Whether you’re comfortable with your leadership style or you know you need to make some changes, this episode is for you. The truth is, we should always be auditing our leadership style so we lose the things that no longer serve us and our team and gain things that are more impactful and feel better. But how do you know what stays, what goes and how to fill in the gaps? I’m no scientist but I recommend some things that will probably help you get closer to finding your leadership style than you are today. And if you don’t get closer, at the very least, you’ll know what you don’t like!

How you work through workplace politics effectively and preserve relationships? As a professional who HATES workplace politics, I’m going to share some tips that have served me well over the years. These tips are not only practical, but they make working through workplace politics more bearable and allow you to put your own feelings aside so you can get other much needed work done so your entire day or workweek isn’t monopolized by one issue.

I share a practice I recommend to leaders when they’re anxious about meeting with an employee who documents everything the leader says and does. Leaders dread it. It’s exhausting. Some even describe it as soul sucking. It doesn’t have to be that way. All you need to do is change your practice as a leader and put your emotion to the side for follow-up. In this episode, I show you how to take an effective approach to leading these employees and help you set up a conversation where you can start rebuilding trust between you both. 

It’s really easy to panic when you know you’re going to be working on something that could generate a lot of positive or negative exposure for you, in circumstances where there may be opposing sides or conflicting values or with a topic that’s gotten a lot of attention but not the most positive and is very polarizing. When you panic, your confidence drops, and you don’t exactly set yourself up for success. In this episode, I give you the process I use when I’m in one of these situations or a situation where I’m not feeling the most confident at the onset of my task. This process helps me move from being underconfident to being a confident facilitator. And guess what? The steps are super simple.

I know this title sounds a little devious but I promise it’s not. Because the goal here is to educate, support and develop these applicants. Not to humiliate, alienate and get rid of them. This episode will help you walk through the mindset, process and some messages you can convey to someone when they’re really excited about applying for your role, but quite simply, they’re not the best fit. The goal is that someday with your help, they will be.

As a leader and an HR representative, I’ve lead countless investigations. At this point in my career, I know when bias might be playing into the process and impacting my results and/or my recommendation. Here, I share how I know that my investigation might be compromised and what I do to course correct or at the very least double check to make sure my results and recommendations make sense.

Every conversation is an opportunity for a win even if you decide to say no. Many times leaders have angst about not approving someone’s request. In this episode, I’m going to help you change your mindset to switch from dread to curiosity when receiving a request that you suspect you can’t grant. Then I’m going to help you find alternatives that support the employee and the business. And finally, if the decision is a no, I’m going to help you keep that door open for discussion in the future while keeping the employee engaged.

I’ve thrown out a lot of ideas over my career and have learned many valuable lessons when I didn’t get the response I was hoping for. In this episode, I give you my tried and true formula to make sure I figure out the best solution to a problem and help you tell a compelling story to get buy-in.

You don’t have to be a CEO or rich and famous to have advisors. In fact, everyone should have an advisor. Even teenagers should have advisors! These are simply people who are experts in their field that you can call upon to give you advice when you need it. In this episode, I’m going to share with you some of the many advisors I have that are my “go to” people that help make my life easier. Make a list and leverage your advisors throughout this New Year. You learn a lot and will find that calling on those who know more than you makes life so much easier.

HONEST! Really…really…honest. I get that it’s scary. I get that there’s some risk there. But I’m going to help you find words to have an honest conversation and develop rapport with your leader so when you need to have tough conversations in the future, it’s super easy. You will have developed trust between you and your leader and will be able to take honest feedback from each other like it’s second nature…because it will be! I share the systematic way I break down conversations and structure them so they’re on point, succinct and focus on what I want for the future.