Empathy and Your Leadership Style

Knowing how to show empathy through your leadership style, especially during a crisis, can be one of the most poignant and defining elements of your career. That is a big statement, I know. However, can you think of a way that you can meaningfully make a greater difference in the lives of the people you lead than by showing them empathy?

How to Show Empathy

As we discussed in the last post, you probably realize your team members are dealing with a lot of added stress as the pandemic continues. I would contend that one of the most virulent facets of their stress is uncertainty—fear of the unknown. It is likely that a number of your team members feel in the dark or out of the loop about various things they’re dealing with in their personal lives. You can show great empathy by having their work situation be one about which they are crystal clear. Keep them informed. One of the biggest ways you can be helpful to them and show empathy is to...

The Importance of Empathetic Leadership

To fully understand the importance of empathetic leadership during a time of crisis, think back to mid-February. How tuned in to your team were you then? I will bet you are as surprised as I am as to how different the world is just a few months later. Has your level of connection to your team kept pace with those changes? As I write this post, the United States is about four months into the response to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Who would have ever thought things would be disrupted this long? Certainly not me.

What is Your Team Going Through?

We have to admit, the pandemic has had a profound human cost. Some people have lost their employment, either partially or entirely. Others have lost loved ones to the disease. Members of your team may have had the illness or had to expend time, energy, and effort to care for family members who have been sick. Most parents with school age children have been given a bit of a reprieve thanks to summer...

Leadership Communication Strategy

Have you given much thought to how your personal leadership communication strategy can move you and your leadership talents to the next level? I know you have goals for yourself. They may be moving up the corporate ladder, pushing through a revenue goal, or winning a championship title with your sports team. Whatever your goals might be, having a personal leadership communication strategy will absolutely help you on your journey to achieving those goals. Your leadership communication strategy will help your team work cohesively. So, do you have a personal leadership communication strategy?

Begin With The End In Mind: The Fourth Cornerstone

Over the past few blog posts, we’ve been carefully laying our foundational cornerstones for effective communication. We have already placed the cornerstones of intentional communication, the goal of seeking alignment, and consistency. Now, it’s time for the cornerstone that perfectly dovetails with...

Effective Communication in Leadership

Effective communication in leadership will propel your department, business, sports team, organization, civic group, or family to the next level—that comes with a money-back guarantee!

For the past few blog posts, we’ve been discussing communication in leadership, but let’s face it, not all communication is created equally. Unless your communication is effective, you’re just spinning your wheels.

What Does Effective Communication in Leadership Look Like?

The result of effective communication in leadership is a group of individuals successfully working together in the direction of a common goal or vision. Every individual is clear about what is expected of them, and they feel as if they are treated with respect. Wow… tall order, right? I want to work on that utopian team!

Well, even though that is an extreme example of the result of effective communication in leadership, there are definitely ornaments we can pluck...

Communication Skills for Leadership

Often, I’m asked which communication skills for leadership are the most important. A companion question is frequently about a recommended list of communication skills. My answers to these questions are often: “Well, it depends. Let’s talk about you and your organization.”

In this blog series, we have already talked about the importance of communication in leadership and the role of communication in leadership. Both of those are pretty broad concepts. Once you have them nailed down, you should start to see your organization, and the communication within it, up leveling toward world class. So, now we start to look at communication in a more granular way.

What Communication Skills Should You Have?

I can’t say that there is a checklist or a certain number of skills every leader should possess or work to improve; after all, we all start from a different place. A skill you might be fantastic with, someone else might be...

The Role of Communication in Leadership

When we discuss the role of communication in leadership, we open the door to an interesting, many-roomed house of ideas. It is another example of the ask ten people, and you’ll get ten answers kind of topic. I’m convinced that there are a number of roles that effective communication serve in leadership, but I would contend that one of the most important roles is that of aligning your team with your vision and the effort it will take to carry out that vision.

Alignment

I looked up the proper definition of the word alignment using the trusty go-to source, dictionary.com, and I came across a meaning that perfectly suits my thoughts: alignment is a state of agreement or cooperation among persons, groups, nations, etc., with a common cause or viewpoint. Bingo! Can you imagine what it would be like if the team you lead had agreement and cooperation about a shared vision? You’d be unstoppable!

Striving for Alignment

As a leader,...

Importance of Communication in Leadership

The importance of communication in leadership is pretty much the same as the importance of communication in any situation—it’s vital. Success in marriage, parenting, coaching, civic engagement, and many other situations depends on a high level of effective communication. In business, I’m talking about your ability to clearly engage with the people you lead in a way that helps them understand what is expected of or needed from them. Without effective communication, misunderstandings arise, mistakes are made, employees aren’t inspired, and ultimately, they don’t reach their highest potential.

Importance of Communication

There are many facets to effective communication, but at the most elementary level, simply recognizing the importance of communication it is key. As a society, we can often pay lip service to the importance of communication, but this is really where the rubber meets the road—are you willing...

Qualities of A Good Leader: A High Leadership Limit

Qualities of A Good Leader

The qualities of a good leader are not defined the same by everyone. That being said, we all know the qualities of a good leader when we see those qualities in action. One thing is certain, in a list of the qualities of a good leader, having a high Leadership Limit is always near the top. Knowing your Leadership Limit and consistently and honestly working to improve that limit is one of the best ways to motivate your team. When you are operating at your highest level of ability possible, each member of your team will be producing at their highest level of potential. That’s truly a win/win situation. Think about it—we all want to be world-class, right?

Who is A World-Class Leader?

If I were to ask ten people to name a world-class leader, I would probably get the name of ten different leaders. That’s terrific! Each one of us has a check list in our head of the qualities of a good leader....

What Makes A Leader: Your Leadership Limit

What makes a leader?

What makes a leader is the ability to look within to see how our actions are benefiting or hamstringing the team we lead. If you want to push yourself and your team to levels of success that you might never have dreamed of, looking within is an important exercise—one you will want to do often.

This self-examination will help you to honestly identify and work to improve the current limits of your leadership, or what I call your Leadership Limit. By doing this exercise often, you will continually develop your own ideas of what makes a leader, and you will have new personal leadership goals to work toward.

Leadership Limit

In the last post, we started to have a conversation about your Leadership Limit. As I mentioned, this is a take on John Maxwell’s leadership theory of the Leadership Lid in which he describes a person’s leadership ability as the lid that determines their level of effectiveness. The...

Leadership Theories and Your Team’s Success

Leadership theories and your team's success is often determined by your Leadership Limit.

Leadership Limits

Leadership theories aren’t something we find only in Business School textbooks. We all deal with various leadership theories every day in the workplace. One that especially addresses you and your leadership ability is your Leadership Lid or Leadership Limit. This leadership theory can be a bit touchy as it may make some leaders nervous or uncomfortable. That’s ok! Real, genuine growth often involves discomfort. I guarantee, if you make a personal commitment to look honestly at your own Leadership Limit, you and your organization will benefit in ways you might never have imagined.

You may be familiar with the term Leadership Lid, as it was coined by my mentor, John Maxwell. He described a person’s leadership ability is the lid that determines their level of effectiveness. The lower an individual’s ability...