leadership Archives - Page 3 of 22

14
Dec 20
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Workplace Hide and Seek, Is It Derailing Performance?

Tags : culture hide and seek leadership performance workplace

In the game of hide and seek, hiding is the fun part. Nearly everyone wants to be the hider. Is workplace hide and seek derailing performance in your organization?

What causes the game to go on?

Hiders and Seekers

As a hider, often you can watch the seeker, you know if they are hot or cold. If they are way off track perhaps you extend some additional risk, it is almost wanting to be found, but not quite.

A seeker on the other hand is determined to locate the hider quickly. Looking towards previously known hiding spots, searching fast and almost frantic. The anticipation of flushing out a hider can be exhilarating. It is destined to happen. It is only a matter of time.

Eventually the hider and the seeker collide.

For the moment, the game is over.

Workplace Hide and Seek

In the workplace it seems the game sometimes continues.

It continues with those who perform just enough to not be noticed. Quietly, they await discovery. In some instances, they’ll risk a little more, almost taunting the seeker and if not found, the boundary just expanded.

The seeker often announces that they are coming. This gives the hider a chance to tidy up, secure their spot, and watch as the seeker inspects.

When the seeker passes by without noticing, the hider feels relief. They are better than the others who are about to get caught.

It is a game of moments. Moments of hiding and moments of seeking.

No one ever really wins at hide and seek.

Games are often played to fight off boredom.

People with a well-defined purpose and goals seldom get bored.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

24
Nov 20
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Workplace Instincts and Honing Your Craft

Tags : behaviors Gut feel instincts leadership

Do you trust your gut? Do you use workplace instincts to guide what you’ll do next?

People often assess what they’ll do next based on what they often call, gut feel. Is this a learned process or something more instinctual?

A bright light, and you look away. The sun heating up your skin to the point of discomfort so you seek shelter. A loud noise and you cover your ears.

Are these instincts or learned responses?

Behind closed doors the boss is critical of someone’s work. In the meeting the next day the boss seemingly ignores that same person. One week later the boss won’t make eye contact with you.

Paranoia, or some really insightful observations? What do your instincts suggest? What’s in your gut?

Everything that we do in the workplace is likely a learned behavior. It may stem from childhood, the place you worked at before this one or something that you’ve picked up about the organizational culture.

What should you do with all of this data? Are you overreacting?

Workplace Instincts

Workplace instincts help you every day. They help you to analyze the scope of the conversation. They cause you to filter your expressions, use more kindness, or suppress an anger rage.

Your next contribution, the ideas presented in the brainstorming meeting, or the gratitude expressed for a job well done will be based on what you’ve learned.

Observation is data collection, analyzing the data and making adjustments should become part of future behavior.

There may be a fine line between what is truly instinctual and what is a learned behavior.

Honing your craft is always smart course of action.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

22
Oct 20
0

Management and Leadership Certificate (Virtual Training) Evening

Tags : certificate leadership management supervisors training

** New Evening Program ** This Management and Leadership Certificate program is being brought to you by a special partnership between Bloomsburg University and the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce.

Dennis Gilbert, is serving as the instructor/facilitator for this series.

This five-module series is designed to help participants develop and sharpen skills that relate to leading in today’s workplace environment. It is appropriate for existing workplace leaders, managers, and supervisors; or those who are new or emerging.

Throughout the series, each module will provide specific learning objectives and will be delivered by a subject matter expert who will utilize a pleasing combination of lecture, experiential learning activities and exercises, and real-world examples.

Professional course materials will be provided and will include assessments, activities, and other learning enhancement components to help each participant individualize their learning experience.

The five, three-hour modules are:

Supervisor Effectiveness
Effective Communication for Managers
Conflict Management
Navigating a Multi-generational Workforce
Being a Great Mentor or Coach

Sharpening management skills and your leadership presence are valuable for navigating today’s workforce. This series will help you prepare and improve your role as a leader.

