Next Level Blog

JULY 21, 2020

I’ve been talking with a lot of coaching and leadership development program clients about that lately and have landed on a question that has been helpful to everyone I’ve asked it of – “How do you want your team to feel?”. That, after all, is what pretty much every team is charged with getting. The R stands for Results.

Team 205

Team Creativity Leadership Development Follow-up 205

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

This exec loved my client and compared him quite favorably to his predecessor who, the exec said, regularly “inspired his team to underperformance.”. The essence of his answer was that the predecessor leader didn’t set high enough expectations for his team and failed to even follow through on the low bar that he did set.

Team 180

Team 360-Degree Feedback Short-term How To 180

Next Level Blog

APRIL 10, 2019

There’s a reason why I make such a strong connection between the leadership imperatives of managing yourself and leveraging your team. As I’ve written here and in the new edition of The Next Level , effective self-management is a pre-requisite to leveraging your team in effective ways. In short, she was a micromanager.

Team 127

Team Leadership Micromanagement Learning-by-Doing 127

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 9, 2019

That doesn’t just apply to other people; it applies to you and your team too. If everything has to be perfect, not much gets done and the growth of your team stagnates. By following these steps, you’ll get more done and grow your team. What about the impact on the development of your team?

Team 146

Team Learning-by-Doing Reputation Morale 146

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.

Real Estate 129

Real Estate Development Team How To 129

Next Level Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2013

If you’ve been in organizational life for any amount of time, you’ve probably been a member of a toxic team. The good news is there’s something you can do about it no matter what your role is on the team. In a recent conversation with Liane, she explained why it’s critical to take ownership of curing your toxic team.

Team 210

Team How To Team Building Books 210

Next Level Blog

AUGUST 9, 2022

(..)

Team 355

Team How To 355

Next Level Blog

APRIL 16, 2024

Test and learn : As you develop your strategic point of view, test it with your team, your peers, customers, industry colleagues, and smart colleagues outside of your industry. Extend the test and learn approach to small, contained experiments your team can run with key customers and other stakeholders.

Long-term 272

Long-term Case Study Learning-by-Doing Industry 272

Next Level Blog

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

That one was about why leaders should be decisive in exiting high performing but totally disruptive members of their team. In every case, the leader said their biggest lesson learned was they should have made key changes in their senior leadership team sooner than they did. Click headline to continue.

Team 239

Team Talent Management Leadership Development 239

Next Level Blog

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

I’d like to invite 100 of my readers to join the OOTMA Launch Team and help us spread the word that being overworked and overwhelmed doesn’t have to be the norm. OOTMA OOTMA Launch Team overworked and overwhelmed' It doesn’t have to be that way.

Team 163

Team Stress Report 163

Next Level Blog

AUGUST 22, 2023

If you’re a designated leader, however you show up and engage is highly predictive of how the people on your team are going to perform. Have their team backs. Coach and develop their team members. Give their teams room to run. As I say and write all the time, leaders control the weather. The best bosses ever: Listen.

How To 244

How To Goal Team Quality 244

Next Level Blog

MARCH 28, 2011

He had just had a conversation with an important customer who said his team wasn't showing up like they used to and didn't have. Last week, I got a call from an executive in a client organization. Please click the headline to read the whole story.

Team 229

Team Execution Organization Leadership 229

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.

Management 294

Management How To Performance Review Stress 294

Next Level Blog

MAY 21, 2015

If you’re a leader in your organization, there will be multiple times in your career when you have to get a new team off to a strong start. One of the critical steps in that process is when you bring the team members together for the first time. Like they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

Team 100

Team How To Career Process 100

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?

Retail 278

Retail Audience Learning-by-Doing Follow-up 278

Next Level Blog

AUGUST 9, 2012

Yesterday I had the opportunity to work with a group of senior executives from the U.S. Department of Defense and a few other Federal agencies to engage in some “applied science” around leading at the next level. It was a great group with a lot of perspective and some fascinating stories to share. Click headline to continue.

Team 232

Team How To Execution Team Building 232

Next Level Blog

APRIL 12, 2022

It could be about getting a team back on track, putting a key initiative back on the rails or reviving a business or line of business that has lost its momentum. Fourteen months later, he and his leadership team have done just that. Seth brought all of himself to his team and to the work.

How To 257

How To Participative Team Travel 257

Next Level Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2021

Knowing how and when to satisfice is an important skill to have not just for driving productivity but for keeping yourself and your team sane. If something is important enough to rank as a 10, he’s all in on making it as good as he and his team can make it. When you satisfice, you accept an available option as “good enough.”.

360-Degree Feedback 246

360-Degree Feedback Tactics Project Team 246

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.

