Unlock Your Potential: How an Executive Coach Can Accelerate Your Leadership Growth

In today's complex business landscape, developing exceptional leadership skills is essential for driving organizational success. But taking your capabilities to the next level often requires guidance from someone who understands the challenges you face. If you're an executive looking to unlock your full potential, partnering with an executive coach can provide the personalized support you need to grow.

As an experienced coach who has worked with leaders across various industries, I understand the demands executives face. I've partnered with leaders in roles ranging from project managers to C-suite executives to help them elevate their strategic thinking, communication abilities and team leadership.

Now as an executive coach, I specialize in helping leaders cultivate the kind of agile, purpose-driven mindset that navigates ambiguity and inspires teams.

The Power of a Customized Approach

Leadership development is not a one-size-fits-all process. An executive coach personalizes the coaching experience to focus on your unique goals, strengths and areas for improvement. This tailored approach provides:

• A confidential space for self-reflection to build your leadership self-awareness

• Customized strategies to improve decision making, communication, conflict resolution and other critical competencies

• Support for clarifying your values and leadership vision to inspire your team

• Ongoing accountability and encouragement to achieve your full potential

Having an experienced coach in your corner avoids cookie-cutter advice. Instead, you get targeted guidance enabling faster growth.

Proven Techniques for Leadership Agility

Ambiguity and change are constants in today's workplaces. Enhancing your leadership agility and adaptability enables you to thrive amidst uncertainty. Here are powerful techniques my clients use to increase their responsiveness and strategic skill:

Practice scenario planning. Anticipating different situations builds confidence to pivot strategically when priorities shift.

Ask empowering questions. Inquiry that sparks insight and ownership drives leadership agility. Avoid yes/no questions.

Listen without preconceived notions. Focus on understanding others’ perspectives before reacting. This builds trust.

Delegate strategically. Empower your team to take on new challenges while you provide guidance and support.

Champion self-care. Reduce stress through healthy habits. This sustains resilience.

With an executive coach supporting you, developing greater agility and fulfillment in leadership is within reach.

The Benefits You Can Expect

While each coaching partnership is unique, these are some common benefits that leaders experience:

• Enhanced strategic thinking and decision-making skills that enable you to navigate complexity and drive results

• Improved communication and conflict management resulting in stronger relationships and teamwork

• Greater self-confidence and emotional intelligence allowing you to stay composed under pressure

• Increased engagement and fulfillment through connecting your leadership purpose and values

• Reduced stress thanks to new perspectives and supportive accountability from your coach

The right coach won't just tell you what to do—they'll empower you with new mindsets and skills so you can advance as a leader.

Commit to Your Own Leadership Journey

While your executive coach provides invaluable support, the commitment to your development must come from within you. By taking ownership of the coaching process, and applying yourself fully, you'll reap the greatest rewards.

Look for a coach who challenges you, not one who simply validates your assumptions. Be ready to move beyond your comfort zone. Approach each coaching conversation with an open mind and determination for self-improvement.

When you dedicate yourself to leadership excellence, executive coaching will accelerate your growth in extraordinary ways. You have so much potential waiting to be unlocked. The journey starts with you!

I enjoy partnering with leaders ready to reach new heights. If you're looking for an executive coach to support your professional growth, let's connect! I look forward to helping you elevate your leadership capabilities.

5 Surprising Techniques to Unlock Your Full Potential as a Leader

Leadership is an ever-evolving journey. Even the most experienced executives know there is always room for growth. In today's rapidly changing business landscape, honing your leadership abilities is essential to driving innovation and leading high-performing teams.

The good news is that with commitment and an openness to learn, any leader can continue to enhance their skills. Executive coaching provides proven techniques to help you self-reflect, unlock your strengths, and actualize your full potential.

Here are 5 lesser-known yet highly effective coaching techniques to accelerate your leadership development:

1. Envision Your Best Future Self

The first step is getting crystal clear on the leader you aspire to become. Set aside time for self-reflection and envision your best future self. What unique strengths, qualities, and values define the person you hope to evolve into? How will you think, communicate, and lead differently as your highest self?

Creating a vivid portrait of your future growth empowers you to set meaningful goals and take purposeful action. Reflect often on this vision to stay aligned and inspired as you progress on your leadership journey. You have boundless potential to realize.

2. Become a Feedback Sponge

One of the best ways to self-reflect and grow is to actively seek feedback. Yet, many leaders shy away from this practice due to fear of criticism. Adopting a growth mindset allows you to view feedback as a precious gift rather than a threat. Think of yourself as a sponge, eagerly soaking up insights from those around you.

Schedule time with your team, colleagues, and even family to ask: “How can I improve as a leader?” Listen openly without judgment. Patterns in the feedback will reveal your blind spots and areas for development. This knowledge is power and fuel for your continued evolution.

3. Develop ‘Creative Confidence’

As a leader, you need to think big, take risks, and champion innovative ideas. But self-doubt often hinders us from tapping into our natural creativity. Boost your “creative confidence” by making time for unstructured play and exploration. Engage your inner child by tinkering, doodling, or experimenting with new hobbies. These activities stimulate out-of-the-box thinking.

Making creativity a habit expands your perspective and empowers you to challenge the status quo. Next time you’re faced with a complex problem, have the courage to suggest daring solutions. Your willingness to color outside the lines could lead to game-changing innovation.

4. Become an Empathy Ninja

IQ and technical expertise alone don’t make an extraordinary leader. High emotional intelligence is essential. At the heart of EQ is empathy – the ability to understand others’ perspectives and emotions. Research shows empathy distinguishes top-tier leaders.

So, how can you develop Jedi-level empathy skills? Try seeing the world through your team’s eyes. Listen deeply, ask thoughtful questions, and observe body language during interactions. Consider what motivates each person and their unique needs or fears. Suspend judgment and connect with their humanity. You’ll gain priceless insights to lead with greater compassion and emotional attunement.

