Unresponsive people drive me crazy. I hate sending an email or Slack message to someone and then waiting days to hear anything back. (Admittedly, I have sometimes been guilty of this myself.) This is particularly maddening when you don’t hear anything at all. One of the questions I always ask when interviewing executive assistants is […]
Archive for Communication
3 Ways Email Can Sabotage Your Leadership
When to Use It—and When to Avoid It Like the Plague
When I was the CEO at Thomas Nelson, one of our authors was frustrated. In response to a disappointing sales report, he fired off a blistering email to one of our divisional leaders. He complained about poor results. He criticized the sales strategy and our failure to execute. Worse, he challenged the leader’s intelligence, competence, […]
5 Strategies for Becoming a Better Conversationalist
What Leaders Can Learn from a Good Game of Ping Pong
Good conversationalists have great influence. In this post, I share five strategies I have learned for having better conversations.
How to Build (or Rebuild) Trust
4 Steps to Win with Customers, Employees, Even Your Spouse
Trust is to an organization what oil is to a car engine. It keeps the moving parts from seizing and stopping forward motion. But trust is not something you can take for granted. It takes months—sometimes years—to build. Unfortunately, you can lose it overnight.
Why Leaders Can’t Over-Communicate
5 Reasons to Speak Up and Speak Often
Leaders face a lot of problems, but poor communication is one they often create for themselves. In fact, nine in ten employees say it sabotages the success of executives, according to one study. The same study found the second biggest problem area for leaders was a lack of clear directions. I think this probably applies […]
How to Sync up Your Team for Success
Do You Know the 3 Components for Effective Alignment?
While weak leaders blame their followers for a lack of alignment, strong leaders know that it is their responsibility to create it. Alignment doesn’t just happen. It is created. Here are three ways to make it happen with your team.