Next Level Blog

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

She shared how much she’s been thinking and worrying about the challenge she’s having in mastering the ins and outs of her new company’s product line. It may be for you or someone on your team as well. Over the years, you’ve developed a playbook for how to build great teams, develop talent and accomplish big goals.

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Learning Curve Energy Project Blog 244

Next Level Blog

MARCH 6, 2019

I didn’t last long there and a year later was back in my home state of West Virginia leading a small team of researchers in the Governor’s economic development office. Doesn’t have my back : Once you’ve lost a team on this one, it’s really hard to recover the trust. She was kind, smart and made sure stuff got done.

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Micromanagement Banking Leadership Styles Uncertainty 196

Next Level Blog

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

We’re More Productive When We’re Not Travelling or Commuting All the Time – Many of us – myself included – have been amazed at how much we can get done in a day when we’re not spending 2 or 3 days a week travelling for business or 2 or 3 hours a day commuting back and forth to the office. It mattered until it didn’t.

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Travel Bottom-up Productivity Products 196

Next Level Blog

MAY 5, 2020

Again and again, they share moments or emails that demonstrate how tough times can bring out the best in leaders and their teams. I’m struck by how the moments that matter most are the ones in which leaders share themselves as human beings and encourage their team members to do the same. Why is that?

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CEO Team Crisis Video 230

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. Your trolls may not be sending literal mean tweets but they are likely disrupting and derailing productive conversations with their grousing, complaining and cheap shots.

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Shaw Construction Learning-by-Doing Productivity 191

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

The authors argued that companies had to pick between one of three paths to value creation and success in the market – operational excellence, customer intimacy or product leadership. However you show up as a leader is completely predictive of how your team will show up. You couldn’t have two or three, you had to pick one.

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Company Customer Intimacy Schein Long-term 246

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 26, 2017

They have a potentially world-changing product and are on the cusp of scaling up in a big way. You’re getting stuff done but it can feel to your team like you’re missing in action. This is especially true for leadership teams. Without the predictability of that kind of communication, your team will likely lose their way.

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Information CEO Operations Team 200

Next Level Blog

MARCH 30, 2021

Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to coach the members of a couple of different corporate senior leadership teams. The coaching approach I use for leadership teams is a lot like the one I use for individual leaders. Both she and her colleagues report that this proactive start to her week is making a positive difference.

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Management Chief Operating Officer Short-term Report 166

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 13, 2020

One of the things I’ve heard a lot from leaders during the pandemic is that it has leveled the playing field for the people on their teams. In short, the shift to working from home during the pandemic has humanized the workplace in a way that team building offsites never could. clarifies team and organizational purpose.

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Short-term Learning-by-Doing Long-term Quality 246

Next Level Blog

JULY 27, 2020

How about the members of your team – what time frame are their minds working in? If you want to examine it, start by paying attention to the language you and your team members are using. Focusing your leadership on the present tense and how it creates the future gives you and your team a sense of agency and control.

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Learning-by-Doing Construction Team Energy 130

Next Level Blog

DECEMBER 4, 2019

As a result, productivity, quality of outcomes and health and well-being all suffer. It’s really not a big investment of your time if you look at it that way but the return on that investment can be huge for you, your team and your organization.

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Management How To Crisis Engineering 143

Next Level Blog

JULY 7, 2020

Why not ask one or two of those in your next team Zoom meeting or casual conversation with a friend or family member? Strong, healthy relationships are vital to both productivity and health and well-being. This blog post I wrote a few years ago has a list of those kinds of questions. A little creativity in a pandemic never hurt anyone!

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Learning-by-Doing Open-book Stress Positioning 186

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 12, 2021

Sometimes it comes up with a manager who wants advice on how to answer that question from an ambitious team member. If you and your team are not delivering on your current responsibilities, you’re not going to generate the trust needed to promote you into bigger responsibilities.

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How To Committee Human Resources Executive Coaching 130

Next Level Blog

MAY 4, 2021

For leaders to create that feeling for their teams, the connection experience at work will generally need to be of much higher quality than it’s been before. As work has gone more and more global and 24/7, many professionals have ended up working in teams that are fluid, asynchronous and temporary.

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Learning Curve Content Survey Learning-by-Doing 130

Next Level Blog

MARCH 9, 2021

It took a pandemic to make me realize how much heathier and more productive I could be when I spent more time on planet Earth instead of flying around it all the time. And, if you’re a designated leader in your organization, I hope you’ll take the time to do this not only for yourself but with your team.

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Travel Energy Workshop Sports 246

Next Level Blog

APRIL 25, 2023

How do you help them get out of the mud and move on to a more productive place? Once you get them focused on the current actual, factual reality, they can start getting past the should’s and move on to productive actions they can take. Here’s the five-step process I’ve used with my clients who need that kind of support.

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How To Executive Coaching Learning-by-Doing Process 130

Next Level Blog

JANUARY 24, 2023

For a lot of companies, productivity actually increased during the pandemic. Thanks to virtual work and meeting technology, we learned that a lot of the content work we never thought we could do remotely we could actually do better that way.

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Planning Short-term Long-term Content 302

Next Level Blog

MAY 11, 2021

By connection equity, I mean that everyone on a team or an organization has equal opportunities to feel connected to and included in the work no matter what they do or where they do it. They’re all essential roles and the people in them all need regular connection with each other to stay productive, engaged and healthy. What about you?

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How To Participative Content Creativity 130

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.

