We’ve been talking a lot these past few months about motivation, including getting ourselves motivated. One of our roles as a colleague—whether we’re officially in a leadership role or not—is to help inspire the people around us. If we seem angry all the time, don’t listen, or don’t seem to care, our less-than-stellar behavior affects those around us.
Read moreDon’t Let Your Work Knock You Down: Getting Yourself Motivated
Recently, we wrote about motivation and how it’s rooted in activation, persistence, and intensity. When faced with a new task or project, sometimes we feel genuine excitement and can’t wait to get going on it. Too often, however, knowing we have to do something fills us with a Sisyphean dread that demoralizes us before we begin.
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.
Chronic Body Odor and Communication
Talking costs nothing, doesn’t trigger sensitivities to fragrance, and could actually solve the problem, instead of coating it in floral scent. However, it’s a lot harder to raise a sensitive issue than it is to spray an air freshener. As a new or seasoned manager, you’re going to face lots of difficult conversations. So, how do you address sensitive and difficult conversations with your direct reports? Let’s look at the technique we explore in Gillespie Nimble.
Read moreBeyond 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 moreGillespie Nimble Member Feature: Andrea True, Director of Client Experience
Andrea True, Director of Client Experience at Allied Financial Partners, enrolled in the Gillespie Nimble New Manager JumpStart™ series this summer. Here she shares lessons learned and advice to other Gillespie Nimble cohort members.
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.
Read moreMy Mistakes as a New Manager: Part 2
Last week I shared with you my own mistakes and lessons learned as a first-time manager. I lacked the fundamental leadership skills needed to be in a management role, which caused a lot of difficulty for own job, my team, and my organization. We’ve opened this topic to the public to share mistakes they’ve made as a new manager, in order to reflect on how leadership development may have been useful for them.
Read moreMy Mistakes as a New Manager: Part 1
I can remember how excited I was to get my first office as a new manager. At 21 years old, I didn’t even care that the office came with a drain in the floor, or that it was a converted first aid room nestled between the men’s and women’s restrooms.
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