5. Develop a Growth-Oriented Inner Voice

Our self-talk is incredibly powerful in shaping our abilities and confidence. Many leaders unwittingly hold themselves back with an inner critic. Become aware of your inner voice and reframe limiting self-talk with empowering language. Celebrate small wins, and have self-compassion if you fall short of a goal.

Each day, remind yourself: “I have immense potential.” “I am becoming stronger and wiser every day.” Purposefully cultivating a growth mindset will bolster your resilience and enable you to show up as your best self. You deserve to be your own greatest champion!

The path to becoming an exceptional leader is paved with a commitment to lifelong learning. By putting these techniques into practice, you can unlock the highest version of yourself and fulfill your purpose as a leader. And remember, support from an executive coach can accelerate your development exponentially. I would be honored to assist you on your journey of mastery and self-actualization. Let's connect! Wishing you tremendous success.

The False Appeal of "Common Sense"

It's become common for people to justify opinions or decisions by claiming they are just "common sense." However, this phrase is often used to stifle thoughtful discourse and shut down alternate perspectives. As leaders aiming to make wise choices in a complex world, we must be wary of relying on simplistic common sense rationales.

The Risks of Invoking Common Sense

Appealing to common sense tends to demonstrate flawed critical thinking in several ways:

It discounts the need for nuanced analysis. Most modern challenges involve layers of technological, social, political complexity. Surface logic rarely suffices. We must be willing to research issues from many lenses.

It implies dissenters lack basic intelligence. Dismissing those who see things differently hinders exchange of ideas and accumulation of wisdom. Diverse insight propels understanding.

It conceals contradictions and hypocrisy. So-called "common sense" often crumbles under scrutiny. For instance, people may claim everyone knows governments can't manage healthcare efficiently while ignoring how well Medicare works.

It breeds arrogant close-mindedness. Once people believe they have all the answers, cognitive biases take over and actual learning stops. Confirmation bias renders leaders deaf to anything outside their worldview.

It justifies the status quo. Improving any system requires questioning existing norms and power structures. Common sense rationales defend upholding current conditions.

Cultivating Intellectual Humility

The world is complex, yet individual human brains are limited in perspective. As ethicist John Lachs noted, true wisdom requires acknowledging that we cannot see the whole picture nor have all the answers on our own.

Intellectually humble leaders therefore cultivate perpetual curiosity and avoid rigid certainty. Rather than defaulting to "common sense", they:

• Question underlying assumptions and conventional thinking instead of blindly accepting them

• Earnestly invite debate and challenge from diverse perspectives outside their bubbles

• Actively listen to different views without judgment or defensiveness

• Take time to deeply analyze root causes of issues, not just symptoms and superficial perspectives

• Thoroughly consider potential pitfalls and unintended consequences before acting

• View challenges as opportunities to learn something new and improve rather than reinforce the status quo

Beyond Either/Or Thinking

Many debates framed in terms of common sense are actually complex issues with multiple reasonable perspectives. Leaders who recognize reality's nuance are cautious about absolutist rhetoric.

For instance, pragmatic leaders acknowledge free market capitalism has benefits like spurring innovation, and flaws like exacerbating inequality. Truth incorporates paradox.

Seeking Inclusive Wisdom

True progress depends on often questioning the status quo, humbly hearing those most impacted by issues, and synthesizing the best collective thinking available. Blind allegiance to "common sense" limits potential. Pursuing truth requires nuance, inclusion and perpetual humility.

To explore leading with more inclusive wisdom, please don't hesitate to reach out. Seeking multiple lenses always brings complex realities into sharper focus. The path of lifelong learning never ends.

The Perils of Prioritizing Speed Over Quality

In manufacturing, intense pressure to accelerate output can tempt leaders to take shortcuts that degrade quality. However the Toyota Production System provides a powerful example of why slowing down to fix problems systematically yields better products, innovation and outcomes in the long run.

The High Costs of Rushing

Pushing assembly line workers for maximum productivity leads to predictable negative consequences:

• Product quality is compromised as validation steps get skipped to speed up throughput. Eliminating safety and quality checks results in products that break sooner and cause harm. Remediating issues late in the process becomes exponentially more expensive.

• Employee morale and retention fall as people are treated like cogs rather than respected experts. Loss of skilled talent then reduces overall craftsmanship and institutional know-how. Hastened work breeds fatigue, frustration, and burnout among employees.

• Band-aid solutions create enormously expensive failures down the road. Customers who receive poor quality products lose trust. Companies suffer massive costs remediating or replacing defective products, often after much damage is already done. Entire product lines get scrapped or recalled.

• Brand reputation suffers for years when customers experience the results of cutting corners. Regaining consumer trust after releasing shoddy products is difficult, if not impossible. The race to market has long-term impacts on stock value and competitiveness.

Toyota's "Andon Cord" Fosters Quality

Toyota empowers any assembly line worker to stop the entire line by pulling a cord (called an Andon cord) if they spot a defect or improvement opportunity. Work ceases until the team swarms to address the root cause, implement countermeasures, and validate solutions - thereby preventing future recurrence and enhancing overall system resilience.

While this may temporarily slow output, it builds collective mastery, pride, and quality assurance. Workers gain autonomy to perfect processes, not just comply with quotas. They develop expertise in root cause analysis and creative problem solving.

Enabling frontline workers to halt production reflects Toyota’s core belief that quality must never be sacrificed for speed. They understand that defects become exponentially more expensive to fix the longer they go undetected. Catching issues at source prevents gigantic downstream costs.

Shortcuts Reflect Lack of Systems Thinking

Leaders who pressure teams to bypass steps, overlook anomalies, and rush through issues demonstrate deficient systems thinking skills. They fail to comprehend interdependencies or long-term ripple effects.