This program is scheduled as follows:

October 22nd

November 5th

November 19th

December 3rd

December 17th

All sessions will be virtual training via the Zoom platform. They will start promptly at 7 PM (sign-in 6:50 PM) and conclude at 10 PM.

To submit an application to participate or to get more information please contact: Jennifer Williams at Bloomsburg University by calling 570-389-4004.

This program qualifies for WEDnetPA grant funding (for eligible businesses). For additional information please contact: Jennifer Williams at Bloomsburg University by calling 570-389-4004.

More Details

Columbia Montour Chamber

bloomsburg university

13
Oct 20
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Leadership Balance, Find the Middle Ground

Tags : balance community culture leadership

Harmony is typically not found in extremes. Regardless of which end. Leadership balance is where the best results will develop. Are you finding the middle ground?

Too many meetings, or too few?

Too strict and authoritarian or too soft and too lenient?

Are you too congratulatory and appreciative or too subdued and neglectful?

Everything in leadership is about finding the right balance and balance is often hard to achieve.

Culture and Community

In the workplace, the environment and culture are often suggested to be about creating a community. The community works best when everyone can find the right balance.

Unhappy communities often seek a form of asylum. They prefer to retreat, withdraw, or to be left to their own devices.

Differences are more notable and not embraced in unhappy communities. Instead, people feel divided and seek a safe space.

Often, they leave the community. Heads down and defeated they are disconnected and weary, physically, emotionally, or both.

A focus on self, defeats communities and builds an unhealthy culture.

In contrast, a quest for balance is a generous act.

Is there balance in your leadership?

Leadership Balance

Leadership is artful.

There are a few small pockets of people who believe that leaders are born. The educated population largely believes that leadership skill is developed and that great leaders are made.

The toughest challenges of leadership may not be about risk, vision, or processes and systems. The toughest challenge may exist in how leaders choose to set navigational examples, inspire, and build community.

It is a generous dance with balance.

Communities often don’t respond well to force.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

09
Sep 20
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Memorized Is Not Necessarily Learned

Tags : book smart habits leadership memorized workplace learning

Do you have the alphabet memorized? What about your cell phone number or your password?

One of the biggest fallacies to teaching is the assumption that when someone memorizes the answer, they’ve learned.

It’s true of on-the-job training and it’s true in the university classroom. True for online learning and true for live in-person conventional learning.

Have you ever said that someone is book smart?

Book smart may be applicable to someone who easily memorizes what is read, but cannot apply it outside of the boundaries of the book context.

Then there is always the category of comprehension. In order to prove comprehension, a person is often tested. A conventional test of multiple-choice or short-answer testing might be memorized but not necessarily learned.

Memorized, Not Learned

Leadership training, and all that it entails may be a great example. You can encourage someone to memorize the bullet points of your slide deck or handout, yet you may wonder if they can apply it.

Being a great leader isn’t rocket science but it might be artful.

Many of the concepts are very simple, yet they require some extra effort, patience, and thorough understanding. One building upon the other makes the idea of good habits come to life.

Good habits sadly sometimes go by the wayside. Not because they aren’t good but because they are hard to deploy. It requires more energy, more effort, and honestly it is easier to slip back into older less useful habits.

When we replace the concept of memorization with comprehension we’re actually getting somewhere. More thorough comprehension develops from experiential learning where thinking or action is required by the trainee. It’s reflective, hands-on, or minds-on.

Someone can memorize the right answers. How they’ll apply what they’ve memorized in the face of fear, pressure, or adversity will show you what they’ve learned.

There is a distinct difference.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

28
Aug 20
-

Leadership Leverage, Are You Using It Properly?

Tags : artful leadership leverage psychology of work teams

When you need to move a big or heavy object, leverage will help. For the human side of your organization, leadership leverage may be the difference between movement or staying stuck.

Do you have leverage? Are you using it appropriately?

People often confuse a formal position or authority with leverage.

Do what I say, when and how I say it, and everything will be fine.

This is sort of like moving an egg across your yard or down the street with a bulldozer. This isn’t the kind of leverage you should use.

