Making Your Team’s Shared Purpose a Living Reality

Practical Ways to Align and Communicate Shared Purpose

 

Jack (not his real name), a client of mine, was asked by his director to take on a new role. His job was to figure out how to implement an initiative the director had in mind. The problem was that Jack could not understand how that initiative could contribute to the organisation’s purpose. The initiative seemed valuable and had potential at first glance. As Jack discussed the specifics with his colleagues and supervisor, they quickly realised it would be problematic while not contributing meaningfully to the organisation’s purpose. However, because the director wanted it done, they had to figure out how to make it work.

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The Power of Shared Purpose in Leadership

Inspiring Your Team to Make a Difference

 

Jen and Sue (not their real names) work in the same industry and manage their own teams. Their work requires them to meet with customers and handle their issues. While the nature and scope of their work have some similarities, their mindsets are very different.

Meeting with customers is stressful for Jen. They often have demands (sometimes unreasonable) that sap her time and energy. What makes it worse is her team refers the most “difficult” customers to her. Dealing with these customers’ demands reduces her time for other essential matters. She told me that her team is overwhelmed handling customer demands.

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Many Who Call Themselves “Leaders” Misunderstand the True Essence of Leadership!

Beyond Titles and Authority: Authentic Leadership

 

A senior executive told me that he wanted to speak like a leader. He felt he wasn’t taken seriously because he wasn’t speaking in a manner that a leader should talk.

As I probed further, I found out that he believed a leader should be able to speak with an air of authority, project confidence, and use certain types of words and phrases, among other things.

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Unleash Your Team’s Potential: Coaching Conversations that Drive Results

Ditch the Command-and-Control Model and Build a High-Performing Team (Part Two)

 

According to Gallup, nearly 80% of employees worldwide are either not engaged or actively disengaged.1  Gallup further found that engagement levels would increase significantly if leaders had frequent coaching conversations with their team members.2

Despite the benefits of having regular coaching conversations with their team members, many leaders are still not doing it or, worse, avoiding it!

One common reason leaders say prevents them from coaching is the assumption that they don’t have time. They fail to realise that integrating coaching into their regular conversations with their team members (i.e., coaching-style conversations instead of formal coaching) would take much less time than they expect.

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Unleash Your Team’s Potential: Become a Leader-Coach (Not Just a Boss)

Ditch the Command-and-Control Model and Build a High-Performing Team (Part One)

 

The world of work has changed.

In today’s dynamic work environment, where disruptive change is the norm, the traditional command-and-control model of leadership is no longer effective. Instead, leaders must embrace a model where they empower their teams and leverage their individual and collective strengths to adapt, innovate, and deal with challenges.

In other words, leaders must use a coaching approach by integrating coaching into their roles.

While organisations are increasingly expecting their leaders/managers to coach employees, the reality is that many leaders don’t know how to coach well.1, 2  One problem is that they don’t understand what coaching means. Another issue is that they don’t have the skills or mindset to do it well.

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