In complex manufacturing systems, seemingly small changes can cascade catastrophically. For example, adding a single bolt hole to the wrong place can render an entire airplane fuselage useless. Allowing time to correct course prevents massive future expenses.

Short-term thinking invariably backfires. As Sidney Dekker explains, “Meeting your schedule and budget today is no guarantee for meeting your schedule and budget tomorrow. Sacrificing resilience for short-term efficiency is dangerous.”

Developing Systems Thinking as a Leader

As awareness grows about systems thinking, many leaders recognize the need to adopt more holistic mental models but struggle to implement them. Old habits are hard to break.

If these concepts resonate but you need help applying them in your context, I offer coaching services tailored to developing systemic wisdom as a leader. Some common focus areas include:

• Mapping complex interdependencies between teams, processes, and metrics

• Facilitating root cause analysis when problems occur rather than blame

• Identifying latent systemic risks before they become crises

• Embedding leading indicators and early warning systems

• Encouraging frontline worker expertise and feedback

• Incentivizing long-term thinking not just quarterly results

Let's explore how developing systems mastery could transform your organization and avoid painful pitfalls. Reach out to begin the journey - sustainable success starts with a single step.

The High Cost of Multitasking in Meetings as a Leader

In today's distraction-filled world, it has become commonplace for leaders to multitask during meetings - checking emails, texting, scanning social media, and more. However, this behavior has seriously detrimental impacts on relationships, trust, and performance. As a leader, being fully present and engaged during meetings is essential to demonstrate respect, improve focus, foster stronger bonds with your team, and model effective habits. Avoid multitasking and be mindful in meetings to create a collaborative environment where people feel valued.

The Damaging Perceptions of Multitasking Leaders

When leaders frequently divide their attention during meetings by looking at devices, teammates often draw very negative conclusions that erode trust and morale over time:

• You don't value their time or insights. Checking your phone or laptop conveys that whatever they are discussing is not important enough to warrant your full attention. This breeds resentment.

• You lack focus, discipline and self-control. The inability to stay focused, even for short meetings, hints at poor time management skills and lack of leadership capability.

• You're not an active listener or participant. Mentally and emotionally checking out prevents you from absorbing information fully or contributing meaningfully to discussions.

• You don't care about relationship building. Multitasking shuts down opportunities for bonding, vulnerability and creating psychological safety.

• You're reactive, overwhelmed or incompetent. The inability to focus or be present without constant task switching makes you seem generally unfit for leadership.

The Damaging Reality of Distracted Leaders

Beyond just poor optics, multitasking leaders also suffer very real consequences that diminish their performance and cognition:

• Missing critical details that inform decisions. With split attention, leaders fail to absorb nuances, data points, and other key information that should guide choices.

• Failure to read emotional cues and body language. Being distracted impairs ability to pick up on nonverbal signals that are crucial for relating to others and influencing effectively.

• Diminished meeting productivity. Trying to track multiple conversations fractures cognitive focus, which leads to stuck discussions and limited insights.

• Increased mental fatigue and overwhelm. The exertion required to multitask degrades mindful presence. This drains mental resources fast.

• Weaker relationships and team cohesion. People are exceedingly unlikely to open up authentically or be vulnerable when leaders appear disengaged. Trust and morale decline.

Techniques for Honing Mindful Presence

Here are some methods leaders can employ to avoid multitasking and be fully mentally engaged during meetings:

• Set expectations upfront that you aim for no outside distractions so you can be fully present. Ask others to commit to this as well.

• Physically close laptops, turn off phone notifications, disable wifi, and remove other tempting distractions. Out of sight, out of mind.

• Prioritize active listening, engagement, and eye contact over quick responses to messages. Catch up on emails later.

• Ask periodic clarifying questions to reinforce understanding and involvement. This shows others you're listening closely.

• After intensive or lengthy meetings, build in adequate space on the calendar to process takeaways fully and allow your cognition to recover.

• Consciously model the undivided attention you want your team to display. Lead by example and others will mimic your behavior.

Mastering the art of mindful presence during meetings while eliminating multitasking takes practice but offers immense rewards. Leaders who remain fully engaged demonstrate respect, unlock their best thinking and decisions, and build trust. To transform meeting focus on your team, I offer science-based coaching tailored to boosting leadership presence, time management, and culture shaping. Let's connect to explore customized solutions!

The Myth of Multitasking: Why Focus is Key for Leadership Excellence

In our complex, distraction-filled world, leaders often pride themselves on being able to “multitask.” However, research reveals multitasking is a myth - our brains simply cannot focus on more than one thing at a time. What we call multitasking is really rapid task switching, and this constant context shifting comes at a major cost in terms of productivity, creativity, and wellbeing. As a leader, avoiding the multitasking illusion and mastering the art of focus is essential for your own cognitive performance and for modeling good behaviors for your team.

Why We Can’t Actually Multitask

Although it may seem we can multitask, our brains are wired for focusing on one task at a time. When we try to juggle multiple things simultaneously:

• We experience lag time as our brain switches between tasks. This creates inefficiencies as our attention is fractured.

• We are more prone to mistakes as we attempt to hold too many things in our working memory. Things start to slip through the cracks.

• We become distracted and overwhelmed as we try processing multiple streams of information. We end up shallowly attending to everything.

• We increase stress and fatigue because rapid task switching requires a lot of mental energy. Our cognitive resources deplete faster.

The Benefits of Focused Attention

While single-tasking may seem slower, research confirms its benefits include:

• Increased efficiency on cognitively demanding tasks. You get more done with less effort when you're able to focus deeply.

• Higher quality thinking and creativity. Complex cognitive processes require sustained concentration to make new connections and insights.

• Reduced fatigue and burnout. Focused work allows your brain to fully relax during breaks. Multitasking blurs the lines between rest and work.

