Lead From Here

The old adage "Perception is 9/10s reality" is spot on when it comes to life, but when you put it in the business scenario, it truly is the lens that you have to view things that involve your people. Whether it's rockstars being held back by their lack of interest in inner office politics or poor performers that have a great executive presence...the perception of you, your team or your people, drives your ability to succeed as a leader.

A great leader will help drive perception by setting up their people for success. Whether that is role playing, practice, training or just building them up via indirect convos about their contributions. It's also important to clearly show them the visuals people are creating with their actions (or lackthereof).

It's not always a fun convo or situation, but it cannot be ignored. Help your people keep their outward visuals and perceptions in sight!

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Failure is a fun topic to talk about. Responses to failure can vary depending on the severity of the failure...but generally speaking, if your first thought is "They should be punished!" you probably need to adjust your thinking...but also, if your first thought is, "Ah, it's not a big deal.", you also need to pivot your thinking.

Failure is a very natural and imporant part of the success cycle of a company. If you are doing anything of value, you will come across failures of all sizes. The key is to show the failure respect, there isn't punishment, there isn't avoidance, there is just understanding and growth. If you seek to understand the failure and act on putting things in place to avoid it in the future, it's now become a positive part of your growth as a company/team/individual.

Thanks for being here, I hope you are finding good information here! If you are looking for more, let me know!

Imposter syndrome is a term that is thrown around a great deal these days. It's important to understand that it's not ALL negative.

Understand that if you got a promotion, you earned it, they don't just randomly promote people for no reason. You earned it. You deserve it. With that, it's important to understand what Imposter Syndrome does for you in the new role...it creates humility. Humility to know that you haven't built mastery yet in this role...how could you? You JUST got promoted!

The key is to keep it in the right frame...it's simply an opportunity to improve and grow. You won't always live there, but at every new level you will experience this again. So don't avoid, embrace it and use it to help you drive humility.

Thanks for being here, I hope you are finding good information here! If you are looking for more, let me know!

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Difficult time is such a vague term, it could be a market downturn, layoffs, loss of a large customer an acquistion or some national tragedy/health emergency. Whatever the reason for these bad times, it's impactful to your teams. Depending on how bad it gets, you have to really understand the impact of the words and the tone you use. Be as transparent as possible without getting yourself or your company in trouble.

If things go really bad and there is a layoff, make sure you understand that no one at the individual contributor level trusts the company. That trust can be rebuilt, but their trust level is back to 0 because, so your actions, words and tone need to align to that fact. The teams are going to slow down, the morale is going to be more negative and it won't turn around quickly. The best way to handle this is show empathy and understanding of the situation and give them space to go through the grief of losing teammates and overall trust...it takes time, but the snapback of the team when they realize that you are who you were as a leader before the layoff and that you just lived what you said through the worst of times...they will come back stronger and your relationship will be bolstered in the long run.

Thanks for being here, I hope you are finding good information here! If you are looking for more, let me know!

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This topic has a lot of nuance and it's important to understand as a leader. You can't be a good leader and constantly or regularly be worried about getting fired. It's impossible to live in that state and be effective at, taking appropriate risks, pushing for more accountability or taking blame and giving credit. There are countless things that you won't do as effectively in leadership (and life, really) if you are living in a mindset of fear.

You have to know what is best for your team and what isn't. Then go out and fight for those things. Sometimes that means going toe to toe with an executive to get your team what it needs. You won't win all those battle, but that isn't the goal. The goal is to fight, as eloquently and with as much data to set context as possible and then let the chips fall where they lay.

Thanks for being here, I hope you are finding good information here! If you are looking for more, let me know!

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This topic is a fun one because when people first hear it or read it...they think, must be nice to think about this, but in reality you can't say no very often. There is some truth to that, but I think people take the word or action of No to the extreme. In business scnearios, no isn't a discussion stopper, it's a discussion starter...so if you just say no and don't say anything else, you aren't doing your job as a leader.

As a leader, you understand that there is almost always a business reason behind an ask...so just saying no, now puts someone on the defensive to get something done for their leader, team, etc. Instead of saying no and ending the conversation, say, no, but...and let people know that you are open to helping, but the no was specifically for the suggestion or request. Then start discussing other options. If you don't have any ideas, ask for more context on where the ask is coming from. Saying no is an art and the leaders that can do it best, can create the most change and success in a company.

