Liz’s Leadership Insights Blog

Six Reasons You May be a Helicopter Manager

  We've all heard of helicopter parents. They're those annoying parents that constantly hover and prevent their children from learning to deal with life's challenges for themselves. Then, these children grow into young adults who are woefully ill-prepared to cope with the realities of an adult working environment. However annoying, though real, helicopter parents are, helicopter managers are equally, if not more annoying. Helicopter managers hover and prevent their employees from thinking...

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Guest | Ted Coiné

  This week I'd like to share one of my favorite articles as it speaks so clearly to what I've communicated to my clients over the years. The article was written by Ted Coiné, who has agreed to allow me to post this on my site: Dear CEO: Who Tells You When Your Baby Is Ugly? We leaders have a big, big problem. It’s called information filtering, and every social group does it – family, circle of friends, and certainly staff. The larger a company gets, the more layers of management separate...

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Performance Reviews – They’re Not Just A Once A Year Thing

A client was experiencing some employee performance issues and asked us to present training to their managers on their new employee performance evaluation form. Terrific. However, they weren't thrilled when I told them that the training should focus - at most - 10% of the time on the actual use and mechanics of the form. The remaining 90% of the training needed to focus on managing performance and preparing for the reviews all year long. They couldn't expect a form to solve the performance...

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Letting Go

When it comes to letting go and letting someone else take the reins, can you do it? Do you do it? If so, do you do it well? Given the work my company does, we regularly deal with transitions in leadership. Some of those transitions are smooth; others a bit bumpy. The key to a smooth transition is multi-faceted: You need the right person to step in or step up and take the reins You need an intentional transition plan You need an intentional communication plan, and You need to know when to let...

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Are Your Employees Held Hostage or Held Accountable?

A client called me recently to say he'd just finished reading a paragraph from Jack Welch’s book “Jack – Straight from the Gut” to his staff. The section he’d read outlined Mr. Welch’s thoughts on the importance of “Informality” as a key leadership skill. As Jack Welch describes it, “Bureaucracy strangles. Informality liberates. Creating an informal atmosphere is a competitive advantage. Bureaucracy can be the ultimate insulator. Informality isn't about first names, unassigned parking spaces,...

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