What We Are Reading

Have you empowered your team enough? It is hard to walk the line between giving them enough freedom and keeping control, but you'll be surprised at the results of giving your team some creative freedom and allowing them to take risks.

Link: https://www.fastcompany.com/90673494/5-questions-emotionally-intelligent-leaders-ask-themselves-every-day?partner=feedburner&utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=webfeeds&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fastcompany%2Fheadlines+%28Fast+Company%29

Leaders can easily make the mistake of either promoting staff into leadership too soon or by not realizing some solo performers make bad managers.

Link: https://www.business2community.com/leadership/is-your-star-performer-ready-to-lead-02430280

Good team management requires effective communication, confidence in your own abilities, and fairness. It's also important to show your teammates that you respect their opinions even when you don’t agree with them.

It's important to teach your sales teams the value of empathy, as it allows them to truly understand buyers' needs and desires. Teach your teams to actively listen and ask questions, and remember to model this behavior yourself.

Link: https://www.td.org/atd-blog/cultivate-these-3-habits-to-develop-winning-sales-teams

Have you defined what success means for your business and each of the roles in it? Establishing the most meaningful performance indicators helps to cultivate talent within your company.

Link: Have you defined what success means for your business and each of the roles in it? Establishing the most meaningful performance indicators helps to cultivate talent within your company.

"When people talk, listen completely." - Ernest Hemingway. A huge part of being a good leader is taking the focus off of your own agenda and taking the time to hear the thoughts and feelings of your team.

Link: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/people-managers/pages/wise-sayings-for-managers.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+shrm%2Fhrnews+%28SHRM+Online+HR+News%29

Fictional CEO Kathryn Petersen asks her executive team, “How many of you would rather go to a meeting than a movie?” No one. Why? Good movies embrace conflict. Whereas most team meetings are superficial consensus-building exercises, and therefore boring. “Fear of Conflict” and other common team dysfunctions are brought to life in Lencioni’s fable of a fearless leader racing to align her team before her company gets crushed in the marketplace. The book is super-readable, comprised of short chapters, compelling characters, believable dialogue, plenty of conflict and even cliffhangers (which team member won’t make it to the next offsite? Not the one you’d most expect!) Leveraging our love of a good yarn, Lencioni teaches the fundamental causes of team failure and how to lead around them. As hard as it can be to build a cohesive team, it’s not that complicated – a simple matter of embracing common sense with an uncommon level of discipline and persistence.

HIGHLIGHT(S): “When an executive team fails to achieve buy-in from all team members, even if the disparities that exist seem relatively small, employees who report to those executives will inevitably clash when they try to interpret marching orders that are not clearly aligned with those of colleagues in other departments. Like a vortex, small gaps between executives high up in an organization become major discrepancies by the time they reach employees below.”

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1X2BO3WQSQV92&dchild=1&keywords=five+dysfunctions+of+a+team+by+patrick+lencioni&qid=1620849867&s=books&sprefix=five+dy%2Cstripbooks%2C153&sr=1-2

Notice, breathe, and be in the here and now of leadership. Being more present as a leader, versus focusing on the past or future, is a great technique to practice in order to effectively have an impact on your team.

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2021/09/09/how-to-focus-your-leadership-in-the-here-and-now/?sh=6472e9972753

As the landscape of the workplace shifts, good leadership is needed more than ever. Part of that includes anticipating and adapting.

Link: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/380232

“If you play golf, you cannot see your backswing, so you get a coach.” Executive coaching means that you always have someone looking out for you and your business. It's one of the best investments you can make for your business and one that delivers results time and time again.

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/henrydevries/2021/08/28/now-is-the-time-to-get-a-growth-coach/?sh=5ac8a9bd85dc