Lead From Here

Lead From Here

By Lead From HereBusinessManagement
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Lead From Here episodes

  • Contractor Integration Strategies for Successful Projects | Lead From Here #90

    Contractors is a very interesting topic from a leaders perspective. They can very quickly support one of your initiatives when utilized correctly, but they can also be the downfall of a project when utilized incorrectly.

    The biggest mistake companies make is over inflate the impact contractors can make. They will hand them highly specialized, full projects or make them the key resources on those projects that have "support" from other people in the department, but aren't dedicated to the project.
    Contractors should be used to augment your current staff in most scenarios, if you are going to farm out an entire team, make sure the work is as generic as it can be. If you have a highly specialized product, giving contractors with zero experience on your product a project on that product, can lead to misguided or flat out incorrect implementations...that can ultimately hurt your bottom line.
    The key is to pair up your contractors with your best talent, give them time to acclimate and have reasonable expectations for them from a throughput perspective. They may be paid as much or more than your top talent, but that doesn't mean they will be as fast...especially out of the gate. If your product has any kind of specialization...expect that someone off the street will have a slow ramp up.
    I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
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    #leadership #leadercommunity #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #contractor #contractors #outsourcing #contracting

    8 min
  • Navigating Ambition and Team Needs | Lead From Here #89

    Ambition at it's core isn't a bad thing and you need a bunch of it to become a leader and thrive as a leader...the key is to understand when to utilize it and when to focus on others.

    A leader that put their own careers in front of their teams or the business are doomed to fail. The strongest leader, shining brightly will be doomed to fail if their teams and business segment are suffering. The core function of a leader is to create healthy teams that drive positive growth in the business. It's glaringly obvious to most executive teams when a strong leader is flexing, but their teams a faltering.
    How do you avoid being that leader? Focus on your people first. Build teams that have a foundation of trust and empathy. Then support the individuals on those teams to grow in their career. If you are doing this, you will ultimately support the business, because strong effective teams help the business grow and find success.
    Once you have stable, effective teams that are supporting the business, THEN it's your time to shine! This is when you get to look for gaps or opportunities to support your teams, the department or the business, by doing things that you are passionate about and have the skills to handle.
    The key is take care of your foundational responsibilities first, then get your shine on. :)
    I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
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    #leadership #leadercommunity #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #ambition #blindambition #teamfirst #teammate #teamlead #shine #shinebrightly

    8 min
  • Consensus Building 101: Techniques for Effective Leadership | Lead From Here #88

    As a leader, consensus is one of the keys to being an effective leader.

    When you have effective teams full of people that are great at their job, they will inevitably disagree on the path forward. The same goes for your group of peers, whether that is in your department, cross functionally, or both.
    Building consensus is a skill that must be honed to make sure that we continue to move forward, making the best choice possible with the information we have in front of us. You have to pick a direction, you can't argue a path forever and ever until you get the perfect solution that everyone agrees on.
    This is where you as a leader have to work together with the people involved and build consensus. You do that by first forming an opinion of your own, hopefully based on all the information both (or all) sides of the debate have put forth. Then from there, you have to ultimately make a call, before that happens, you need to work with the key stakeholders to get them rallied around making the call and moving forward.
    Building consensus isn't an easy task, people are very opinionated when it comes to things they are passionate about. There is a lot of emotions and they tend to boil over. It's your job as a leader to rally them and get them supporting the path forward, even if they disagree initially.
    I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
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    #leadership #leadercommunity #podcast #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #consensus #howto #leadershiphowto #buildconsensus

    7 min
  • The Endless Journey: Understanding Leadership Beyond Achievements | Lead From Here #87

    Leadership isn't an Achievement...it's a way of life.

