Taking the Sting out of Feedback
Giving feedback isn’t scary because of the words. It’s scary because we’re afraid of damaging a relationship. Here’s the 5‑step script I use with the leaders I coach to take the sting out of tough feedback. Save this for your next difficult 1:1. In Leadership Core, I’m tackling everyday leadership challenges with HIIT‑style intervals: short, […]
Listen for the Whole Story
Story: It’s not about you every time Are you listening to hear what someone has to share, or using every chance to play a kind of charades with your team? I’m thinking of the “sounds like” move: a team member shares something that sounds like work you’ve done, are doing, or want to do, and […]
Start Meetings with a Question
In Leadership Core, I’m tackling everyday leadership challenges with HIIT‑style intervals: short, focused practices you can run between meetings to strengthen how you lead. Story: Invite people into the conversation You head into a meeting totally prepared. You’ve got updates to share and next steps that will really streamline the work your team has been […]
Coming Back
Story: Breakthrough. For the past four months I’ve been quieter than I planned. A ruptured Achilles and weeks of PT forced me to slow down and pay more attention than ever to my physical core. With direction from a strong physical therapist and exercises that carried me between sessions, I’ve learned some valuable insights about growth, […]
The impact of people pleasing on your leadership
The Coach’s Corner Newsletter #110 The best leaders I work with use a mix of management styles to lead their teams. Author and psychologist, Daniel Goleman, has established six styles of leadership based on different aspects of emotional intelligence, as captured here on Personio. 1. Coercive Leadership 2. Authoritative Leadership 3. Affiliative Leadership 4. Democratic […]
Lessons from a royal kitchen garden
The Coach’s Corner Newsletter #101 If you’ve ever felt stuck with an issue you can’t seem to resolve – there’s a good chance you’ll try to remember how you’ve dealt with such a matter before and other times when you decide it’s time to test a totally new idea. This past week, my husband and […]
Your leadership matters
The Coach’s Corner Newsletter #91 You often discover what a key principal is in your life – when you observe the opposite. Getting ready to interview a sports figure for a radio show more than a decade ago, I had notes from the previous game, a highlight to refer to and talking tips from conversations […]
4 major leadership mistakes
The Coach’s Corner Newsletter #89 There’s something about watching someone drop the ball as a leader that is unsettling. Whether it’s you, a leader you report to, someone who’s the face of a civic/religious/sports organization or an elected official, that error takes a toll. You may have heard that Luka Doncic, star extraordinaire of the […]
Leading by connection
The Coach’s Corner Newsletter #88 Having made a life-changing decision to move from Denver, CO to Rockwall, TX nearly six months ago, it is easy to understand why some people choose to stay right where they are and never relocate. I get it. Moving demands a loosening of ties to people in every level of […]
Want to communicate clearly?
The Coach’s Corner Newsletter #87 The family in which I grew up wasn’t always direct. Here’s a scene from our dinner table. Rather than asking for the butter, which my father clearly wanted to apply to his biscuit, he would look at the person sitting closest to the butter. Lois, would you like some butter? […]