• Greater career fulfillment. People experience their work as more meaningful and engaging when they can truly focus on tasks.

• Enhanced wellbeing. Focus cultivates a sense of calm and enjoyment. Multitasking creates feelings of anxiety and being overwhelmed.

Focus Tips for Leaders

As a leader, avoiding multitasking and honing your ability to focus deeply will make you more effective while also setting the right tone for your team. Here are some best practices:

• Reduce distractions during focused work by closing apps, muting notifications, and working from a quiet space.

• Prioritize the most cognitively demanding tasks for when you have long stretches of uninterrupted time.

• Build in buffer time between meetings and calls so you can fully recharge your attention and cognition.

• Model single-tasking during meetings. Don’t check emails or texts - give your full attention.

• Encourage focus time for your team. Emphasize quality thinking over constant busyness.

• Celebrate deep work. Recognize employees who consistently demonstrate diligent focus.

The bottom line is our brains need focus to perform at their best. Leaders who embrace this and avoid faux-multitasking will see their productivity, creativity, and serenity benefit immensely. They will also set a powerful example for their teams. Focus is the currency of excellence in today's economy. Make it one of your top priorities as a leader, and coach others to do the same.

If you need help personally mastering focus or establishing it as a cultural value on your team, don't hesitate to reach out. I offer science-based coaching tailored to enhancing leadership effectiveness by improving focus. Let's connect to discuss how I can help you and your organization thrive!

The Critical Role of Responsiveness for Today's Leaders

The Dangers of Constant Connectivity

In our increasingly fast-paced, constantly connected business environment, responsiveness has become a crucial skill for effective leadership. Leaders who fail to diligently manage their calendar, regularly check emails, and make time for meetings run the risk of appearing aloof, undependable, and unconcerned.

However, while technology has enabled us to be more reachable than ever, this constant accessibility comes with downsides. It's tempting for leaders to keep one eye perpetually on their inbox, allowing messages and notifications to interrupt their focus countless times per day. However, research clearly shows that this reactive state of perpetual distraction severely impairs productivity, creative thinking, analytical ability, and capacity for strategic thought.

The Benefits of Protecting Focus Time

Leaders cannot afford to undermine their cognitive abilities with constant context switching and fractured attention. They owe it to their teams, colleagues, and stakeholders to preserve periods of deep focus free from unnecessary distractions. This enables complex cognitive processes to occur, leading to higher quality decisions that consider a wider array of factors. It also sets the tone for the organization, giving others permission to disconnect and concentrate.

The Perils of Poor Responsiveness

While focus is crucial, leaders must balance it with mindfulness regarding their communication and scheduling commitments. Failing to regularly check for calendar updates, changes to meeting times, and new invites leaves leaders unprepared and out of sync.

Arriving late, canceling last minute, or missing important meetings altogether signals disrespect and breeds resentment. Colleagues feel their time has been devalued if a leader consistently fails to honor scheduled appointments and agreed upon meeting times.

Leaders who cancel or reschedule only when absolutely necessary preserve trust and dependability. Thoughtfully blocking off chunks of focus time well in advance allows colleagues to plan accordingly. When leaders unexpectedly appear unavailable or unreachable for long stretches, people hesitate to depend on them.

Delays in responding to urgent questions and requests gives the impression leaders are indifferent. Team members stop bringing critical issues to inattentive leaders.

Why Responsiveness Earns Respect

On the other hand, responsive leaders who deeply respect others' time are revered. Those who show up promptly, prepared for meetings large and small demonstrate their reliability. Leaders who keep their calendar updated and frequently communicate their availability facilitate smoother coordination.

Answering messages in a timely fashion, especially regarding time-sensitive matters, keeps projects moving forward. Making time to power through emails, offer prompt responses, and share schedule changes shows leaders value communication and their relationships.

When people know a leader's "open door" policy is genuine, they feel comfortable bringing concerns. Replying quickly to questions makes people feel valued, not ignored. Being reachable for urgent issues demonstrates true care and commitment.

Best Practices for Responsiveness

There are several best practices leaders can adopt to hone responsiveness:

• Mindfully plan each day by reviewing your calendar and establishing top priorities considering any scheduling constraints or conflicts. Build in small buffer windows between meetings.

• Obsessively manage your calendar by continuously checking for updates throughout the day. Evaluate any new invites carefully before accepting to protect focus time.

• Keep your inbox under control by allotting specific times to power through new messages, especially first thing in the morning. Flag emails that require more thoughtful responses for later.

• Constantly communicate your availability after any calendar changes, as well as when you have blocks of focus time. Let your team know when you will be offline and for how long.

Conclusion

Mastering the art of responsiveness while also preserving focus time is crucial for today's leaders. But excellence isn't easy - it takes commitment and repetition. Don't hesitate to seek help through coaching and training tailored to improving your time management abilities as a leader. I offer proven techniques to help leaders strike the right balance. Please reach out if you would like to discuss further!

Finding The Right Balance: Responsiveness vs. Focus as a Leader

In today's constantly connected world, it can be tempting as a leader to be overly responsive - checking email and messages constantly, never letting yourself fully focus on the task at hand. However, while responsiveness is important, there are also downsides to being too available and reactive. Leaders need to find the right balance between being responsive while also protecting their ability to focus.

The Dangers of Constant Connectivity

Technology today allows us to be more connected than ever before. Email, messaging apps, calendar notifications - they make it possible to respond in an instant. However, research shows this constant reactivity can be detrimental:

• Interrupting focus: Every time you context switch to respond to a message, you lose focus. This reduces productivity, creative thinking, and decision making.

• Increased stress: The pressure to respond immediately can be stressful, leading to burnout over time.

• Less strategic thinking: Reacting in the moment prevents leaders from stepping back and thinking long-term.

• Poor signal to others: Being instantly responsive reinforces others’ expectations for instant replies, which isn’t sustainable.

