The concept of the last mile doesn’t just apply to supply chains. We find ourselves in that last mile every day, especially as managers. An essential component of our job is to deliver: we give information and directives to our teams; updates and strategies to our leaders; reassurance and satisfaction to our clients. Good performance earns us breathing room to address the rest of our tasks. Bad performance can create havoc.
Read moreCan I Teach Someone how to Be a Leader?
A colleague expressed it well: she knew how to teach technical tasks, like how to add a user account, but she doesn’t believe it’s possible to teach soft, squishy skills, like how to lead. As the creator and facilitator of our leadership development program, Gillespie Nimble, I’m going to shock you and say that I agree 100%.
And that’s why I’m a facilitator, not a teacher or instructor.
Read moreFour Ways to Combat Loneliness on Your Team
Loneliness is linked to poor mental and physical health, lack of sleep, and weak social skills. Together those mean higher incidents of absenteeism, lack of productivity, and decreased focus on the job. As a manager, what can you do to decrease loneliness?
Read moreHow to Survive Feedback
Sometimes feedback is hard to take. In this post, I share four tips I tell new managers in our coaching sessions:
- Remember that there’s a reason you were selected for this position.
- Be honest with yourself about how you’re feeling at the moment.
- Look at the feedback from a distance.
- Acknowledge what you need to acknowledge.
Beyond the MBA: Three Interpersonal Skills Every Manager Should Master
“You are hired for your technical skills and fired for your lack of interpersonal skills.” Over the years, I’ve seen the truth of this play out time and again.
With that in mind, an article in Chief Learning Officer magazine[1] recently caught my eye. It posed the question: Are MBAs still a valuable development tool?
Read moreTriangles Belong in Geometry, Not in Teams
First-time managers face a range of challenges—complicated dynamics with their colleagues, managing friends, establishing credibility, and sometimes, managing older or more experienced peers. In Gillespie’s work with new managers, we see one challenge again and again: triangulation. Triangulation happens when a new manager is faced with an uncomfortable situation and complains about it to a friend or ally, rather than talking to the source of the problem. This issue is prevalent throughout organizations and damaging to teams.
Read moreGaps in First-Time Manager Training
There are an incredible number of demands on the adult worker today. These demands leave only about 1% of a typical workweek available for training and development—that’s about 25 minutes a week! Some of the fault rests with the technology that’s supposed to make life easier. It also makes us more available to an overload of demands and responsibilities.
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