talks to groups a great deal about the issues of change. From navigating the business and industry impacting change created by advancements in technology and the obsolescence of older business approaches, to the more personal issue of how to best absorb and respond to uninvited change, the topic is always front and center.

My Comment: Petty offers a heartfelt and human-centered perspective on the challenges of change in the workplace, the gives you seven practical steps to follow that will help you guide your people through change.

Four Radical Leadership Practices that Will Dramatically Increase Engagement by Ron Carucci on Forbes.com

By now, everyone’s heard 70% of the workforce is checked out. That’s why employee engagement remains all the rage among management fads. Yet sadly, many of the fixes being offered amount to little more than superficial techniques that don’t fundamentally change how people experience their workplaces, and more importantly, their bosses. That’s why I recently sat down with Mark C. Crowley, best-selling author of Lead from the Heart, to discuss the connections between leadership behavior and plummeting employee engagement levels.

My Comment: The leadership practices Carucci discusses in this interview with Mark Crowley will certainly feel radical to many managers – but they work. This is an excellent article if you really want to bring out the best in your people. Be warned though – if you want your people’s hearts to be in their work, you’ve got to connect with the heart.

——-

Our Gift to You

For every copy of Winning Well that you pre-order, we will send you a hand-signed bookplate with your custom message!

Simply order Winning Well from your favorite bookstore (click here for Amazon). Then go to www.WinningWellBook.com. Click on THE BOOK, then on CUSTOMIZE YOUR BOOK, and submit your message in the form. When the book ships, we’ll send you a custom, hand-signed,  adhesive bookplate that you can put inside the front cover.

Even better, there is no limit to the number of bookplates you may get. Get this valuable customized resource for yourself and for all the managers in your life!

“I’d choose Winning Well as the top leadership book for the 21st century, full of actionable insights, practices, and principles for your lasting leadership success. Take charge of your team, your career, and your results. Read Winning Well with a highlighter and pen in hand, and then buy a copy for everyone on your team. Yes, it really IS that good.” -David Newman, author of Do It! Marketing

The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of February 29, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.

Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582

5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of February 22, 2016

Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.

Have you ordered your free customized book plate yet?

More details at the end of this week’s articles…

The Relationship Between Corporate Culture and Performance by Alina Dizik in the Wall Street Journal

Corporate culture has long been linked to company performance, but how exactly are the two related? A recent study suggests the relationship is strong, but nuanced. For instance, a positive corporate culture—one that engages and motivates employees—helps a company’s bottom line, according to the study of car dealerships by a group of university and corporate researchers. But the reverse apparently isn’t true.

My Comment: Alina addresses some of the important finer points of studies like this one. For instance, the impact of a positive company culture on performance is real, but it takes time to see it. Additionally, a positive company culture is an advantage your competitors can’t copy.

This Is Why All Your Great Employees Leave by Aaron Michel

A 2015 LinkedIn survey revealed that the No. 1 reason employees leave their company is because of a lack of career advancement opportunities. Fifty-nine percent of job-switchers did so because the new workplace had a stronger career path. Continuing to ignore employees’ aspirations affects recruitment, retention, engagement and the overall success of the organization. And unless employers find ways to help their workforce visualize a clear path within the company, great talent will keep leaving.

My Comment: Aaron provides four ways you might be holding back your employees and who to improve so your top performers don’t jump ship. Career advancement is one way people experience a sense of growth – a vital component of an energized team. Even if you don’t have promotion opportunities, how can you help them build on strengths? Create more value with their work? Receive more value for their work?

The Price of Poor Listening by Dan Bobinski in Management.Issues

Millions of dollars are lost every day in organizations simply because of poor listening. In your company it may be only thousands, or hundreds, or maybe just twenty or fifty here and there. Whatever the amount, I’m guessing you would be amazed at how much money is lost due to poor listening skills.

My Comment: Dan calls out a fundamental problems that prevent us from listening well and provides an excellent guide in how to do it well. A notable portion of this article is the section “Getting Past the Obstacles” where he discusses the internal concerns that might keep you from listening.

Study Says It Takes Only One Mean Employee to Drag Down the Entire Workplace by Amy Morin in Forbes

There’s a lot to be said for the old saying, “One bad apple can spoil the whole barrel.” Not only is that true for fruit, but it holds a lot of merit in the workplace. Just one malicious employee among the ranks can wreak havoc on your company culture. Toxic employees have an unhealthy ripple effect that harms co-workers, managers and subordinates alike.

My Comment: When I shared this one, many people responded with their own examples. Remember, when you hold everyone accountable for their behavior and performance, you communicate how much you value your people and you cultivate an environment where everyone can perform. Fail to do this and you’ll lose performance and your people.

What Attracts the Best Employees to a Company? By Brandon Rigoni and Bailey Nelson on Gallup.com

When leaders see their best performers achieve business outcomes, they no doubt wish they could get more similarly talented people to apply to and join their company. Fortunately, any business can attract applicants who are more likely to be top performers and a good cultural fit by using some simple strategies for developing a focused employee value proposition (EVP).

My Comment: Talented workers who have values and dispositions consistent with your culture are invaluable – they are the engines that drive everything you do. Rigoni and Nelson give you the best practices of companies with strong employee value propositions.

——-

Our Gift to You

For every copy of Winning Well that you pre-order, we will send you a hand-signed bookplate with your custom message! 

Simply order Winning Well from your favorite bookstore (click here for Amazon). Then go to www.WinningWellBook.com. Click on THE BOOK, then on CUSTOMIZE YOUR BOOK, and submit your message in the form. When the book ships, we’ll send you a custom, hand-signed,  adhesive bookplate that you can put inside the front cover.

Even better, there is no limit to the number of bookplates you may get. Get this valuable customized resource for yourself and for all the managers in your life!

“I’d choose Winning Well as the top leadership book for the 21st century, full of actionable insights, practices, and principles for your lasting leadership success. Take charge of your team, your career, and your results. Read Winning Well with a highlighter and pen in hand, and then buy a copy for everyone on your team. Yes, it really IS that good.” -David Newman, author of Do It! Marketing

——-

David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!

The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of February 22, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.

Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582