by Michael Holland E-mails. . . performance reviews. . . status reports. . . draft PowerPoint presentations. . . last week’s metrics. . . information from the senior leadership update. Are you the tollgate, stopping the flow of information and decisions to your team? Or are you becoming a black hole – all [...]
by Michael Holland We challenge ourselves each and every day to achieve. Problems arise and we solve them. Employees have issues and we deal with them. As a leader, you expend a great deal of energy to creatively solve small and big problems. At times you’ll find your energy level to be low, [...]
by Michael Holland Time seems to slip by, minutes here, hours there, then suddenly weeks have gone by. As a leader, you have many competing interests for your time during any given day. Current business protocol encourages an endless run at meetings, and at times, it seems you have little control of your [...]
by Michael Holland The depth and breadth of a well prepared performance review is directly proportional to the amount of information you have on the employee for the whole period of time. Tracking employee progress between reviews is something every leader is doing - well, every leader should be doing. The question is [...]
by Michael Holland Overwhelmed in a meeting with a large project? Is an employee struggling with how to get through all the work in front of them? Use this simplistic project planning tool to help get a handle on the project or work load. Let’s use an example: your boss comes to you, [...]
by Michael Holland As my friend Jerry says, you can have a bad day or bad month or even a bad year. But it’s pretty hard to have a bad 5 years. What is important in life is your trend line. I submit you take a similar approach to your leadership capability. Every one of [...]
by Michael Holland How do you respond to the phrase, “tell me about yourself?” Common answers include your job title, your scope of responsibility, the magnitude of power you yield and maybe a small piece of data on your personal life. Interestingly, as we at look how leaders typically spend their days, it [...]
by Michael Holland About four months into their new role, young leaders struggle as they hit their tipping point with the realization that they have all this “management stuff” to do and they still have “real” work to do. They are executing the same behaviors and habits learned from years as an individual contributor and [...]
by Michael Holland In your quest for leadership success you must leverage every minute of every day. Back-to-back meetings, constant emails arriving, new initiatives, demanding deadlines, uninitiated employees and a personal life. Lunchtime is reserved for squeezing in whatever work can be accomplished while rushing to inhale some semblance of food. Catching up on emails [...]
by Michael Holland Watching a mom in Panera Bread yesterday ignore her 3- year-old son’s tantrum – which was likely his umpteenth tantrum of the day – puts great perspective on a Power Thought from Norman Vincent Peale. “It isn't worth it to spend $1,000 worth of emotion on a five-cent irritation” With all the irritations that [...]