Leadership is not really about formal authority. Formal authority helps, yet the best leverage will come from being more artful and less commanding.

Decades ago, perhaps a half-century or more, formal authority made the biggest impact. Today, the formal authority should be the backup plan, not the primary method of operating.

Society has shaped and shifted to a different understanding of what it means to work. The psychology of work has changed. Understanding it matters now more than ever.

Leadership Leverage

Leadership leverage means that you can utilize the strengths of the individual or team to get more accomplished. Ideally, it means doing it more efficiently with fewer required resources.

Consider that strategy may be the biggest friend of leverage. Tactical approaches always matter and mission objectives are completed by the appropriate use of tactics. Yet, you shouldn’t confuse tactics with strategy.

Fighting metaphorical fires in the workplace is tactical, not strategic.

Leadership leverage develops through strategy, purpose, and persistence. It also happens through teamwork, relationships, and inspiration.

You probably wouldn’t bring a bulldozer to the Easter Egg hunt.

Much of the workforce won’t respond well to commands. They want to be part of something, respected and inspired.

Leverage is a gentle giant.

It gives more, and takes less.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

12
Aug 20
-

Bad Decisions, How Will You Support Them?

Tags : bad decisions ethical good leadership

Empowered people make decisions. In the workplace, sometimes bad decisions are all that you have to work with. What should you do?

Leadership often has an interesting way of unfolding.

It’s common that employees at lower levels of the organization are faced with enduring the outcomes of poor decisions.

It’s about leadership, at all levels.

In many workplace scenarios, decisions are made by executive leaders and the middle managers are stuck with rolling out the new direction. When most agree with the direction, things can go well. Of course, the opposite is also true too.

If you are faced with supporting a decision you don’t agree with, what should you do?

Leadership has responsibility. Leadership comes from all organizational levels.

You should lead.

Navigating Bad Decisions

Some decisions are deal-breakers. Ethically challenged decisions or legally challenged decisions, those need to be weighed differently.

In most cases, your concerns over decisions or choices should be voiced. They should be voiced constructively and tactfully with those involved.

Once that opportunity, if it exists, is over, then your support will be required.

As an individual you should consider two high-road choices.

First, you can appropriately support a decision that you lack some agreement with and seek out the best possible results. Conduct business constructively and with a supportive attitude.

The second option isn’t as easy. If it is a major change and you completely believe this is the beginning of the end, you may have to make it the end by removing yourself.

Fighting what you feel is a bad decision with poor behavior and compromising team efforts, organizational culture, and lowering morale are destructive. Perhaps more destructive than the bad decision.

Great leaders at all levels navigate these scenarios tactfully and constructively.

Everyone wants middle ground on these two roads. Sometimes there are shades of grey. In other cases, it is straight forward, black and white, no grey.

The road you choose is a decision.

Make it a good one.

Two bad’s don’t make a good.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

04
Aug 20
-

Never Been Done Before, That’s What You Need

Tags : different leadership new product service

Everyone is forced to change. Some are willing, others are waiting and watching. Do you need to do something that has never been done before?

I’m not sure who deserves credit for this, but there is a saying, “You cannot just do things differently, you must do different things.”

Now is a great time to consider where you stand with different things.

A product built in your garage as a hobby may be cool, but if it never goes to market, it’s not a game changer.

The service model that sets higher expectations yet can’t be replicated as a system will likely implode.

Avoidance, from fear of failure or fear of success will limit what is different every time.

Where are you headed?

Never Been Done Before

Doing what hasn’t been done before requires something extra.

It’s creative, and it requires you and everyone involved to be on the hook. The energy behind it becomes contagious. It is valued, needed, and a game changer.

Trust and relationships will flourish with a game changer. You’ll make something happen.

People who join in near the beginning of the curve will benefit the most.

Those jumping in late will completely miss the power of the curve and may become a statistic for failure. Not because of lack of effort, energy, or ingenuity, but because, it’s been done before.

A starting question is, can you trust yourself?

Are you able to put a product or service to the test and succeed at doing something different?