The Benefits of Focus

While responsiveness matters, research shows leaders also need time for deep focus:

• Improved thinking: Focus allows complex cognitive processes to occur, leading to more strategic thought.

• Greater efficiency: Longer periods of uninterrupted work increase productivity.

• Reduced stress: The ability to focus calms the mind and reduces anxiety.

• Increased innovation: New ideas flourish with space for reflection.

• Better example for others: Modeling focus over reactivity sets the tone for your team.

Best Practices for Balance

So how can leaders find the right balance? Here are some best practices:

• Set expectations: Be clear with your team on when you are generally available, and when you will be offline.

• Designate focus time: Block off chunks of time for focused work. Turn off notifications. Let others know this is sacred time.

• Schedule responsiveness: Set specific times you will check messages and communicate updates. Don't do it constantly.

• Prioritize connections: Respond quickly to the most important relationships and tasks. Let others know if delayed.

• Model behaviors: Demonstrate focus time yourself. Encourage it on your team. Lead by example.

• Use auto-replies: When offline, set an away message letting people know when you will respond next.

The Key Takeaway

The key for leaders is finding a rhythm that works - being responsive in a timely way while also protecting focus time. This balance enables you to be truly present and strategic, without neglecting important communications. The benefits are less stress, greater efficiency, and modeling effective behaviors for your team.

As you work on finding this balance, don't hesitate to seek help. Consider working with an executive coach who can provide strategies tailored to your leadership needs. I offer coaching to leaders looking to maximize their effectiveness through increased focus and responsiveness. Reach out anytime to learn more about how I can help.

The Immense Risks of Superficial Knowledge Gained From Frameworks Like SAFe

As an experienced agile coach who has worked with numerous organizations, I've seen many well-intentioned leaders place excessive faith in broad scaling frameworks like SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) without ever truly grasping the underlying depth behind many of the concepts, tools and practices encapsulated within these systems. This false sense of fluency breeds dangerous overconfidence without actual skill.

The appeal of frameworks like SAFe is they attempt to codify a comprehensive set of agile principles, mindsets, and mechanics into one neatly packaged, commercialized system. This structure can help initially guide teams seeking to scale beyond small standalone agile teams. However, in pursuit of complete end-to-end coherence, the teaching of each specific embedded agile practice or technique within SAFe is often extremely cursory, lacking the nuance needed for contextual application.

For example, SAFe broadly incorporates Team Topologies and cumulative flow diagrams but only at a superficial level. The immense richness behind why and how these instruments can be thoughtfully leveraged when scaling agile gets stripped away, missing the depth required to truly understand tradeoffs and translate the concepts into sustainable capability.

The predictable result is teams of leaders who perhaps attended a two-day SAFe course yet then arrogantly believe they now holistically comprehend all the intricate dynamics and mechanisms of the dozens of practices loosely enveloped under the SAFe umbrella. But in reality, their knowledge ends up being a mile wide but only an inch deep.

Of course, no single scaling framework could ever adequately teach every agile practice to a level of genuine proficiency within a short seminar. But exponential problems arise when leaders mistake this surface familiarity with SAFe's broad vocabulary for deep proficiency in the actual craft of agile delivery. Unwarranted confidence metastasizes in the absence of hard-won experience.

The risk is they then adamantly adhere to the prescriptive SAFe playbooks without tailoring approaches to their unique culture and delivery challenges, learning through experimentation, or investing in the gritty hands-on experience and skill development required to internalize agile concepts fully. SAFe becomes a hammer and all problems look like SAFe-compliant nails. But improvement doesn't stem from frameworks alone.

To be clear, when applied judiciously rather than dogmatically, scaling frameworks can offer tremendous value in getting large organizations aligned to a consistent foundational language and basic starting tool set. But sustainable agile transformation relies upon so much more than any one-size-fits-all framework can possibly encapsulate.

True mastery stems from understanding the situational tradeoffs of practices, and that necessitates rolling up your sleeves, testing approaches, and committing to deep lifelong learning tailored to your organization's specific needs far beyond any static playbooks. Agile fluency marks the starting line, not the finish line, of the continuous improvement journey.

Coaching to Move from SAFe Fluency to Agile Excellence

As an enterprise agility coach, I'm happy to advise teams seeking to move beyond SAFe fluency into truly internalizing world-class agile skill sets and evolving best practices tailored for their unique culture and environment.

Please reach out anytime if you'd like help building real capabilities that outlast trends, rather than just aligning to framework checklists. Let's connect if you want to discuss how to nurture the learning organization required to sustainably thrive beyond the surface. Your team deserves world-class coaching.

Do You Make This Common "Respect" Mistake That Destroys Company Culture?

Respect Does Not Mean Treating People Like Authority Figures

There is a quote that eloquently captures an important distinction when it comes to respect:

"Sometimes people use 'respect' to mean 'treating someone like a person' and sometimes they use 'respect' to mean 'treating someone like an authority.' And sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say 'if you won't respect me I won't respect you' and they mean 'if you won't treat me like an authority I won't treat you like a person.' They think they're being fair but they aren't, and it's not okay."

This quote deeply resonates with me as a coach who works with leaders and executives. I have seen many leaders who feel they inherently deserve respect simply because of their position or authority. They believe that respect means treating them like an unquestionable authority figure and following their directives without hesitation.

However, true respect first and foremost means treating people like human beings. It means showing care, empathy and consideration for their wellbeing. As a leader, you earn genuine respect by exhibiting integrity, listening intently to others, valuing diverse perspectives, and cultivating an environment of psychological safety where people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Unfortunately, some leaders have an overly authoritative mindset where they view employees merely as resources to control rather than complex humans to engage. These leaders care more about preserving their status and power than uplifting others. When their authority is challenged or questioned in any way, they retaliate by pulling the "respect" card.

