Next Level Blog

MAY 1, 2019

One of the keys to successfully leading at the next level is to develop and leverage a team of go-to people. When you’re thinking through your strategy and approach to team development, it can help to think like a real estate investor. One other thought on developing and leveraging your team – you’re never done.

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Real Estate Development Team How To 129

Next Level Blog

JANUARY 23, 2024

This is the time of the year when I spend a day with my C-suite clients to give them some space to get up on the balcony to consider what success will look like 12 months from now and what they and their teams need to focus on to make those outcomes more likely. How do you want to leverage and enable your leadership team this year?

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Retail Audience Learning-by-Doing Follow-up 278

Next Level Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2022

You and your team have to do a great job on your current scope before you’ll be asked to take on a bigger scope. Speak for the work : And the way that anyone is going to know that you and your team are doing a great job is if you speak for the work. Share your goal : People are much more likely to help you if they know what you want.

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How To Committee Short-term Goal 253

Next Level Blog

MARCH 22, 2023

This question is about identifying the important facts about the team member’s performance and organizing the facts in a way that provides insight into what they accomplished or didn’t and how they did what they did or didn’t do. At its simplest, this question is about what you want your team member to keep, start or stop doing.

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Management How To Performance Review Stress 294

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

Over the course of this year, I’m going to develop the agendas and facilitate around a dozen strategic offsites for C-Suite executives and their senior leadership teams. With all that experience, I’ve learned a lot about how to develop and write an agenda that gets a leadership team engaged to create meaningful insights and outcomes.

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Development How To Leadership Participative 177

Next Level Blog

JANUARY 18, 2022

What I mean by that is pulling the thread of the story about why you and your team are doing what you’re doing through everything you do. So, how do you pull the thread through to keep your team energized and engaged? The same idea applies to leading the work of your team. You have to pull the thread through.

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Engineering Participative Goal Team 237

Next Level Blog

JULY 11, 2023

In the short run, you scale yourself by developing a team of traffic controllers who keep things moving in their own intersections. And, then, to scale the approach even further, you work with your team of traffic controllers so they, too, become traffic enablers. Your job becomes monitoring the overall flow of traffic. Simple, right?

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Executive Coaching Metrics Learning-by-Doing Team 142

Next Level Blog

JULY 12, 2022

Back in January, I wrote a post about how leaders need to pull the thread through so their teams can see how their work fits into the longer arc of the work. In almost every executive presentation or conversation, you’ll want to start with a quick reminder of what your big goal is and why it matters.

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How To Execution Tactics Resources 346

Next Level Blog

AUGUST 25, 2020

Many of the sales leaders I’m talking with this summer are working on how to help their teams raise their games in the virtual world we’re living in. I’ve been collecting some best practice ideas that can help you and your team reclaim competitive advantage in a virtual world. Back in June (remember that distant time two months ago?),

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Early Adopters Competitive Advantage Hotels Learning-by-Doing 243

Next Level Blog

APRIL 26, 2021

Like a lot of organizations, this company has a senior leadership team conference at the beginning of the year – either fiscal or calendar – to lay out their themes, goals and plans for the next 12 months. What are your best practices for sustaining your team or organization’s momentum throughout the year? What say you?

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Leadership How To Performance Review Learning-by-Doing 139

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 30, 2019

Some of the more common answers include things like goal setting, developing the team, coaching, performance management and setting the organizational climate. My contribution to the list is “If you’re the leader, you’re the chief marketing officer for your team.” What is your team doing that tracks with what they care about?

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Marketing How To Team Goal 146

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 6, 2020

Microsoft thinks you’re likely missing that interstitial time so, in next year’s update of their Teams collaboration software, they’re going to make it possible for you to schedule a virtual commute. Instead of reliving 8 a.m. Instead of reliving 8 a.m.