Will you find your voice, your ideal customer, and possibly create a niche?

Is it different, or really just the same thing done differently?

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

22
Jul 20
-

Workplace Deadlines and the Need It Now Movement

Tags : deadlines leadership psychology of work strategy

Excuses are problematic. So are urgent deadlines that aren’t real. How are you navigating workplace deadlines?

When do you need this?

I need it now.

Is it the top priority?

I need it before the meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Two things often happen in these scenarios. The first is that the diligent and caring employee drops everything to conform and make the deadline. And, the second is that the meeting is postponed, the boss doesn’t show up, or it never makes it to the final agenda.

Your work is about psychology. Employee commitment and engagement boil down to basic human needs. Everything from survival and providing for yourself and your family, to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and your career.

It all circles back to leadership.

Leaders who give urgent deadlines and then work produced gets wasted or deemed unnecessary is at a minimum discouraging the team.

At first glance you could definitely cite trust issues. Absolutely, they are likely present. Digging beneath the surface there are additional long-term consequences.

Employees may feel:

Is this deadline real?

Should I put in my best effort? They probably won’t even use the results of my work.

My work doesn’t matter.

He or she feels I’m not qualified or incompetent to produce the work.

I made one mistake, one time, now I’m treated like a little kid.

It is absolutely true that in our fast-paced world of work that what appears needed today, may not be needed tomorrow. Sometimes we work really hard on something only to not have the opportunity to call upon the outputs later.

Being proactive and prepared is a strategy. Carelessly suggesting that everything is a priority because it feels urgent to the boss at this moment is a downgrade in leadership.

Workplace Deadlines

High-efficiency systems are important. Due dates, ship dates, and customer expectations matter. Leadership is as much about accountability as it is about inspiration and engagement.

How leaders engage with the team, get buy-in, and build trusting relationships are all about the psychology of work today.

A system of fake deadlines won’t get you very far.

Sharing the why of any urgency will help with the distinction between strategy and carelessness.

Agreement to keep the promise of a deadline is a psychological contract.

Understand the difference between wasted effort and strategy.

Build better teams.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

17
Jul 20
-

Teamwork Give, Are You Doing It?

Tags : culture environment give leadership teamwork

Giving more, means more. What are you willing to give? In the workplace, teamwork give may be one of the most constructive things you can do.

People often ask, “What do you have to lose?”

Instead we should be asking, “What do you have to give?”

The psychology of work drives everything. It is an element of culture, the associated environment, and the outputs of the organization.

What happens when we give more:

patience
trust
empathy
responsibility
benefit of the doubt?

Do any of these have a positive return on investment? Do they make a difference?

Culture or Environment?

Many organizations believe that they have a thriving culture. Yet, they often lack some of the essential ingredients.

When you ask about culture do you get answers connected to the environment?

We brightened the room.

We provided a walking trail and a fitness room.

Some of our cubicles went away and were replaced with open space.

In a general sense, these are all related to the environment, not the culture.

Culture has some connections to the environment but environment alone does not illustrate the culture. Culture is comprised of many things and it starts with behaviors, attitudes, and a feeling that develops from the people.

What are you giving to your team?

Teamwork Give

We can give a lot of things. More respect, more trust, and even more patience.

Empathy matters. So does negative bias and stereotyping.

Is there ridicule or more benefit of the doubt?

Do you want employees to care more? Give them more responsibility, empowerment, and involve them in decisions.

Working overtime on your culture may be the simplest thing you can do to make the organization better.

Are you getting a good return on your investment?

Give more.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Tag Archives: leadership

Dec 20

-

Hiders and Seekers

Workplace Hide and Seek

Nov 20

-

Workplace Instincts

Oct 20

Oct 20

-

Culture and Community

Leadership Balance

Sep 20

-

Memorized, Not Learned

Aug 20

-

Leadership Leverage

Aug 20

-

Navigating Bad Decisions

Aug 20

-

Never Been Done Before

Jul 20

-

Workplace Deadlines

Jul 20

-

Culture or Environment?

Teamwork Give

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