In essence, these leaders knowingly or unknowingly stop respecting individuals who don't defer to their authority. They may ostracize, undermine, or even ultimately fire people who stand up to them. This authoritarian approach is entirely unfair and counterproductive. It breeds fear, stifles innovation, and leads to disengaged, demotivated teams who follow directives out of compliance rather than commitment.

Adopting a "Respect for People" Mindset

The most successful leaders I've worked with take a completely different "respect for people" approach. They:

• Seek to deeply understand before being understood

• Encourage candid feedback and diverse opinions without retaliation

• Admit when they're wrong and sincerely apologize for mistakes

• Empower others through coaching and mentorship

• Show humility rather than expecting deference from others

• Value growth, learning and excellence over status and power

• Lead with compassion, elevating others over self

This "respect for people" mindset is essential for building a culture of trust, engagement and high performance. If you want your team to bring their best selves to work each day, you must reconsider what respect really means in your own leadership style.Here are some tangible steps you can take:

• Listen without judgment: Give your full attention when others speak up. Don't interrupt or let your mind wander. Reflect back what you heard without inserting your own biases.

• Adopt a growth mindset: Believe that abilities and intelligence can be developed with effort. Praise the process, not just the outcomes.

• Encourage challenges: Invite alternative perspectives. Don't just surround yourself with "yes" people. Ask "What am I missing?"

• Appreciate unique skills: Recognize that each person brings value through their distinct talents, backgrounds, and experiences.

• Give up control: Enable others to take ownership of projects and decisions. Guide the mission, but let your team determine how to get there.

• Admit imperfections: Be vulnerable and authentic about your limitations. Your humanity will empower others.

The Bottom Line

If you want to earn genuine respect as a leader, let go of commanding authority and focus on elevating others. Lead with compassion, not control. Value each person as a complex human, not just a role. By adopting this "respect for people" mindset, you will build trust, engagement and excellence.

If you recognize areas where you need to grow in showing true respect as a leader, don't hesitate to seek help. Consider working with an executive coach who can provide an outside perspective and tailored guidance. I'd be happy to have a free introductory consultation to discuss your leadership goals. Please reach out if you would like to learn more about how I can help you develop your strengths while letting go of unproductive authority mindsets. The first step is acknowledging the need for change, and you have the power to become a more respected, inspiring leader.

Company Vision Just Profit and Growth? Your Leadership Sucks

Rethinking Business Vision and Mission

Many companies default to generic visions and missions focused on growth, profits, and being the best. But these strategies ring hollow. Real vision stems from purpose and values. Pursuing generic business goals reflects a lack of leadership and imagination.

The Problem with Default Business Thinking

Leaders often rely on tired tropes about growth, profits, and dominance when defining their company's vision and mission. But these table stakes goals fail to capture what makes a business unique and meaningful.

Prioritizing growth above all else is shortsighted. There are always limits to growth. What happens when you hit them? Likewise, every company wants to maximize profits and be the industry leader. But these generic aims do not differentiate you.

Defaulting to profit and dominance demonstrates a lack of creativity from leadership. It suggests the leaders do not fully understand the company's real purpose and reason for being.

Symptoms of Poor Leadership

Leaders who spout generic goals like growth and profitability as the vision and mission show their failure to think deeply about the business. They have not articulated what unique value their company brings to the world.

This lack of vision flows from poor leadership. Leaders are responsible for defining and communicating a compelling vision and purpose. Failure to do so suggests they do not understand the business, customers, and their role.

The downstream effects of poor vision are dire. Employees do not understand the strategy and lose motivation. Customers are not inspired by the muddled purpose. The organization spirals as no one can effectively execute the leader's non-existent vision.

Vision Flows from Purpose

Vision is the dream of the future your company helps create. It captures the change you make in the world. The most inspiring visions describe how you improve people's lives.

Vision grounded in purpose differentiates you and draws others to your cause. People want to be part of something bigger than themselves. A compelling vision stirs passion and fosters loyalty.

Crafting a Purpose-Driven Vision

To develop a purpose-driven vision, leaders must deeply understand the company's "why." Why does your business exist? What customer needs do you address? How do you improve lives?

With clarity of purpose, leaders can define a vision for change. Describe how the world will be different thanks to your company's work. Outline the positive impact on customers' lives.

An inspiring vision rallies people to a cause. It focuses efforts and drives meaningful progress versus simply chasing profits.

Values Guide the Path

While vision focuses on the destination, values define the journey. Your values reflect what behaviors and principles you uphold along the way.

Values-driven companies earn trust and goodwill. Customers and employees want to associate with businesses exhibiting integrity and corporate responsibility. Shared values create cultural cohesion.

Values-Based Leadership

Leaders must embody the values they espouse. Their actions and decisions should reflect the company's declared values.

When leaders walk the talk on values, they earn credibility and respect. Their example gives employees permission to act on shared values versus purely pursuing growth and profits.

Leaders must infuse values throughout the organization's culture. Hiring, promotions, policies and incentives should align with values. This consistency strengthens the company's moral fiber.

Leadership Calls for Courage

Developing vision and values requires moving beyond platitudes. It demands courage to define audacious goals for change and live by higher standards.

Visionary leaders imagine a better future and enlist others in its pursuit. They embody the values they espouse and inspire teams to align. This clarity of purpose propels companies forward.

Generic business goals demonstrate lack of vision. True leaders define an aspirational vision and lead with moral courage. They motivate teams to reach for more than mere profits. Purpose-driven companies make a real difference.

A Call to Action for Leaders

If your company vision consists of vague aspirations like growth and profits, it's time for introspection. Generic goals expose lack of leadership and imagination. As a leader, have the courage to clearly define your purpose and values. Outline how you uniquely improve lives and make a difference. Articulate the future you are building and principles that guide you. Share your purpose-driven vision and lead by example. Hire, promote and reward based on values alignment. Infuse your culture and motivate your team towards meaningful goals beyond profits.

