Coaching for Leaders

What do you do when you’re the target of criticism? Here are the two kinds of critics that show up at work in the workplace and also how to address them. It all comes back to Mathnet Two kinds of critics The bully The champion Why you need your critics Hawthorne studies (Harvard article) (Economist article) Benefits You Get From A Recognition Program (episode #79) with Michelle Smith of O.C. Tanner “Our chief want in life is someone who will make us do what we can.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson Actions you can take Listen and be calm (useful for both the bully and the champion) Our urge is to become defensive It may put up barriers to hearing something of value If the criticism is unwarranted, you’re the one keeping your cool (unless the other party is factually wrong in a public forum) If the other party is factually wrong in public, make your case confidently and professionally Set aside the tone or personal attack (useful for both the bully and the champion) Is there value in what the person is saying, beyond the tone? Ask a more independent party to analyze it for you. Ask for feedback and criticism (useful with the champion) “Be your own toughest critic. Demand excellent performance from yourself and your leadership will thrive in the face of adversity.” –Doug Conant This worked for me in my first full-time job Take advice of Tom Henschel for episode #107 Ask often Say thank you or can you help me understand Do something with it or don’t Embrace the criticism and make change (useful for both the bully and the champion) Realize that a lot of people use criticism as a primary tool for development Take one suggestion this week to actually put into action Love your enemy (useful with the bully, and sometimes the champion) Find something about them you can love Feel sorry for them Be glad you’re not married to them What if your boss is the bully? Try one or more things above that you think might help Are you getting more than you’re giving? If not, work towards another opportunity Don’t throw them under the bus on the way out the door To Those Who Want Great Careers: Don’t Do What This Guy Did Other episodes that might help Benefits You Get From A Recognition Program (episode #79) Ten Ways To Pick Yourself Up When You’re Beaten Down (episode #85) Three Steps To Soliciting Feedback (episode #107) Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” -William Shakespeare Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Bonni Stachowiak, an expert in knowledge management and curation, discusses effective strategies for creating a personal knowledge management system. She explores different methods of capturing information, such as using social media and subscriptions, and highlights the importance of curating and organizing this information. The podcast also covers tools for reading and managing RSS feed subscriptions. The episode concludes with resources for staying connected with the community and accessing additional leadership resources.

Learn how to lead effective meetings by following four practices: evaluating the necessity of the meeting, establishing guidelines for communication and decision-making, setting an agenda in advance, and ensuring clear action items. Discover the importance of time management and avoiding unproductive meetings.

Have you considered telling the people you lead about the mistakes you’ve made? On this episode, why you lead better when you share your mistakes. “Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.” -Dale Carnegie Here are the benefits to talking about your mistakes with others: You get people’s attention. You open the door for people to be more willing to accept coaching. You give people a realistic path of what it looks like to learn how to lead. It reminds you what it was like to learn that skill in the first place. It keeps you humble. Two words of caution: Make sure you share real mistakes you’ve made. Sadly, not every organization values this kind of transparency. Be smart about the politics where you are. Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Here’s some advice that many of us have heard when we starting giving presentations or speeches for the first time: “Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em, tell ’em, tell ’em what you told ’em.” That’s lousy advice. Here’s how to do better. Four great and interesting speeches, with varying levels of importance: Honoring the dead – The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln Civil rights – I Have A Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A successful product launch – The iPhone Announcement by Steve Jobs Human personality – The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain Three commonalities that these four very different “pitches” share. They all: Tell a story of the problem Articulate a vision Inspire action Resources you may wish to investigate: The Quick and Easy Way To Effective Speaking* by Dale Carnegie Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences* by Nancy Duarte SPIN Selling* by Neil Rackham Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*. 1. Question about leading during a school closing from Jermaine We recommended episode #55 with Carol Taylor on How To Lead In A Crisis. 2. Question about giving feedback from Sue 3. Question about prioritizing emails and voice mail from Matt Dave’s task management system: OmniFocus Bonni’s task management system: Remember The Milk VIP contacts and flagging on iOS7 for the iPhone and iPad: How To See Important Messages in iOS7 Mail from The Mac Observer Mailbox for iPhone Sanebox.com We recommended episode #109 on Seven Online Tools That Will Help You Do Your Best Work. We recommended episode #119 with David Sparks on How To Get Control Of Your Email. 4. Question about small tasks and large tasks from Catherine 5. Question about hiring the right person for a non-profit Check on episodes #89 and #90, both on StrengthsFinder with Steve Dosier What’s one new practice you’ll start with your time management this week? Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*. Bonni and I discussed three steps for getting what you most want out of conflict: Recognize our tendency to focus on ourselves being right and the other party being wrong. Getting clear on the feeling factor: becoming aware of our own feelings and learning to express them accurately to another party Know your short and long-term goal. “Given what has already transpired that you can’t change, what do you want to have come out of this situation?” We recommended Difficult Conversations* Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

John Corcoran: Smart Business Revolution Key Points Ursula Burns (CEO of Xerox) and her thoughts on work-life balance, as reported by the Wall Street Journal The Storyline Productivity Schedule (used by John) David Allen’s Getting Things Done* (both John and Dave use the philosophy of this system) ProductiveFlourishing.com (John uses) OmniFocus (Dave’s task management system) Drafts (how Dave captures thoughts throughout the day) 5 Days To Your Best Year Ever (Dave attended this course over the holidays to set his 2014 goals) iCloud calendars (Dave’s family uses this to coordinate family scheduling) Boomerang for Gmail (John uses this to delay sending emails) Coaching for Leaders episode #70: How Three Words Can Drive Your Development This Year (Dave’s podcast that aired in early 2013 that John and Dave referenced during the show) Book recommendation: Give and Take by Adam Grant* Book recommendation: How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie* Book recommendation: The Secrets of Happy Families by Bruce Feiler* (mentioned by Dave post-interview) Follow Dave’s reading on GoodReads.com by visiting CoachingforLeaders.com/goodreads Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Richard Sheridan: Joy, Inc. Author of the new book Joy, Inc.* CEO, Menlo Innovations Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Mario Livio: Brilliant Blunders* A lot of us fear making mistakes, but mistakes are such an important part of the process in moving forward. Today, you’ll hear why this is important even for (and maybe especially for) the most successful thinkers and doers. Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.