The Career Accelerator

If you want to improve your EQ skills, make it a priority for 2025.

You can seek help from a coach, mentor, co-worker, family member, or friend. 

You can make it a habit to observe how people you interact with manage their emotions, good or bad, and to learn from them.

You can also pay close attention to your own emotions. Keep track of those people or situations that trigger a negative reaction from you.

Above all, use whatever visual or sound aids work best for you to keep EQ top of mind in 2025 and beyond. 

In this episode I share tips on how focusing on your strengths, and on those of your team members, can maximize the collective business results. 
Learn about the “Five Truths of a Strong Team” model from Gallup, and how it is not just individual talent that matters, but how team members collaborate, leverage the different CliftonStrengths themes and domains present in the team, and support one another in achieving common goals. 

Do you want to know how the CliftonStrengths model from Gallup can help you uncover your natural talents and turn them into strengths?
This podcast will give you an introduction to this model.
Check it out.

Today I want to share three coaching tips that can help you grow your leadership capabilities:

1.   Focus on your strengths.

2.   Develop your emotional intelligence.

3.   Hone your teamwork skills.

Mastering them can help leaders like you become more effective, adaptable, and empathetic, which translates into being better equipped to lead your teams, influence stakeholders, and drive organizational success.

If interested, schedule a free, no-strings-attached, coaching call with me @ https://calendly.com/percy-cannon/30min

One area I continue to see in corporate leadership teams that needs improvement is the low levels of cross-functional collaboration, which hinders their operational efficiency and strategic alignment. Simply put, each team tends to run like a separate entity.

The recipe that I give to leadership teams, which I originally learned from best-selling author Patrick Lencioni, is to have the leadership team become team #1 for its members.

Team #1 can foster a culture of collaboration, implementing integrated processes and systems, promoting open communication, and ensuring strong leadership and goal alignment across the organization.

As a leader, consider giving Team #1 a try. 

What can a people manager like you do to reap the benefits of one-of-one meetings with your employees?
The short answer is to focus on “what’s in it” for your employees. How do you do that? 
Listen to this episode for three tips to significantly improve the engagement, trust, performance management, and overall business impact of each of your employees through well run one-on-one meetings.

If you want to minimize politics and confusion, improve your organization’s productivity and the morale of your employees, and lower attrition of good people, consider applying the 4-step model of Organizational Health:

1.   Align the behaviors of your team,

2.   Align the intellectual clarity of your team by answering 6 critical questions,

3.   Over-communicate this clarity to the rest of the organization, and

4.   Reinforce this clarity through simple human and business systems.

Contact me so we can set up a free, 16-question assessment developed by Patrick Lencioni’s company, The Table Group, to determine where your organization has the biggest opportunity for growth. 

How would you rate your capabilities to generate business results in 2023 through these three key audiences?

1. Through your direct reports: Unlike individual contributors, who mostly deliver results by themselves, as a people manager, you are largely dependent on the business impact generated by your direct reports. 

2. Through your colleagues: As a team member, your objective should be to ensure alignment on the few important collective priorities that the team will pursue and the role that each person will play in delivering such goals. 

3. Through your boss: Building a strong working relationship with your boss is crucial for success. Understand their communication preferences, seek feedback, and show a genuine interest in the overall success of the organization. 

Listen to this podcast to find out where you did well and where you can do better in 2024 and beyond.

Share your highs and lows in the comments section.

Today I want to share my reactions to the top three messages I took from the excellent book No Rules Rules, written by Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings with Erin Meyer. The book is full of provocative practices that have influenced Netflix’s continued success during the last two decades.

1. Build your “talent density.” Employee quantity is not the way to assess your talent strength. What counts is the quality of the people on the team.
2. Err on the side of providing feedback, above, below and sideways. Start with one baby step: Take the initiative. Ask to receive feedback from your employees.
3. Treat others the way they, not you, want to be treated. Become self-aware of the way you treat others and be curious to learn how each other person prefers to be treated.

If you like what you heard today, please rate, subscribe, or follow this podcast and share it with your coworkers and friends.

In this episode you will listen to the top three leaderships lessons I took from the book The Wisdom of the Bullfrog, recently written by retired U.S. Navy Admiral William McRaven.
1.    The first one was Admiral’s McRaven’s definition of leadership: “Leadership is accomplishing a task with the people and resources you have, while maintaining the integrity of your institution.” I like how this definition combines delivering results, using available resources, and completing the task within the construct of your personal and organization’s values and principles. All three elements have got to be there to excel as a leader.
2.    The second lesson I shared was: “When in command, command.” If you are in a leadership position, lead. Don’t delegate the key decisions.
3.    And the third leadership lesson was: “Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.” Become the leader who takes the initiative and motivates and expects this type of behavior from their team.
Practice one or more of these three lessons to become a better leader.