Three lessons from Stefan’s story:

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*.

I heard throughout my life that I should always honor those who are older than me and I’ve always been asked to lead them. In this episode, Bonni and I discuss situations where we’ve both been asked to lead people older than us and identify seven principles that can help you do this successfully as well.

1. Everyone is your superior in some way.

“In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. Focus on the right questions instead of the right answers.

3. Befriend people who are older than you are – and younger too.

4. Remember each person will be very young and very old.

5. Honoring and leading are not mutually exclusive.

6. Not everyone wants to lead.

7. You are there for a reason.

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

I wish I could tell you that I’ve always felt confident as a leader, but I used to be a real scaredy cat. In this episode, I discuss six ways that I learned to have more confidence in my leadership abilities and not be consumed by the fear and worry about giving feedback to others.

1) Set expectations early: If expectations aren’t there with followers, create them. If they aren’t clear, clarify. Do it early or as soon as you can.

2) Be willing to change directions: A mentor gave me great advice when they said, “No leader is perfect. You can always acknowledge to a follower that something has been OK up until now, but that you are now making a different decision going forward.”

3) Ask a trusted colleague for feedback: I discovered that asking for advice from a person I trusted often gave me new ideas.

4) Respond in 24 hours: Zig Ziglar said, “If you need to eat a frog, you don’t want to look at that sucker too long. He ain’t gonna get any prettier.” (Customers – SCORE!)

5) Earn trust by being a good-finder: I spent time each day finding good stuff people were doing and told them.

6) Listen to daily inspiration: These days, I listen to podcasts. One that always gives me a boost is Michael Hyatt’s show This Is Your Life.

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

It sure would be nice if we could all learn to be more effective leaders without making any mistakes. However, while none of us would wish for mistakes, many of us learn the most from past missteps. In this episode, I talk about the value of mistakes and highlight six mistakes that I have made as the host of this show.

I discuss the mistakes that I made in starting my first business many years ago and what I learned from these mistakes.

I the more recent past, here are the six mistakes that I’ve made hosting this show:

1) Being too structured

I mention the book Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz by Frank Barrett that was featured on a recent HBR Ideacast.

“If you’re not making a mistake, it’s a mistake.” -Miles Davis

One of my mentors once said, “Any strength overused, becomes a liability.”

2) Assuming everyone listens the way I do

We have listeners on Zune, iTunes, Stitcher, and BlackBerry – and even more places than those.

3) Forgetting the reason behind the goal

4) Driving the agenda myself

Upcoming shows on mentoring, lessons from changing companies, and stories about great leaders are all listener suggestions

5) Not sharing enough specific stories

I started to turn the corner a bit with episode #48: How to Lead When Someone Is Driving You Nuts

6) Not being engaged with people

Why the list of 100 is gone

What others mistakes have I made? Tell me. What mistakes have you made? Share in the comments section below.

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Almost all of us are doing more virtually than we ever have before – and that includes our leadership responsibilities. Virtual leadership has become the norm in many organizations and leaders have had to adapt in order to influence effectively across distance. In this week’s episode, I speak with virtual teams expert Mike Demas on what strategies leaders can use in order to be as effective as possible in a virtual environment.

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Leaders face difficult situations when their organizations struggle through budgetary challenges. My guest, Carol Taylor, is all too familiar with such challenges and tells the story of the crisis that faced Vanguard University when she was appointed president. She is the author of Leading a Turnaround and the Joy of a Third Class Ticket found in Thriving Leadership edited by Karen Longman, and joins me on this episode to share her leadership journey at Vanguard.

Two challenges for you after listening to today’s show:

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*.

Authentic leaders know that there’s more to an apology than simply the words “I’m sorry” – although that’s a good starting point. Mistakes are inevitable, but few leaders are able to communicate a genuine apology. This week, Bonni returns to discuss how we can make our apologies more meaningful and genuine to the people who receive them.

Components of an authentic apology:

1) State “I’m sorry” or “I apologize” with sincerity

2) Be specific about what you are apologizing for and own it

3) Discuss what you will do to avoid the mistake in the future

Tell me what you did to incorporate something from our discussion above – I want to know what is working for you!

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Getting results isn’t always easy, but the process is simple. In this episode, I’ll review the 3 steps that you need to get the best results from the people you lead. I’ll also point out many of the common mistakes that lots of us make when trying to follow these simple guidelines. If you aren’t getting what you expect from people, this show is a must-listen for you.

What do I want for you?

1) Establish outcomes up front

2) Agree to regular check-ins

3) Provide accountability

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

If you are doing any type of serious leadership, you are going to hear complaining. As I discuss in this episode, complaining isn’t always a bad thing, but you need to handle it appropriately as a leader. In this episode, I discuss seven ways to handle complainers in your organization.

1. Expect ingratitude “The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” – Colin Powell

2. Give people time and a venue to complain

3. Set the agenda in advance (and time frames)

4. Require solutions to problems

5. Set time limits and stick to them (see details in the 6 Habits to Keep People from Wasting Your Time article)

6. Be frank with people

7. Limit your interactions with that person (try the others first)

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Questions are the language of coaches. Stories are the language of leaders. In this episode, I welcome Sandie Morgan, Director of the Global Center for Women & Justice at Vanguard University of Southern California, to speak about how she utilizes storytelling to influence the world.

Hear Sandie and Dave biweekly on the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.