Managing Yourself

In my last blog, I reviewed the first ingredient of asking open questions- showing up with the intention to learn and understand. The second ingredient is becoming aware of, and managing, your interference. What is interference? It is actually two things. First, it’s that incessant voice we all have in…

Peter Drucker said "...the leader of the past knew how to tell.  The leader of the future will know how to ask."  How well do you listen and ask open questions? Most members of my Peer Advisory Groups find it very difficult. Listening has two parts: the receptive part of…

What resources do you use to improve your effectiveness? How do you learn what motivates others, so that you can adjust your leadership style to better interact with your employees? A perfect tool is the Enneagram. This powerful and respected personality system can be applied to a wide variety of…

Difficulty with focus and organization is a frequent topic during my monthly one-to-one sessions with my members.  As leaders of their businesses, they often feel overwhelmed, by the sheer volume of their outstanding action items. Some of these get captured in various places while many just float in their heads.…

One of the many things that I love about  being a CEO Coach with Vistage International is the challenge. I challenge my members to be better and they challenge me right back! One of my Peer Advisory Groups recently gave me some feedback and issued this challenge: They wanted to…

  If you are like almost all of my CEO’s and Senior Executives, you struggle with taking time off and freeing yourself from your e-mail and electronic addiction devices. In the interest of your productivity and sanity, here are some helpful articles on how to conquer the urge to constantly…

  While discussing an issue of a member at a monthly meeting of one of my CEO Groups, another member advised: “Take the emotion out of it!” The advice was well-intentioned, but ultimately, wrong. Ignoring emotion in the workplace can actually be dangerous. Here are links to a few insightful…

In my previous blog, I stated that if you want accountable employees, you must teach them the basic knowledge and follow up with continuous coaching.  Here are two Accountability models that you can use for that purpose: Accountability Models Arbinger Institute Model The Arbinger model is based upon a simple…

Are you as sick of the “blame game” as I am? Occupy Wall Street protestors blame the "nasty, greedy, wealthy" companies and their executives for their suffering. Politicians spin stories about how the current economy is someone else's fault. Retail workers claim it’s not their fault that a product is…

"How productive was your day, today?" I asked a member. "Very!" he said. “Great! What made it so productive?” "I spent the day with my Executive Team. It felt good to resolve some important business issues with my key leadership." What a unique view of productivity!. Why don't I hear…