Liz's Latest Articles
Analyzing Your Leadership Adjectives
What can basic random words, adjectives, tell you about your leadership? I believe quite a bit. Let me explain. Last week a colleague and I were discussing various ways to help leaders visualize and internalize specific changes needed to help them, their teams, and their organizations to be even more effective. A simple way to do this is to simply analyze your leadership adjectives. The words used to describe your leadership often describe your leadership challenges.
What Is Your Leadership Doing to the Organization’s Culture?
How much of an impact is your leadership having on your organization’s culture? If you don’t already know, it’s time to stop and assess its impact. If you do already know, and the impact you’re having isn’t positive, what are you doing to correct it?
If you already know the impact your leadership is having on your organization’s culture is not positive, what are you doing to correct it?
Are Your Customers Outgrowing You?
Hmmm. Another customer just selected a competitor for their next project. That’s the third time that’s happened this quarter. Like the others, you thought you’d worked well with the customer. So why didn’t this customer choose you again? It must be the new CFO that joined their company last year. She’s probably forcing them to use new vendors. She obviously doesn’t care about maintaining successful working relationships. It’s obvious she only cares about saving money and not the value of maintaining a good working relationship. It certainly can’t be about the quality of your services. This customer’s always been happy with your services. Haven’t they?
Stay True to Your Plan
It’s been a few months since you and your team put the finishing touches on your organization’s exciting, challenging, and let’s be honest, pretty amazing strategic plan. So what’s happened since you all high-fived one another and ‘finished’ that project? Have you moved the plan forward? Have you focused on it each day? Has it become a guide for your leadership and team actions? Or, have you already lost sight of what you and the team determined was needed to strategically move your organization to greater success?
How To Lead Up Without Embarrassing the Leader
I had the opportunity to watch a leader ‘lead up’ last week. A new client had asked me to attend their board meeting so I could gain a better understanding of their organization, history, culture, and their future. It was an incredibly informative experience. However, it was informative in a way I don’t believe they anticipated.