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How To Learning-by-Doing CEO Report 246

Next Level Blog

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

At the same time, even though she’s only been there a few months, she’s already making a major impact in raising the bar for her team, prompting them to think and act in new ways and bringing a fresh energy to an organization that has been set in its ways and needs to innovate. It may be for you or someone on your team as well.

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Learning Curve Energy Project Blog 244

Next Level Blog

JANUARY 11, 2019

If you’ve ever had to make a trip to the emergency room (hopefully not) or watched a medical drama on TV (probably so), you’ve seen a team of doctors, nurses and other team members doing triage. You and your team end up spending most of your time and attention on the urgent stuff that’s right in front of you.

Engineering 146

Engineering Executive Coaching Team Goal 146

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 22, 2022

Make sure that what you’re working on is relevant to the overall agenda and goals of the organization. You can do that by considering and asking questions about what’s going to be relevant next, how you and your team can contribute and the milestones you’ll need to hit to get to the deliverable.

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Execution Report Planning Information 207

Next Level Blog

MAY 15, 2019

The goal is to lead with a great summary that hooks people’s attention and makes them want to engage and learn more. Who are the different players inside and outside your organization who have a stake in the success of what you and your team are working on? Who does it matter to? Now we’re getting into some stakeholder mapping.

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How To Learning-by-Doing Goal Team 187

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 23, 2019

This is the time of year when a lot of the leaders I work with are buckling down to write up annual performance reviews for the people on their team. It’s not true, however, in terms of how you can use the annual review process to set you and your team up for success. How do you want your team member to feel at the end of it?

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Performance Review Review Process How To 149

Next Level Blog

JANUARY 22, 2020

Problem-solving, team-engagement, relationships and results all improve when leaders listen better. Your goal is to wrap up and move on. Your goal is to move things forward. Your goal is to learn more about the other party – what they think, what they value and how they feel. You’re basically in transit and not present.

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Long-term Executive Coaching Goal Creativity 182

Next Level Blog

JANUARY 5, 2021

Rather, I’m asking you to consider what your family, team, colleagues and other stakeholders need most from you this year and how you can consistently bring the best version of yourself to the table to meet those needs. Later in this post, I’m going to share a process with you to answer and act on that question, but first, let me clarify it.

Quality 219

Quality Open-book Follow-up Positioning 219

Next Level Blog

JANUARY 8, 2015

If you work in an organization with other people, this is the time of year that you''re likely having conversations about goals and expectations for the year. You may be the boss having those talks with your team members. You may be the team member talking with your boss. You may be both.

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Goal Team Development Organization 100

Next Level Blog

AUGUST 2, 2023

Since, in most companies, learning is a means to an end rather than an end in itself, questions like the ones I just shared usually need to be preceded with questions that help establish the goals around the problem that’s being solved or the opportunity that’s being addressed.

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How To Active Listening Learning-by-Doing Long-term 246

Next Level Blog

SEPTEMBER 22, 2020

Building on the new reality of distributed work, I think we’ll see an acceleration in the move towards agile, flexible work teams that cut across functions. or “What’s supporting and what’s getting in the way of your goals?” That’s not just true for influencing your boss or managing up; it’s also true for your peers and team members.

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Influence How To Trends Learning-by-Doing 246

Next Level Blog

JUNE 15, 2021

For instance, lately I’ve had a number of conversations with clients and colleagues about talented team members who have gotten themselves stuck in the role of superstar individual contributors when they have the desire and capacity to be enterprise-wide leaders. They own the results, but they’re not personally doing the results.

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Long-term How To Short-term Tactics 131

Next Level Blog

JUNE 20, 2016

Most people know by now that when it comes to the Eblin Group, I might be the guy who’s writing the books and the blog and doing the coaching and speaking, but Diane is the operator who (with help from a great team) runs the business. We’ve also spent a lot of time setting and adjusting goals for the business over the year.

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Learning-by-Doing Commitment Goal Content 163

Next Level Blog

JUNE 14, 2012

As I’ve written here before, effective delegation is a critical skill for leaders who need to make the shift from being the go-to person to someone who creates teams of go-to people. The goal of our day together. Click headline to continue.

