by Michael Holland Every leader interacts on a continual basis with employees, peers, supervisors and outside stakeholders. These dynamic interactions are ripe grounds for misunderstandings and ineffective leadership. You should take time to review – or learn about – your individual communication style and how you prefer to interact with your environment. Several assessment tools [...]
by Michael Holland What can you accomplish in the 38 days? During 38 days in late 2009, Jacob Shell endured a rare transplant procedure at The Children’s Hospital in Boston. As you might know, Jacob Shell, of ShellStrong fame, was 8 years old at the time and had neuroblastoma, a very difficult cancer. During this [...]
by Michael Holland All employees desire feedback on their job performance. For the employee-leader relationship, dynamics and timing are important factors in determining how feedback will be received. Consistency of both positive and critical messages is crucial. As you commute home during the week, make mental notes on some aspect of each of your employees’ [...]
by Michael Holland As a leader, you have authority over critical resources. What’s the basis of that authority? Generally, authority could be defined as: the power, the right, the clout to influence people and get them to do what you want and need them to. But in active leadership we can delineate that definition a [...]
by Michael Holland Vince Lombardi, the great football coach, taught his players to "run with complete abandon, and when you get close to the goal, let nothing stop you from getting across." Do you believe in your management and leadership skills to a point where you can honestly lead with complete abandon and lead your [...]
by Michael Holland The art of delivering relevant performance feedback hinges upon your ability as a manager to recognize a teachable/coachable moment, capture a mental video clip of the behavior exhibited and then create and deliver the insight. These skills aren’t natural for most managers and therefore need to be built and refined over time. [...]
by Michael Holland Riding waves at the beach is a lot like building a team. You rush to catch a lot of waves just before they are perfect and you hesitate just a bit too long and are late to catch great waves. Then just while you are focusing on the big house on the [...]
by Michael Holland In a recent discussion with a CEO regarding her career path up through the finance function of an organization, it was revealed that she still maintained full functional responsibility for finance and accounting since she had chosen to not replace herself as CFO nor had she replaced her prior role of Controller. [...]
by Michael Holland What makes a leader great? They know why they lead. Seems simple, really, that if you truly know your purpose in leading and the value system which resonates those beliefs, then your behaviors will reveal your leadership principles. The difficulty for many leaders is that their “why” of leading is shallow. They [...]
by Michael Holland Here's Robin's list of books every leader should have on their bookshelf. First, Break all the Rules – Marcus Buckingham The Five Levels of Leadership – John Maxwell QBQ! The Question Behind the Question – John Miller The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni Crucial Conversations – Paterson, Grenny, McMillan, [...]
