Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Buzz Aldrin here and now

Buzz Aldrin has walked on the moon and received the Distinguished Flying Cross in Korean War and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

At 88, the former astronaut has visited the White House to discuss space exploration, and envisions humans living on Mars.  His legacy in space is secure.  On earth it's another matter.

Col. Aldrin is grounded in a legal fight with two of his adult children and a former business manager, who he says are trying to grab his legacy and money.  At issue are the operations of his private company, Buzz Aldrin Enterprises, and his nonprofit Share-Space Foundation, overseen by his son and daughter, Andrew and Janice Aldrin.

It isn't uncommon for family members to disagree over how aging parents spend their money or handle their affairs, or for some spats to escalate to all-out legal combat. 

Rarely do such disputes involve a moon-walking American icon.

Source: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, June 25, 2018

 

Negotiating With A Bully

Everyone has felt bullied at some point in their lives, whether by a family member, childhood acquaintance, colleague, boss, or client.  You know you have been bullied when you feel pressured, demeaned, or angered. 

You walked away from a negotiation feeling like you lost ground.  You gave into demands and agreed to something that was not in your best interests. And you resented the way you felt.

The new book, NEGOTIATING WITH A BULLY will teach you how to recognize bullies, interpret their signals and body language and how to skillfully deal with them in different forms and environments.

You will learn how to quickly and easily:

• Recognize the tactics of a bully--before you yield your ground in a negotiation.
• Determine what motivates a bully.
• Read his/her body language, from his/her hands to torso to feet.
• Employ an arsenal of negotiation strategies, including some you may have never considered using before.
• Plan a negotiation with a bully so that you feel prepared to tackle the situation.
• Interpret the body language of the bully--and his or her target-- to better assess his or her intentions.

Source:  Greg Williams: Negotiating with a Bully: Take Charge and Turn the Tables on People Trying to Push You Around

The Manager's Answer Book

  The Manager's Answer Book: Powerful Tools to Build Trust and Teams, Maximize Your Impact and Influence, and Respond to Challenges

Barbara Mitchell, Cornelia Gamlem

 

You studied economics, medicine, manufacturing, politics, sales, etc.  You worked your way up in your respective field.  And then you became a manager and on top of all the experience you have in your specific industry, there's now much more!

 

Whether you're a new or seasoned manager, your responsibilities can become overwhelming at times.  There are days and new situations that will leave you feeling vulnerable and alone.  You don't know where to start or even what or who to ask.

 

THE MANAGER'S ANSWER BOOK written in question and answer format is an easy to use guide providing information on many aspects of managing, broken down into the following categories: 

• Getting started: moving from peer to manager.
• Developing your management skills.
• Building and managing your team.

 

Get from Good to Great

In FIVE STARS, Carmine Gallo argues that mastering Aristotle's "ancient art of persuasion"--combining words and ideas to move people to action--is the competitive edge you need to stand out and get ahead in the age of artificial intelligence (AL). 

According to a recent survey, 94 percent of hiring managers say an employee with stronger communication skills has a better chance of being promoted to leadership position than an employee with more years of experience but weaker verbal skills. 

Communication is no longer a "soft skill"--it is the fundamental skill that will help individuals win dream jobs, sell products, build brands, and trigger movements, and it will grow more valuable--not less--as the nature of work changes.

In FIVE STARS, Gallo interviews scholars and scientists, CEOs and billionaires, Navy SEALs, NASA astronauts, and leaders at companies like Google, Nike, and Airbnb to show first-hand how they use words to captivate, convey, and get buy-in for their ideas.

Mastering the art of persuasion is more relevant today than any time in human history.  No machine, software or robot can replicate ideas.  And at a time when ideas matter more than ever, those who can persuade, inspire, and ignite the imagination of others will be irreplaceable. 

Source:  Carmine Gallo: Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great

Conquer the Chaos at Work

Let's be real and honest about the work day--the feeling of seeing an email inbox that is always filled with new messages on top of older, unread messages.  Now add the work day surprises--resignations, emergencies (real and fake), new minefields of changes to deadlines, and a general sense of uneasiness.

In MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR WORKDAY, author Mary Camuto challenges you to actively manage and make the most of your work day possibilities and problems.  With drive, determination, and optimism, she offers solutions to work day predicaments.  You can take control; you don't have to wait for leaders, people, or circumstances to change. 

Camuto begins with six common scenarios and how you can handle them.

"I want to stir you up so that you decide to not go home disheartened every day, but to fall back, regroup, reframe, and bounce back with new strategies," explains Camuto.  "It is a personal challenge for readers to take some control back, and not just wait for leaders, people, or circumstances to change."

Source:  Mary Camuto: Make the Most Of Your Workday: Be More Productive, Engaged, and Satisfied As You Conquer the Chaos at Work

What Happens Now?