Seek Help from a Coach

Self-reflection is difficult. An outside expert can provide perspective and advice to help you develop vision and values. Consider working with a leadership coach to unlock your full potential. As an executive coach with decades of experience, I can guide you on this journey. My coaching helps leaders discover their purpose, clarify their vision, and lead with authenticity. Please [reach out] to learn more about how I can help you grow as a purpose-driven leader. Small investments yield great rewards. Generic business goals demonstrate lack of vision. You have the power to define an inspiring vision focused on creating positive change. Purpose-driven leaders transform organizations and lives.

Overcoming Insecurity as a Leader

Insecurity can completely undermine even the most competent and experienced leaders. As a leader, your insecurities are often far more obvious to your team than you realize. Left unchecked, insecurity can corrode trust, provoke doubt, and limit your effectiveness.This post explores common insecure behaviors, why insecurity backfires, and how to overcome insecurity as a leader.

Insecure Behaviors to Avoid

Insecurity manifests in many subtle behaviors and communication patterns. Here are some of the most common to be aware of:

• Rambling or over-explaining: When insecure, leaders often ramble on to fill silence or over-explain simple concepts. This causes others to tune out.

• Controlling conversations: Insecure leaders often dominate conversations, interrupt frequently, or neglect to solicit input from others. This stifles healthy dialogue.

• Asserting authority unnecessarily: Saying things like "I'm the boss!" or emphasizing your authority in situations where it's already clear comes across as posturing.

• Repeating yourself: Repeating the same point multiple times screams self-doubt. It makes employees doubt your confidence.

• Acting like you know everything: No one knows everything. Refusing to admit knowledge gaps or limitations makes you seem arrogant and discourages questions.

• Not listening to feedback: Constructive feedback is invaluable for growth and self-awareness. Leaders who get defensive or refuse to listen to feedback appear insecure.

• Needing to be the hero: Insecure leaders often swoop in to solve problems personally that should be delegated. This suggests you need to be the hero.

• Taking credit: Insecure leaders take credit for successes that should be attributed to their team. This screams self-validation.

Why Insecurity Backfires

The root of insecurity is self-doubt. As a leader, any behavior that conveys self-doubt can undermine your credibility and make employees uneasy. People want confidence, vision, and decisiveness from their leaders. When you act insecure as a leader, common consequences include:

• Employees lose trust in your judgment: Self-doubt breeds distrust. Employees wonder if you have the judgment needed to make big calls.

• Employees doubt your competence: Insecurity makes you appear less capable in your role. Employees may question if you're qualified to lead.

• Employees feel you are not fit to lead: Overall, insecurity creates an impression that you lack the poise, confidence, and vision required in a leader.

• Employees get frustrated: Behaviors like repetition, rambling, and controlling dialogue frustrate employees and make them tune out.

• Employees hesitate to bring concerns: Insecure leaders who get defensive about feedback train employees not to bring concerns to them. This impedes communication.

• Insecurity perpetuates imposter syndrome: Struggling with self-doubt yourself makes employees doubt their own abilities and contributions.

In the end, the very doubts and undermining insecure leaders fear become self-fulfilling prophecies. Employees pick up on the cues and begin to doubt in turn.

Overcoming Insecurity as a Leader

The first step is acknowledging when your own insecurity gets triggered. Common triggers include new challenges, criticism, or situations that make you feel inexperienced. Once you notice insecurity arising, you can consciously choose more constructive responses.Here are some tips for overcoming insecurity as a leader:

• Accept that you'll never know everything. No leader is an expert across all domains. Admitting knowledge gaps shows maturity and humility. Employees respect transparency about limitations.

• Focus outward, not inward. Insecure thoughts often run in loops like "Do they like me? What if I'm not qualified?" Practice redirecting your focus outward to your team's needs and goals.

• Don't take feedback personally. Feedback is about improving, not about you as a person. Let go of ego and listen openly.

• Surround yourself with trusted advisors. Bounce ideas off mentors and peers you trust. They can reality test you when insecurity warps perspective.

• Work on emotional intelligence (EQ). Insecurity often stems from poor EQ. Self-awareness, empathy, vulnerability, and relationship skills help immensely.

• Get a leadership coach. Coaches provide unbiased support to identify blindspots and overcome insecurity triggers as a leader.

• Remember employees look to you. Focus on modeling the confidence, poise, and vision you expect from leaders. Employees take cues from you.

With self-reflection and conscious effort, leaders can keep insecurity in check. The first step is noticing when insecurity arises. From there, redirect your focus to leading effectively by seeking input, playing to your strengths, and developing self-awareness. Model the mindset and behaviors you expect from your team.

Conclusion

Insecurity is common among leaders, but it can sabotage you when unchecked. Through self-awareness and focusing outward on your team's needs, leaders can overcome insecurity. The right support and a commitment to growth helps leaders cultivate the confidence and poise that inspires others to follow.

As a leader, take time to reflect on when you feel insecure and how it impacts your leadership. Identify 1-2 specific insecure behaviors you want to work on. Share these insights with a trusted mentor or coach and create an action plan to practice responding constructively when insecurity arises. Small mindset shifts go a long way.

If insecurity is holding you back as a leader, a professional coach can provide unbiased guidance tailored to your needs. Coaching helps leaders gain self-awareness, improve emotional intelligence, and develop new leadership skills. Reach out to learn more about how coaching can accelerate your leadership growth. What steps will you take today to become the leader your team deserves? Don't let insecurity fester - you owe it to your team to proactively strengthen your leadership.

Do You Frequently Interrupt and Demand Quick Replies? The Monumental Cost to Productivity

In our permanently "always on" digital work culture, it's incredibly tempting to constantly interrupt people without warning through calls or messages and expect instant responses. But this short-term compulsive communication style directly sabotages productivity, creativity, decision quality and job satisfaction. As a leader, you have an obligation to model patience, presence and respect for people's time.