Executive Coaching 142

Executive Coaching Metrics Learning-by-Doing Team 142

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

Stephen Covey shared a lot of smart ideas when he wrote “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” I must have read that book at least five times when it first came out. One of the habits that has really stuck with me is, “Begin with the end in mind.” Turns out that’s not just great advice for personal effectiveness; Click headline to continue.

Covey 190

Covey Team Advice Books 190

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

For instance, you can work really hard to build a great team and then things change. If you’re the team leader, you have to be consistent in attending to the dynamics to keep the team performing at a high level. Because the team is always changing in one fashion or another, that work never ends.

Fashion 256

Fashion Executive Coaching Team Planning 256

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.

Development 177

Development How To Leadership Participative 177

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?),

Early Adopters 243

Early Adopters Competitive Advantage Hotels Learning-by-Doing 243

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?

CEO 230

CEO Team Crisis Video 230

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.

Engineering 237

Engineering Participative Goal Team 237

Next Level Blog

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

It doesn’t matter that he has a big and competent team, whenever the client has a question or problem on any issue – big or small – he’s the go-to resource. He’s allowing his team members or others in the group to go first and only jumping in if it’s absolutely necessary. A month or so ago, he quit going first.

How To 316

How To Operations Team Resources 316

Next Level Blog

JUNE 14, 2023

It’s commonly used in sentences like, “We need to escalate this issue to the executive team.” Instead of getting the team together to “ideate”, why don’t we just do some brainstorming? Here are five buzzwords that I’d like to nominate for banishment in favor of plain English alternatives.

Disintermediation 291

Disintermediation Supply Chain Brainstorming Resistance 291

Next Level Blog

MARCH 28, 2022

Here’s what she told them: Establish Common Cultural Touchstones – The executive shared that she’s been intentional in establishing cultural touchstones and expectations for how she wants her team members to engage in meetings. You Fail If You Get Too Functional – She explained that you fail if you get too functional.

Execution 231

Execution Succession Participative Team 231

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. One of the leadership communications distinctions I’ve been thinking about a lot this year is the difference between communications that are episodic and those that are longitudinal.

How To 346

How To Execution Tactics Resources 346

Next Level Blog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

There was a period in my blogging career when I created a side gig as a vocal critic of former Washington NFL football team owner, Dan Snyder. The impact he had on the Washington team and fans over the years was truly sad. The impact he had on the Washington team and fans over the years was truly sad. and sold out.

Document 130

Document Productivity Products Team 130

Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

The open-door policy implies that your team members or colleagues can come to you with anything. Available leaders: Put team members and colleagues on their list of priorities. This is especially true for regularly scheduled team meetings or team one on one’s.) Who knows, maybe you’ve even declared that yourself.

Leadership 184

Leadership Policies Executive Coaching Team 184

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 5, 2021

The exhaustion and burnout have an impact on everyone – executives, managers and team members alike. For team members, the default response is to flee – to ask, after 18 months of the stress of a pandemic and its impact on themselves, their families and society, “Is this really worth it? Why does it matter? Where do you fit in?

Efficiency 246

Efficiency McKinsey Hammer Sharpe 246

Next Level Blog

NOVEMBER 29, 2022

As the focal points for his Next Level Leadership® Executive Success Plan , Joe chose to work on giving his team space to come up with their own solutions for his first behavior and appropriately communicating his team’s results within the broader organization for his second behavior. That served multiple purposes.

Power 167

Power Influence Executive Coaching Report 167

Next Level Blog

JUNE 28, 2022

When I talked with his peers who saw him in action with the customer’s leadership team, all I heard about was how collaborative and open he was and how he made it feel safe for people to contribute. That was the simplest coaching conversation ever and it worked.

360-Degree Feedback 303

360-Degree Feedback Tactics Open-book Report 303

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 31, 2023

Keep Them in the Loop : Pattern recognition should be a team sport. If you’re the executive leader, make it a habit to engage your team members in a feedback loop where they feel encouraged and confident to regularly share their observations and insights about the patterns they’re seeing.

How To 254

How To Analysis Trends Reference 254

Next Level Blog

OCTOBER 26, 2021

You owe it to your team member, your organization and yourself to deliver straight-up meaty feedback that can be understood and acted upon. Through your words and actions, do everything you can to convey the hope and optimism that your team member can make the changes they need to make to perform at their best.

How To 246

How To Executive Coaching Construction Resistance 246

Next Level Blog

APRIL 12, 2021

One of the things I’ve seen a lot of leaders struggling with during this extended period of leading from home is how to stay on top of all the communications they have to do with different stakeholders – their team members, their managers, their peers, other colleagues and external partners.

Retail 241

Retail Content Information Tips 241