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Delegation Skills Goal Execution 198

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

For Diane and me and our team at the Eblin Group, we’ve concluded that our purpose is to help build better leaders who lead better lives and, in turn, help create a better world. Most everything on the list speaks to Diane and me, but we’re putting a lot of our personal emphasis and effort on goal number two, zero hunger.

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How To Resources Strategy Globalization 186

Next Level Blog

JANUARY 2, 2017

We do this by setting goals that are either too broad or so far into the future that breaking them down into actionable steps is beyond challenging. Good goal, but what does it really look like? You tend to jump in with the right answer all the time rather than letting your team arrive at the answer themselves.

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Follow-up Goal Advice Tips 153

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 2, 2018

The great leaders stand alone, indomitable in the face of adversity, accomplishing their goals in the face of all obstacles. He’s the leader of a team that’s running some very challenging and game changing technology initiatives for the company. His willingness to ask for help, he believes, was a critical factor in his team’s success.

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Financial Leverage Learning-by-Doing Executive Coaching Conference 178

Next Level Blog

APRIL 21, 2020

As a starting point, simpler frameworks make it easy to focus a conversation and align people around a goal. That’s why the first step in my simple VUCA action framework is for leaders to focus first on creating space for themselves and their teams to think.

Uncertainty 135

Uncertainty Short-term Leadership Letter 135

Next Level Blog

APRIL 20, 2021

Patience Prepares the Ground for Urgency : To act with urgency on the right things in the right ways first requires the patience to step back and determine what’s going on, what you’re trying to do and how you need to proceed to accomplish that goal. It’s the patience to step back and assess followed by the urgency to act.

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Scenario Planning Learning-by-Doing Executive Coaching Follow-up 246

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Trolls can show up on peer leadership teams, boards of directors and lots of other places where people need to work together to get things done. Choose the dignified response by focusing on what matters and the facts that support the goal. Chances are you’re dealing with some trolls in your work world right now.

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Shaw Construction Learning-by-Doing Productivity 191

Next Level Blog

MAY 19, 2020

They went 17 days without any contact from the outside world and then, after they sent proof of life via a note attached to a drilling tube sent down from a rescue team above, spent another 53 days taking care of each other until an amazing rescue process was engineered and executed.

Leadership 246

Leadership Long-term Follow-up Uncertainty 246

Next Level Blog

JUNE 18, 2018

Examples of these things include goal setting, resource allocation, team selection and development, information flows and relational access. One of the key things that only you can do as a leader is sequence the work for your team and yourself. When you have the plan, communicate it.

Middle Management 161

Middle Management Audience Micromanagement Planning 161

Next Level Blog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

What are you seeing that might have a direct or indirect impact on you, your team, your organization, your friends and your family? Check yourself against those outcomes at least monthly so you can make the adjustments that would help you accomplish your goals in all three arenas of life. What interests you?

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Trends Crisis Mentor Learning-by-Doing 142

Next Level Blog

APRIL 9, 2015

Our goal in that program is to make the often discussed but rarely clearly defined topic of executive presence a tangible and actionable thing to develop. It’s common for leaders who want to make a bigger impact to work on building their executive presence. General Leadership Personal Presence executive presence'

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Execution Tactics Definition Goal 100

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 2, 2019

In watching and working with top executives and their teams over the past few years, I’ve come to a fresh conclusion. They book about 30 to 60 minutes a week to scan their calendar for the next couple of weeks with the goal of flagging commitments that they need to start preparing for further in advance.

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Short-term Long-term Leadership Commitment 185

Next Level Blog

DECEMBER 1, 2020

My goal with the book was to help leaders understand the expectations that others have of them and what they need to pick up and let go of when they’re moving into big new roles or situations. I love hearing that because it means we’re making an actionable difference for leaders, their teams and their organizations.

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Development Long-term Workshop Learning-by-Doing 241