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Quality Open-book Follow-up Positioning 219

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

The 360 provides a picture on how leaders are doing around three vital leadership imperatives: managing yourself, leveraging your team and engaging your colleagues. Are you healthy, happy, and productive? As I’ve written here before , I completely believe that managing yourself effectively is the foundational imperative.

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How To Stress Productivity Products 126

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Most of the leaders and team members I’m talking with are struggling with the volume of content they’re dealing with in their jobs. Second, people with strong social connections in their lives are generally happier and as a recent study out of Oxford University shows , happier people are significantly more productive.

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Content Bottom-up Learning-by-Doing Workshop 188

Next Level Blog

JUNE 24, 2020

Without mitigation, all of that can leave you and your team members in a state of chronic fight or flight. Realistically, given where we are with the pandemic, the economy, the protests and a highly contested and consequential election coming up in November, the stress inducers are not going to taper off anytime soon.

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Stress Management Succession Short-term 246

Next Level Blog

APRIL 28, 2020

From my vantage point as a long-time work from homer and a coach to a lot of leaders and teams who are new to the scene, what I’m seeing is a slow realization that we’re in a marathon, not a sprint. If you’re in a leadership role, so much the better as whatever you stop doing will have a positive ripple effect for the people on your team.

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Strategic Planning Planning Fashion Follow-up 242

Next Level Blog

APRIL 25, 2016

This week I wrote a piece over at Fast Company about a “minor work habit” that is leading to burnout for countless workers, from junior team members to executives. But the benefits–your health, productivity, and well-being–far outweigh the effort. What’s the habit? Mindfulness doesn’t take breaks.

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Stress Article Execution Company 100

Next Level Blog

APRIL 21, 2020

I like to keep things simple because I think it’s easy to get started on a productive path when thinking and action frameworks err more towards simplicity than complexity. 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.

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Uncertainty Short-term Leadership Letter 135

Next Level Blog

DECEMBER 11, 2019

They’ve learned and understand why it’s so important for the people on their team and in their organizations to be completely comfortable with speaking up. Third, ask your team and colleagues for feedback. The best leaders I work with as an executive coach encourage open and honest dialogue. Relax, smile and open up your body language.

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Executive Coaching Learning-by-Doing Follow-up Environment 156

Next Level Blog

MARCH 4, 2020

In retrospect, Welch’s legacy at GE looks mixed but that doesn’t change the fact that I indirectly learned a lot from him when I was developing as a corporate leader that served me, my teams and my companies’ well. The comms team drove and reinforced those themes on a granular basis day after day. No, none of us are.

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Welch CEO Bottom-up Media 147

Next Level Blog

JUNE 19, 2019

She manages a pretty large team of corporate attorneys and, like most managers, has a lot of meetings she needs to participate in. Finally, I asked her what she’s usually doing Monday through Wednesday and she immediately answered, “I coach my team.” She schedules herself so her big rocks get first dibs on her time and attention.

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How To Energy Workshop Follow-up 143

Next Level Blog

JULY 24, 2019

Another way to spark churn in your organization (which both I and a number of my executive coaching clients have been guilty of) is to send your team members an email with a report or article attached with a cryptic cover note like, “Please take a look at this.”

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CEO Executive Coaching Execution Conference 105

Next Level Blog

DECEMBER 1, 2020

I love hearing that because it means we’re making an actionable difference for leaders, their teams and their organizations. And the woman who gets it all done from customer relations to marketing to scheduling to program and product development is Diane. Connection, of course, can lead to relationships.

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Development Long-term Workshop Learning-by-Doing 241

Next Level Blog

JUNE 17, 2020

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve heard about and had the opportunity to attend online panel discussions that my corporate clients have organized for their team members to listen to and learn from the life experiences of their black colleagues. They’ve been both illuminating and extremely moving.

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Ryan Learning-by-Doing Open-book Library 246

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 8, 2019

Remember that they’re human beings and not just functions of production. Here are a few ideas: Communicate in person whenever you can. Take the time to learn more about the other people involved and what they care about. And, when all else fails, don’t assume the worst.

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Conference Video Advice Information 180

Next Level Blog

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

In most organizations, there are so many meetings that actual productivity suffers. The root cause of that outcome is often because teams don’t spend enough time considering alternatives before arriving at a decision and they ignore the impact of their decision on the different stakeholders involved.   I’m with you.

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Executive Coaching Blog Letter Learning-by-Doing 173

Next Level Blog

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

It doesn’t take long before venting turns into a non-productive rant so before it goes too far I’ll usually ask a question about the difference between what should be and what is. I hear a fair amount of “They should be doing’s” in my work as an executive coach. Click headline to continue.

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Influence Executive Coaching Execution Productivity 207

Next Level Blog

MAY 17, 2012

Through services and products based on the real world experience and research behind Scott Eblin’s book, "The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success," we help leaders identify what to pick up and let go to succeed at their next level. Click headline to continue.

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Chief Information Officer CIO How To Leadership Development 196

Next Level Blog

AUGUST 20, 2018

That makes an enormous difference to the people on your team. The research shows that 95 percent of people need at least seven hours of sleep a night to be fully productive in the short run and reach their full life expectancy in the long run. You may be thinking that you’re still “just you.” Yeah, you are, but you’re also the “boss.”

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Self-aware Wilde Execution Case Study 161

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2017

Your partner, your kids, your boss, your team and your customers are all possible answers. Who else cares about this ball? This question can expand your field of vision. You may or may not care that much about the ball but others might. What’s the upside of this ball?

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How To Welch Long-term Tips 236