April 2021 Leadership Development Carnival

Welcome to the April 2021 Leadership Development Carnival! We’re excited to share posts from leadership experts from around the globe on the topics of communication, development, engagement, motivation, productivity, team building, and more.


Communication


Liz Weber of Weber Business Services provided Your Silence Speaks Volumes: Speak and Lead Proactively. Liz writes: "Do you find yourself reserving your input in meetings until after your team has shared or brainstormed? Are you allowing your team the flexibility to learn things on their own instead of communicating what you've already learned? Your silence may be doing more harm than good. Read this month's article to find out why and what you can do instead. " Connect with Liz on Twitter at @lizwebercmc.

Randy Conley of Leading with Trust shared Does Forgiveness Need To Be Earned. Randy shares: "Using a recent incident involving Greg McDermott, men's basketball coach at Creighton University eroding trust by making racially insensitive comments, Randy Conley explores the role of forgiveness in rebuilding trust in Does Forgiveness Need To Be Earned." Connect with Randy on Twitter at @RandyConley.

David Grossman of The Grossman Group provided How to Effectively Plan Your Next Communication in 5 Minutes. David shares: "When you have important messages to communicate, there’s power in having a strategic method to help you quickly, and effectively prepare. Use this approach to map out your communication – whether it’s to a colleague, your team, or company-wide – in about 5 minutes." Follow David on Twitter at @ThoughtPartner.

Ken Byler of Higher Ground Consulting Group contributed How Not to Be Defensive. Ken writes: "Being defensive creates lots of communication challenges and can cause real damage to relationships. Anyone who struggles with defensiveness quickly learns that it makes it harder to listen to the other person. It’s like shadow-boxing against something that isn’t real; wasting energy on controlling the imaginary damage, instead of addressing the real problem. "

Steve DiGioia contributed What Does an Allergy Have To Do With Customer Service? Steve writes: "Leaders don't just worry about providing great service. They also worry about how their service impacts the lives of their customers. Especially those with allergies. " Find Steve on Twitter at @stevedigioia.


Productivity


Dan Oestreich provided Don't Try to Change Your Organization; Change the Underlying Forces That Make It What It Is. Dan summarizes: “Problems exist in a context. But too often leaders focus on immediate fixes rather than taking the time to understand how and why the problem has emerged in the first place. As a practice, this can cause some discomfort but leads to far greater productivity in the end.” Find Dan on Twitter at @DanOestreich.

Ken Downer of Rapid Start Leadership provided Rocks in a Jar: 11 Things They Didn't Tell You. Ken shares: “The “rocks in a jar” approach to time management is a good one, but they left a lot of things out that would help us be even more effective at managing our time; here are 11 of them.” Follow Ken on Twitter @RapidStartLdr.

Stephanie Skryzowski of 100 Degrees Consulting provided How to Create a Monthly Finance Routine. Stephanie shares: "In this post of the 100 Degrees of Entrepreneurship Podcast I’m sharing the monthly finance routine you can use to grow your business and your bottom line. We’ll explore the reasons you really need a finance routine and how it can be both a measure of progress and a crystal ball into your business’ financial future." Connect with Stephanie here.


Development


Joel Garfinkle of the Career Advancement Blog shared The 5 Most Important and Critical Skills for Jobs of the Future. Joel summarizes: "According to the World Economic Forum, five years from now, over one-third of the skills that are important today will have become irrelevant. You need to be proactive in helping your employees develop a strategy for remaining marketable and valuable through these transitions." Find Joel on Twitter at @JoelGarfinkle.

Dana Theus of InPower Coaching writes Women in Leadership: A Guide for Women, Their Mentors, and Allies. Dana explains: “A comprehensive look at challenges and solutions to women's leadership journeys. Despite the overwhelming data that demonstrate women are good for business, organizations seeking to support women for important leadership roles, not to mention the women themselves, continue to be frustrated by systemic and cultural barriers to success. In this guide to women in leadership, you’ll find a comprehensive look at the hard facts as well as the soft skills that help women become powerful contributors at the most senior levels of any organization.” Find Dana on Twitter at @DanaTheus.

