Leadership Lessons

The number of productivity tools we have seen introduced in the last fifteen or 20 years is staggering. Things like email, instant messaging, online calendars, smart phones, scheduling software, and so on, all hold the promise of helping improve the way we manage our...

It happened several years ago during my meeting with one of my direct reports, Karen, on her last day of work. She had been the Director of Physician Relations at the hospital where we worked and she was moving out of the area as a result of her husband’s relocation....

Researchers estimate that the average professional spends over 60 hours each month in meetings and that over half of that time is wasted or unproductive.  Recapturing some of this time would be a huge boon for many but doing so first requires us to...

I was coaching a senior level executive in a large company a few years ago and, like many of us, her number one issue was that she was overwhelmed with too much work, and needed to find a way to better manage her time.  As I often do at the beginning of a...

One of my favorite leadership authors, Warren Bennis, once described the difference between managers and leaders with the expression “Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.”  Think about that for a moment.  “Doing the...

One of my father's favorite expressions was that it's not what you know, but who you know that matters.  He typically pulled it out to refer to some type of perceived injustice involving nepotism or some other type of favor where the most qualified person wasn't...

One common challenge we see among new leaders is their ability to set clear, long term direction for their teams and help their team members understand how their day-to-day work connects to these overall goals.   When coaching new leaders, I frequently hear them tell...

We often hear from new leaders that things like Email, instant messaging, and even cell phones, are the bane of their existence.  It’s hard to list all the benefits these electronic tools have provided, and yet many curse them for making life so busy and...

Over the past few months I have had the opportunity to coach a number of individuals at various points in their transition from individual contributor to leader.  Being promoted into a role that requires supervising a group of former peers is a common...