Leadership Traits of Favorite Bosses and Teachers
We all want to be liked by others. But when you’re in a leadership role, focusing on being liked by your team can cause disastrous results. Think back to your favorite teacher in high school or college. At first, you might think of the teacher who was the easiest on you. But when you really […]
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Make Promises You Can Keep
As a leader, you probably find yourself needing to make promises to members of your team. But, there are only certain promises you can actually make. Most leaders don’t try to be untrustworthy, it happens completely by accident. And usually because the promises that you’re making are not within your control to actually deliver on. […]
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You’re Charismatic…But Are You Competent?
Many leaders think that charisma is very important. Charisma is often how well you speak, and whether you can inspire the troops. Competence, on the other hand, is being able to consistently generate results and having a track record of making and keeping promises. At first, charisma is alluring and attractive. However, sometimes what the […]
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Working Hard to Avoid Hard Work
Do some of your workers work hard at not working rather than simply doing the work that you’ve assigned? You may have seen this in your working career, where someone makes a significant effort to only do the bare minimum. The following three examples might be hard to believe, but they’re actually true. In one […]
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When Leader Helpfulness Creates Helplessness
As a leader, you’ve probably been made to believe that being helpful is a good thing. And usually, it is. But, did you know that there are instances when helpfulness is a bad thing? It all comes down to accountability. When your team member comes to you and they’ve got a game plan figured out, you […]
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Great Managers Have These Traits
In the Front Line Leadership course, we ask participants to think back to the best manager or supervisor they’d ever worked for, and then list some of those traits that made the manager so successful. Let’s cover five of the most common attributes that make their way onto the flip chart in the classroom. First […]
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Too Busy to Lead?
Being too busy can cause inefficiencies in your overall leadership. Many leaders want to do a better job at leading, but they get bogged down doing lots of tasks that take away their time from interacting with their teams. Dr. Linda Duxbury, from the University of Ottawa, did some interesting research about how managers use […]
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Employee Engagement Survey – Now What?
When you ask employees for their feedback through an engagement survey, you’re creating a set of expectations that things are going to change. However, HR and management can sometimes end up overpromising and under delivering, only to look back six months later and say, “Wow, we really didn’t accomplish a lot since we got those […]
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The Good Thing About Incompetence
Did you know that being conscious and transparent about incompetence can be a good thing? Most of us don’t like to be told that we’re incompetent. And in many cases, people tend to get defensive instead of admitting that they don’t know something. But it can be very helpful to admit when you don’t know, […]
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Avoid These Disciplinary Mistakes
Are you making these disciplinary mistakes? If so, you may be creating a worse situation with your employees. Correcting unacceptable behavior and performance is a part of a leader’s responsibilities. But as a leader, when you don’t do it well, you’ll end up more frustrated than before you started. So, let’s take a look at […]
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