    Viewing Leadership as an achievement makes leaders let their guard down and fall short. Leadership is a journey and if you recently moved into it, you just jumped on that path at the beginning of the journey. From here it continues to bend and curve, with speed bumps randomly placed throughout. You may have been one of the best individual contributor, but now you are the WORST leader.
    That sounds harsh, but if you aren't willing to join the journey, it will doom you and your teams to a rough path forward. On the other hand, if you are open to the journey, it can be an amazing growth opportunity for you, your teams and your business.
    If you go into Leadership with the understanding that there is no "end state", no "destination", you will have a much better ability to pivot and evolve as the market or the teams or your executives change. You will have built a team on the foundations of trust and empathy, that can weather the storm of change, failure, loss, etc.
    I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
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    #leadership #leadercommunity #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #leader #leaderlife #walkthepath #leadershippath

    5 min
  • Unlocking Peak Performance: The Secrets of Deep Work | Lead From Here #86

    Deep Work is exactly what is sounds like...it means doing cognitively demanding tasks that require intense focus. Deep work is becoming increasing rare, yet invaluable. Shallow work is the other side of that coin, emails, texts, instant messenger, etc are all things that CAN take up the majority of your day and your focus, if you let them.

    The key is creating structured chunks of time to work on critical action items that require intense focus and more than your average amount of cognitive ability. The book outlines plenty of extreme cases where people locked themselves in a cabin or jungle for days on end. Luckily, they also have some very pragmatic examples like blocking time, shutting off your phone and utilizing your some of the strengths that are inherent in your brain/body.
    If you can structure your time to create chunks of hyper focused time, where you focus on deep work...you will be in a fantastic place and realize the benefits such as improved productivity, increased creativity and high levels of job satisfaction.
    I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
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    #leadership #leadercommunity #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #deepwork #focusedwork #deep #work

    10 min
  • What is the Three Bars Framework? | Lead From Here #85

    The 3 Bars Framework is something I read about in Steven Bartlett's book, "The Diary of a CEO, The 33 Laws of Business and Life". It's a fantastic book, definitely give it a read (https://www.amazon.com/Diary-CEO-Laws-Business-Life/dp/0593715837)!

    The 3 Bars For Building Great Teams as it's actually called in the book, is used to evaluate people from a culture fit perspective. It takes the emotions (and avoidance) out of difficult conversations. As I have outlined in previous videos, firing someone is ALWAYS awful, even when they earned it. With that it's easy to avoid, the 3 Bars help simplify the conversation and get to the proper answer in a very quick thought process.
    The concept is simple, if you have someone that you feel like might be a culture misfit or is struggling in their job...ask yourself this question, "If everyone in the company shared this persons values, standards and attitude, would the company bar be raised, maintained or lowered?"
    If someone is in the bar raiser category, it is probably time for them to be promoted and on a path to leadership...if they are someone who would lower the bar, it's probably time to fire that person as research shows that the person in the lower the bar category would be a disproportionately toxic influence on the teams culture.
    As always, there is nuance when it comes to firing people, so it's important to understand the whole picture before making any major decisions. Pull in your team leader, HR and discuss what the options are...perhaps training will help pivot this person. The key is, don't let them linger, they are either improving or it's time for them to move on.
    I hope this was helpful! Again, check out this book, it's an amazing read and one that I always keep around for inspiration. Thanks for being here! Take care!
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    #leadership #leadercommunity #hiring #firing #culturefit #companyculture #culture

    6 min
  • Utilizing Resilience in Your Daily Leadership | Lead From Here #84

    Resilience is the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties. In my opinion, there isn't a better definition of a leaders job than this. Some will say your ability to plan or strategize or coach makes you the best leader possible. I think those things are very important in leadership...but your ability to be resilient tops them all.

    The mark of a great leader is the ability to take a lickin' and keep on tickin' as the saying goes. They can't linger in their own frustrations or emotions around a misstep or failure, they have to bounce back quickly, make sure learning happens and be ready for the next challenge.
    How do I add resilience into my repertoire? Make mistakes, failures, missteps, etc not personal. High achieving people tend to take everything personal, because their self belief and confidence is wrapped up in their ability to deliver. The reality is, these things aren't personal, it's purely part of the process. If you can separate yourself and your value from the reality of the process, the gut punch issues don't land so solidly.
    Being resilient isn't an end state, it's a way of being. Remember that you aren't a failure, you own the failure. Do that and you can be there person that people look to for strength and empathy when things go sideways.
    I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
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    #leadership #leadercommunity #resilience #resilient #resilientleader #leadershiptips #leadershipcoaching

    4 min
  • How to Deal with Conflict in a Team? | Lead From Here #83

    Teams are made up of humans, so conflict is a very normal and natural part of highly effective teams. The key for leaders is to make sure that you harness it, manage it and most importantly don't let it fester.