Julie Winkle Giulioni shared Career Success 2.0: An Evolving Definition. Julie explains: "With fewer promises of progression by way of promotion and with today’s fluid, highly responsive organizational structures, we can no longer evaluate career success against the broadly accepted criteria from the past: movement ever forward toward that higher position. This article explores an expanded definition that offers greater possibility - and satisfaction." Follow Julie on Twitter at @julie_wg.

S. Chris Edmonds of The Purposeful Culture Group provided Culture Leadership Charge (Video): Build a Good Comes First Work Culture. In this video post, Chris shares: "Employees – your team leaders and team members – deserve a work environment that treats them, their efforts, their ideas, their contributions, and their accomplishments with respect. And yet employees experience far more disappointment than good in today’s workplaces. " Follow Chris on Twitter at @scedmonds

Lisa Kohn of Chatsworth Consulting Group shared Why taking a long shot is a Thoughtful leadership practice. Lisa shares: "In the post, Why taking a long shot is a Thoughtful leadership practice, Lisa Kohn of Thoughtful Leaders Blog shares how learning to have a “lighter” perspective when something is upsetting you can soothe your raging emotions and help you be more Thoughtful – present, intentional, and authentic." Connect with Lisa on Twitter at @ThoughtfulLdrs.

Karin Hurt and David Dye of Let's Grow Leaders provided Too Many Meetings - How to Free Your Team to Build, Create and Thrive. Karin and David share: "Good business meetings are an essential part of getting work done and building the relationships needed for breakthrough results. But too many meetings stifle productivity and quickly burnout team members and managers as they work earlier and later to take action on what they discussed during the meetings." Follow them on Twitter at @letsgrowleaders.

Jennifer V. Miller writes The Go Big or Go Home Myth of Leadership Risk-Taking. Jennifer summarizes: “Go Big or Go Home”, when used as the default for leadership risk-taking, perpetuates the myth that “bigger is better.” And while boldness certainly can be the hallmark of a visionary leader, a wise leader checks their mindset every so often to ensure that they’re not buying into a mythology that’s hurting their efforts. ” Find Jennifer on Twitter at @JenniferVMiller.

Bill Treasurer of Giant Leap Consulting contributed Surprising Life Lessons Thanks to a Special Plant. Bill explains: "When we give our full presence, concentration, and best-selves to what is right in front of us, we take better care of everything around us. Such a valuable lesson was gleaned thanks to a simple plant from my wife. " Follow Bill on Twitter at @btreasurer.

Kelby Kupersmid shares How to Tame Your Imposter for Good. Kelby summarizes: “The problem isn't imposter syndrome--it's how we relate to it. Some practical steps on how to battle your inner demons and get out of your own way.” Find Kelby on Twitter at @kelbykupersmid.

Neal Burgis of Successful Solutions contributed Leading in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Neal explains: "The world of work is changing. Are your leadership and organization ready for what’s taking place next? With the changing business landscape, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is going to change what you know today into something you have not seen at all. It won’t happen in the blink of an eye because some changes are happening now at least not at first. Are You ready?" Follow Neal on Twitter at @exec_solutions.

Jillian Miles provided 3 Ways to Boost Intercultural Competence. Jillian summarizes: “Here’s what we know (and have known for a long, long time): a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce drives exponential business growth, organizational development, and continuous improvement. Intercultural competence can serve as both a critical performance management dimension for employees and a meaningful competitive advantage for the organization. What we don’t always know is how to act on this understanding.” Follow Jillian on Twitter at @jillian_miles.

Linda Fisher Thornton of LeadinginContext contributed 10 Trends Shaping the Future of Ethical Leadership. Linda shares: “We need to get leadership right because so much depends on it. Many global factors are driving changes in ethical leadership expectations, and in high-stakes times, how we handle ethical leadership development can make or break our success. This week I’ve created a graphic that brings the expectations and priorities into clearer focus.” Find Linda on Twitter at @leadingincontxt.


Creativity/Inspiration


Jon Lokhorst of Lokhorst Consulting shared Leader: It’s Time to Double Down on Self-Care. Jon explains: “Although lower case numbers and increased vaccine availability offer hope that the crisis is nearing the end, the pandemic’s finish line is still an elusive target. Even as you get closer to some semblance of normal, there will be re-entry pains. And chances are, your pre-pandemic life wasn’t exactly stress-free, either. These factors make it a perfect time for you to double down on self-care, both for your own sake and for the sake of the people you lead.” Find Jon on Twitter at @jonlokhorst.