Few leaders will admit it, but time and again the growth of their organizations outruns their skills.

The same approaches and capabilities that once helped them succeed in their careers no longer apply as organizational challenges get more sophisticated, requiring leaders to change the way they think and act.  With these changes come unfamiliar questions, and inevitably even the most seasoned leader can hit a wall.

In WHAT HAPPENS NOW? leadership experts John Hillen and Mark Nevins identify and assess seven common stalls that every leader will almost certainly face in their career--and offer pragmatic solutions to conquer the unfamiliar territory by radically changing their mindset, behaviors, and skills to reinvent themselves as "sophisticated leaders."

Hillen and Nevins identify seven common stalls most leaders will face in their career.  They highlight the warning signs to look out for, along with clear and tangible tips and tools for assessing and over coming these stalls with practical solutions that are realistic and easily executed.

Source:  John Hillen: What Happens Now?: Reinvent Yourself as a Leader Before Your Business Outruns You

Corporate Security

Whether a high-profile target for organized terrorist groups, cyber terrorists, and lone wolf terrorists, or the target for  non-politicized violence such as the recent shooting at YouTube headquarters, domestic and international corporations are at a security crossroads.

CORPORATE SECURITY CROSSROADS, by political science professor and author Richard J. Chasdi, PhD, explores the root causes of the different sectors of terrorism and how businesses can develop strategies to defend against these threats.

In creating a counter terrorism strategy, it's crucial to distinguish between threats based on advancing the political motives, such as industrial espionage, cyber-crime, and workplace sabotage.  Threat types can be categorized along a continuum that reflects different mixtures of nonpolitical and political factors.

Threats can be analyzed at three levels:

• The international political system level
• The nation-state level
• The individual/small group level

This three-level analysis provides a framework to assess basic threats.  All three levels need to be taken into account for a complete and accurate analysis of the likelihood that threats can occur.

Source:  Richard J. Chasdi: Corporate Security Crossroads: Responding to Terrorism, Cyberthreats, and Other Hazards in the Global Business Environment

Ethics

At a time when fraud, sexual harassment, and other forms of workplace misconduct are making daily headlines, ethics has become as indispensable a tool for the modern workplace as technology or finance.

In TAKING ETHICS SERIOUSLY, author John Hooker, provides an intellectual framework for deciding whether an action is ethical.  Hooker brings his extensive background in philosophy, logic, and management science to the rigorous analysis of ethical dilemmas.

The book defines the three conditions, based on ideas that have been discussed in ethical literature for decades, that an action must satisfy to be ethical:

• Generalizabilty
• Utility Maximization
• Respect for Autonomy

Source:  John Hooker: Taking Ethics Seriously: Why Ethics Is an Essential Tool for the Modern Workplace

Lead Them Up the Learning Curve

Do you want to be a boss people love, while also driving high performance? 

Do you want to have a high-performing team that strives for greatness, even in the face of uncertainty?

Building morale and high performance are about engagement, and engagement is all about learning.

In BUILD AN A-TEAM author Whitney Johnson offers a thought-provoking and essential exploration of how some leaders propel their team members up the learning curve.  Learn how to build an "A" team by leading team members on their current learning curve, designing their jobs to maximize learning and engagement, and implementing the seven-step process for advancing up the learning curve.

We all want opportunities to learn, experiment, and grow in our jobs. 

Johnson sees these opportunities as, "Managing people so they can disrupt themselves, honor the biology of change that is our human nature, and keep talented employees engaged."

Source:  Whitney Johnson: Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve

Distracted and Disconnected Teams

Most people know what's necessary to get the job done, but something specific happens to too many teams that blocks their path to success.  It can be depressing to observe.

Distracted, hopelessly stressed, and disconnected is the phase a dying team goes through that's typified by the following traits:

•  The inability to collectively sustain a prioritized focus as a team
•  Disablement or near paralysis due to overwhelming workloads or circumstances and exceedingly high expectations in performance
• An obvious lack of human connection among team members

Far more often than not, what stops a team from doing big things is not that they lack the technical skills or functional experience to get the job done.  It is, rather, that the members of the team succumb to being people they don't want to be.  Life is sucked out of the team.

The typical level of employee disengagement hovers around 70 percent.  Managers who focus on team members' strengths cut employee disengagement to 1 percent.  (Not by 1 percent, but to 1 percent.)

How do we focus on what matters? 

Oddly enough, the answer is the same answer to the question, "How we focus on those things that distract, hopelessly stress, and disconnect us?"  That sounds strange, but it's true.  The solution, therefore, is not for us to change our brains; it is to train our brains to do what we want them to do, instead of what our brains want to do.

Source:  Craig W. Ross: Do Big Things: The Simple Steps Teams Can Take to Mobilize Hearts and Minds, and Make an Epic Impact