Parent Category for Leadership Learning Moments
by Michael Holland Crucible: A place or occasion of severe test or trial. Marine Corp recruits culminate their boot camp training with “The Crucible”, a 54 hour strenuous training exercise meant to simulate typical combat situations wherein recruits apply everything they’ve learned to that point in their training. The “exercise” includes 48 miles of [...]
by Michael Holland Take a strategic leadership approach to coaching and mentoring your employees. Determine one or two key performance areas for each employee. Choose performance areas which will provide the employee an opportunity to grow, explore or enhance talents. With each key area, determine how you will plant and water a seed to help [...]
by Michael Holland One of the easiest and most impactful kinds of feedback to give is positive feedback. It motivates and builds commitment and do people really ever get tired of hearing they've done a good job? The first step - and this is crucial - is to notice what's gone well. Next, follow these [...]
by Michael Holland It would be great if employees were more accountable, took initiative, went the extra mile, took responsibility for their own development, were self-motivated not being influenced by the negative behaviors of others and quickly turned failures into lessons learned. Our roles as leaders would be so much easier. So, ask yourself these [...]
by Michael Holland We all like to engage in discretionary spending. Tapping into an employee’s discretionary energy can be just as rewarding. What is discretionary energy? It’s that willingness to go “above and beyond,” give the extra effort, have a personal commitment to excellence or provide creativity that enhances the team. An employee’s discretionary energy can be [...]
by Michael Holland Advancing in an organization provides fantastic opportunities for you to leverage your loyalty and relationships. Some of these relationships may have been forged before you were a manager. A difficult challenge for most leaders is developing a clear demarcation line with regard to friendships and the leader’s authority role especially when managing [...]
by Michael Holland Is there a way to get your employees to act accountably? Yes! Start by making sure you allow it and support it. Ask yourself: Are you role modeling accountability - are you stepping up, solving problems and acting accountably? Are you coaching accountability - are you talking about your expectations, providing feedback when you [...]
by Michael Holland Some people think that just having positional authority – title of Manager, Director, Vice President, etc. – will provide them the authority they need for people to listen to them and follow their directions. But having truly effective authority goes far beyond a title. People want to respect the people they report to. They [...]
by Michael Holland Great leaders portray an image of knowing the outcome of events well ahead of time. They seem to visualize the future and know exactly when and how to turn the motivational dials of the human team machine to exact great performance. For the rest of us aspiring leaders, we have moments of [...]
by Michael Holland Yes, there are some things you gain when you become a manager, but you lose things as well. Make sure you’ve left these behind or they could be impacting your effectiveness: Being one of the “guys” – you can no longer expect to socialize to the same extent or maintain the close personal [...]