Thanks for being here, I hope you are finding good information here! If you are looking for more, let me know!

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Disconnecting as a leader sounds super negative...but it's a necessary tool for sustainable effective leadership. Burnout is the fastest way to lose focus or control of a project, team or report. If you are constantly connected, not taking time for yourself and also pushing beyond your boundaries...you will find yourself in burnout town. With that, it's important for you to know when to disconnect and what your current mindset needs from a disconnection standpoint.

For me, I have time where I am "Off Work" but I am still checking Slack and responding to emails. In my current role, that is a necessity in some scenarios to make sure things keep moving. I try to take 4-6 weeks of PTO throughout the year...with 2 of those weeks being totally disconnected, no phone, no laptop, not messages, emails or calls. I don't do those week back to back, because I want to spread out those weeks into different times to spread the impact of that disconnection time. 2 of those weeks are mostly disconnected, where I will check in a couple times during the week to solve any pressing issuse. Then I will have a week or two where I will spend a few hours a day working on top items...no meetings, just focused work and responding some messages.

The actual execution is very individualized, but the point is to make sure that you are taking care of your physical AND mental health. Without both being taken care of, you will not be an effective leader for an extended period of time.

Thanks for being here, I hope you are finding good information here! If you are looking for more, let me know!

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Your leadership style is something that is really good to understand as early in your leadership career as possible. It's not easy, but it's important. If you don't understand how you lead, you will be inconsistent in your actions and emotions. Which can lead your people to feel frustrated, confused or simply lost on how to interact with you. It takes self relection and some research to understand where you feel as a person and a leader, but it's worth the early investment. From there, it's understanding the strengths and weaknesses of that style.

For me, I am fairly laissez-faire, meaning that I trust my teams to do their job. I am around, I am aware of what is happening on a day to day basis...but I am only there to knock out blockers, get answers and help when asked. I stay out of their way and let them do what they are best at! I am also extremely laid back, I don't get too worked up over stressful situations, not because I don't care or don't understand...but because I make worse decisions when I feed into the stress. The problem is my team, my leaders and my peers assumed because I wasn't worked up, I didn't understand the severity. So I have to really focus on explaining the pain and urgency, so people know how to react in their own way. If I don't, I am not be a good leader and letting one of my strengths become a weakness because of perception.

Thanks for being here, I hope you are finding good information here! If you are looking for more, let me know!

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Balance is a topic that I am sure you have heard a TON in your life. Work life balance, balanced mind, balanced workload...the word is very much a buzz word these days. Where it isn't discussed a bunch is in Leadership. As a leader your job is never done. While an individual contributor might have a specific deliverable and due date...a leader's success is driven by their teams overall ability to deliver, specific deliverables for their leaders and their peoples career development.

That means the idea of balance becomes a very important one...you have to know what the top priority is and action on that first and foremost. Then from there, it's getting the next priorities done. All of this while making sure you are understanding your own emotions, awareness and stress level. Do you need to take some time off? Do you need to block some time in your calendar? Never. Ever. Leave personal time unused. Use it, consistently! If your job is never done, taking the time as needed on your path, will keep you balanced and avoid burnout.

Thanks for being here, I hope you are finding good information here! If you are looking for more, let me know!

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Setting boundaries is a topic that can tend to feel very emotionally charged and potentially point to weakness depending on who you are talking to. The reality is, setting boundaries can be a powerful tool that will not only make you a more effective leader, it will also protect you from burnout and frustration.

The downside to setting boundaries...is knowing what your boundaries are. It take a GREAT DEAL of self reflection and knowing yourself. Most leaders, especially new ones, lack that self reflection muscle. That doesn't mean you can't figure out your boundaries. One way to understand your boundaries, is paying attention to how you feel in certain situations...did something give you anxiety? Did something frustrate you more than normal? Did something just feel off and you don't know why? You probably crossed a boundary you weren't aware of. Understanding this takes time and you will get it wrong sometimes, just adjust that boundary or remove it completely.

The key isn't never crossing a boundary...it's about finding ways to limit your time outside of those boundaries.

Thanks for being here, I hope you are finding good information here! If you are looking for more, let me know!

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