Eileen McDargh contributed Can You Be Too Optimistic? Eileen explains: "How can you talk about resilience without also talking about optimism? You can’t. But you can focus on intelligent optimism." Connect with Eileen on Twitter at @macdarling.

Braden Kelley provided Using Intuition to Drive Innovation Success. Braden shares: “Americans are in love with data, big data, analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and the rest of the world is catching the same disease. Data is important, don’t get me wrong, but it is only one side of the coin driving innovation and operational success. On the other side of the coin is intuition. As smart organizations try and make greater use of human-centered design, empathy and intuition can and must play an increasingly important role.”  Follow Braden on Twitter at @innovate.

Mary Ila Ward of Horizon Point Consulting shared How to Create a Great Day in Your Neighborhood. Mary writes: "In almost all leadership training series that we do, we cover a portion called Personal Leadership. It’s about being able to lead yourself before you can lead others. This allows you to serve others and influence them through your behavior. In this, we talk a lot about what you can control (your behavior) and what you can’t (almost everything else) through the lens of Stephen Covey’s circle of control versus circle of influence. We talk about focusing on what is important, not just urgent, and focus on creating habits and maintaining them in order to produce outcomes and results. " Find Mary on Twitter at @maryilaward.


Engagement


Erik Samdahl of i4cp shared Looking Ahead by Looking Behind: The Future of Leadership. Erik writes: "This article looks at how certain leadership behaviors have increased in prominence over the last few years, in part driven by the pandemic's influence on how work gets done." Find Erik on Twitter at @i4cp.

Paul LaRue of The Upwards Leader contributed How To Create A Fearless Culture. Paul writes: “Fearlessness many times is attributed to external forces, and not so often from within the workplace. The organization that can transform their culture to not allow fear within will not have to consider fearing anything external either.” Connect with Paul on Twitter at @paul_larue.

Priscilla Archangel of Archangel & Associates provided Inclusivity at Work: Lessons from the Playground. Priscilla writes: "Think back to your childhood on the playground at school. You wanted to feel included then, and you want the same thing now. Learn how leaders can establish an environment where all employees feel included and value-added so that team members can bring their best selves to accomplishing business objectives." Follow Priscilla on Twitter at @PrisArchangel.


And More...


Marcia Reynolds of Covisioning Transformational Leadership provided How Do You Know When You Are Using Your Intuition Or Intellect? Marcia shares: "How do you discern the difference in body intelligence from intellectual invention – is it intuition or interpretation? This post will give you tips." Connect with Marcia on Twitter at @marciareynolds.

Jon Mertz of Thin Difference shared A warning to ESG business leaders. Jon considers: "Leading with a purpose-driven approach requires added focus on balancing the needs of different stakeholders and doing so in an ethical manner. Governance plays an essential role, especially when embracing ESG initiatives in your company. " Connect with Jon on Twitter at @thindifference.

Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership provided 10 Things Leaders Should Remember about People. Wally explains: "You can’t accomplish the mission alone and it won’t happen by itself. People are the key to success." Connect with Wally on Twitter at @WallyBock.

Jim Taggart of Changing Winds shared Suffragettes Led the Way for Women’s Right to Vote. Jim considers: "The history of women fighting for the right to vote was long and arduous, requiring female leaders to galvanize action. " Follow Jim on Twitter at @JlcTaggart.

Marcella Bremer of Positive Culture contributed Relationship before virtual results. Marcella considers: "If you want to have an impact, relationships are decisive. Yet, they are harder to build and sustain online. Peter Block and the team share some great questions to develop trust and engagement." Follow Marcella on Twitter at @MarcellaBremer.

Sean Glaze of Great Results Team Building shared One simple question to use in interviews for a new team member. Sean writes: “Trying to hire a new team member or add someone to your team can be difficult – You never know how they will mesh with your established culture, how they will interact with existing team members, or how true to their interview or trial-period personas they will stay… As a teammate or team leader, the quality of your teammates impacts the quality of your life!” Find Sean on Twitter at @leadyourteam.


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