    How do you harness conflict? Well, conflict is usually a disagreement about something. Which means that conflict is actually creating a situation where the "best path forward" is being discussed. Harnessing conflict means utilizing the conflict to make sure that as a group you are moving in the right direction.
    What about managing it? This one is pretty straightforward, listen to both sides and help get to a conclusion that makes the most sense overall and move forward, don't linger, don't overthink it...come to a decision and move forward.
    Lastly, how do you avoid a conflict festering? When it's done, it's done. It's important to set expectations with people and say something like, "while we might not all be in agreement here, we have to pick a direction. This direction feels like it has a viable direction and enough support to move forward. Let's all move forward together and if it's the wrong direction, it's on me as the leader."
    It's important to check in with people on the other end of the decision. Help them understand why their way wasn't the right direction or why it wasn't as viable as the other. But more importantly, make sure they know that it's not about them as a person, it's about making a decision and moving forward. Rather than spending multiple meetings spinning on the same topic over and over.
    I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
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    #leadership #leadercommunity #conflict #conflictresolution #teaminteraction #teamconflict #leadershiptips

    4 min
  • How to Effectively Delegate as a Leader | Lead From Here #82

    This topic is a fun one. People are notoriously terrible at this. I am one of those people.

    Delegation is the single best way to create opportunities for your people! If you aren't delegating, you are actively holding your people back. This statement is contrary to what most people, myself included, think about delegation. Most people feel like, they don't want to overburden their best people with stuff they CAN do on their own.
    The reality is, delegation helps everyone. It allows you to focus on high priority tasks, while giving your people opportunities for learning AND exposure. Sure you could do the work yourself, but giving your people the opportunity to own something and see it through helps everyone and ultimately drives your company and your people forward!
    How do I start delegating? Start small. Find someone in your teams you trust to get the job done and look for opportunities on your to-do list that fit their career development. Just giving them a bunch of random tasks that won't help in their career progression may help you, but it isn't helping them. As this isn't their top priority, they will fail, so it's also important to give them specific deadlines and check in regularly. For your own sake, I would give yourself a little padding incase they fail or their output needs tweaking before the ACTUAL deadline.
    If you give your people specific instructions, timelines and then check in regularly, delegation can be a massive benefit to everyone involved.
    I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
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    #leadership #leadercommunity #delegation #delegating #leaderdelegation #leadershiptips #leadershipcoaching

    5 min
  • Top 5 Leadership Habits That Lead to Success | Lead From Here #81

    I wanted to give you my top 5 Leadership Habits to help set a foundation of strong and healthy leadership. Each item in the top 5 list is VERY important to finding success as a leader.

    Top 5 Habits:

    Be the Last to Speak

    - This is one of the most important things for leaders to do...if you speak first, you will never get real feedback, even in a healthy culture. Human nature will deflect to the perceived leader.

    Embrace Failure/Experimentation

    - The fastest way for a company to die is to avoid change, failure and experimentation. It's absolutely crucial for leaders to make experimenting and failing a habit.

    Lead by Example

    - The best way to build trust and show people that you truly care about them, it to show them that you are willing to do anything you ask them to do.

    Foster Trust and Empathy

    - It's important to build a healthy foundation of trust and empathy as a Leader. If people trust you and believe that you are doing what is best for them, they will be significantly more impactful in their teams!

    Have Regular Skip Levels
    - Skip Levels are a massive opportunity to show people how much you care and how valued they are. Skip levels get you context that you might be missing as a leader, it also uplifts your people to make them feel valued.
    I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
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    #leadership #leadercommunity #leadershiphabits #top5 #habits #leaderhabits #greatleaderhabits

    10 min

About Lead From Here

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Helping people lead from where they are with tactical leadership snippets three days a week!