Do you have things on your “to-Do” list that you keep avoiding?  I find that tasks that require laser like focus for repetitive tasks are particularly challenging for me.  Last week, I was crawling through the task of loading an online course onto a website. It required laser focus and I found I was depleted by the repetition. I was making very slow progress.

I decided to play to my strengths to get this task of loading a course online completed. In the Strengths Finder world there is one strength called focus. People who have this strength are incredibly talented at focusing in on one task.  It is not one of my strengths. Yet, one of my strengths is strategic thinking. I do some of my best thinking when I create space and time to think big. I often find that I do this best when I am moving.

Thus the Strengths Biathlon. [Read more…]

Who knew we’d have a whole new genre of research on leadership and the importance of sleep! Arianna Huffington has a new book coming out titled The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life One Night at a Time. This follow her TedTalk on how to succeed by getting more sleep. In addition, McKinsey and Company posted a piece on the organizational cost of insufficient sleep.  And, Harvard Business Review has an article on the link between effective leadership and sleep.

Their collective message is that there is a national trend of leaders convincing themselves that they don’t need that much sleep. Almost 46% of leaders say that lack of sleep does not have an impact on their performance. Yet four of ten report that they do not get enough sleep at least 3 nights a week.  Furthermore,  there is credible research on how attention, concentration, creativity, emotional reactions, seeking different perspectives and decision making is impacted by lack of sleep.  [Read more…]

We’ve all been there… a “to do” list that is so long you don’t know where to start. Every day more things are added and some things come flying at you as “URGENT!”  In my work, I am noticing more and more teams struggling with how to prioritize because there is growing culture of what I refer to as the “tyranny of the urgency”.

I remember asking my boss once, “Help me to understand what is the most urgent and important thing to work on”.  His response was…”It’s all urgent and import.” My feeling is it can’t all be urgent and important. We need tools for teams and leaders to decide what is most urgent and important or we will get washed under in a giant wave of tasks. When we get hit by too many of these waves efficiency and morale often decline.  [Read more…]

As leaders we are often asked to articulate our leadership style. What would happen if you were asked to describe your leadership style through one of the four elements: earth, fire, wind or water?

I’ve asked this question to many groups of leaders over the last ten years. I’m starting to see some interesting patterns emerge.  In general… [Read more…]

Over 2 million people have read the book Crucial Conversations™. I recently read the book and participated in the Vital Smarts training program. Spending two days learning about and practicing crucial conversations is a humbling experience. I recalled so many crucial conversations in my life time and I must admit not all were successful.

I think the there were three things that will stick with me that I will be practicing. First, know when you are in a crucial conversation and “start with heart”. [Read more…]

Are you someone that needs time to think? Do you find yourself not saying much in meetings because you are thinking about all the things people are saying? Do you find yourself leaving a meeting and still thinking about the conversations later in the day? [Read more…]

Many leaders have been asked to take the MBTI. As noted on the website, the “purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people’s lives.” I’ve used it in my coaching and have found it a very powerful tool when helping people to reflect and appreciate their preferences and ways of being at work. [Read more…]