The Profound Perils of Interruption Culture Run Amok

When you interrupt people unexpectedly through digital channels or calls, several severe consequences inevitably ensue:

• You completely break their state of focused flow and impede their ability to do thoughtful, concentrated work. Achieving a flow state requires deep immersion that interruptions rupture. It takes significant time post-interruption to re-achieve that peak state of engagement. Time squandered.

• You force an unplanned, disruptive, mentally fatiguing context switch onto their priorities and tasks. They must shift gears to your topic before circling back. This fractures their work, hampers innovative thinking that builds over time, and delays difficult tasks that require commitment.

• You directly eat into their overall capacity for planned work by consuming time and mental energy around the interruptions and the added context switching time required after your discussion to try getting back on track. Focus lost is gone forever.

• Through frequent interruptions you contribute to substantially diminished morale, frustration, burnout and muted engagement when you disrupt workflows repeatedly. Death by a thousand cuts.

• You signal through your actions that your own needs and urgency of timeline matter most, superseding their priorities. This disempowers people and compromises autonomy and focus required for mastery.

In aggregate, constant unexpected interruptions fundamentally sabotage productivity, creativity, decision quality, psychological safety and job satisfaction. Leaders undermine the very outcomes they seek through this reflexive communication compulsion. Patience produces results.

Practical Tactics to Improve Your Availability Practices and Respect People's Time

Here are some pragmatic ideas and tactics to help you become radically more thoughtful and respectful of people's precious time, attention and mental energy:

• When possible, briefly ask if now represents a good time to talk or jump on a quick call before interrupting unannounced. This demonstrates courtesy.

• For non-urgent discussions or questions, proactively schedule time on people's calendars in advance rather than interrupting workflow unexpectedly. This honors their priorities.

• If an interruption is truly unavoidable due to urgency, politely apologize up front for interrupting them unexpectedly and acknowledge you recognize the inconvenience.

• If they seem crunched for time, offer to pick back up any conversation you interrupted later at a time that better suits their schedule. Make it easy to refocus.

• Empathize with their unique priorities and timelines, not just your own impulse to get quick answers. Their work deserves equal respect.

With care, patience and discipline, you demonstrate through your availability practices that you recognize your team's precious time deserves utmost respect and protection. Your communication culture directly shapes productivity. Model the mindset and rhythms you aim to see your organization embody.

Executive Coaching to Develop Self-Aware, Empowering Leadership

As an executive coach, I'm happy to advise on leading effectively and intentionally in an increasingly digital-first asynchronous world. Please don't hesitate to reach out anytime if you'd like to work together toward raising collective productivity, satisfaction, and innovation on your team. You deserve to become your best self, and your people deserve that person.

What Does Constantly Filling Silence Reveal About You as a Leader?

Many well-intentioned leaders feel an almost compulsive need to constantly fill any momentary silence or gaps in conversations and meetings, reflexively jumping in the instant no voice is heard. But this common tendency inadvertently reveals far more about you and your emotional intelligence than you intend.

The deep-seated fear of allowing silence exposes confidence gaps and insecurity. Executives and managers who impulsively fill any quiet moment signal to their teams:

• Impatience - An apparent inability to patiently wait, listen fully, and allow others to collect their thoughts before responding reflects poorly on your temperament, self-control and respect for others.

• Arrogance - Filling every gap quickly with your own voice conveys an inflated sense that your views and solutions matter most, crowding out other perspectives.

• Condescension - Consistently jumping in rapidly assumes that others need your guidance and wisdom to constructively proceed with discussions or decisions. This suggests you see your team as dependent on you always leading the way.

• Anxiety - Feeling discomfort with even brief moments of silence and constantly filling them shows you lack confidence in your presence and cannot stand stillness. Silence unnerves you.

• Micromanagement - When you immediately fill gaps, it hints that you fail to trust your team and feel the need to tightly orchestrate all interactions. This prevents empowerment.

• Interruption - Frequently talking over people or cutting them off mid-sentence demonstrates a lack of active listening and inherent respect for others' diverse viewpoints. You signal that your voice matters most.

• Narcissism - The apparent need to make every discussion center around your opinions and commentary inherently crowds out space for others' voices to contribute meaningfully. This marginalizes teammates.

• Reactivity - The urge to instantaneously respond or redirect each conversation shows a lack of discipline and self-control. It depicts you thinking and reacting intermittently rather than operating with focus and intention.

The more leaders feel the urge to constantly fill silence out of anxiety and ego, the weaker their ultimate influence, presence and impact become. The most inspiring leaders understand the immense communicative power that harnessing silence strategically provides when used judiciously.

How to Recognize Discomfort with Silence

Pay attention to your stress levels during natural conversational pauses. Do you feel rising tension or anxiety? Do you rush to speak just to ease this discomfort? If so, you likely have underdeveloped confidence with silence.

How to Identify Your Own Voice Filling Gaps

Record meetings and listen back for patterns. Are you consistently the first to speak after every gap? Do you interrupt or talk over others frequently? If so, you likely over-rely on your voice due to silence aversion.

Techniques to Get Comfortable with Silence

Start practicing silence meditations to enhance self-awareness. Take pauses during conversations before responding. Go for walks without headphones to embrace natural quiet. Initiate one-to-one silent moments to normalize silence.

Tactics to Build Silence Muscles in Meetings

In meetings, allow others to speak first after gaps. Count to 7 in your head before filling silence yourself. Ask questions but don’t immediately reply. Thank participants who allow space for reflection.

The more leaders feel the urge to constantly fill silence out of anxiety and ego, the weaker their ultimate influence, presence and impact become. The most inspiring leaders understand the immense communicative power that harnessing silence strategically provides when used judiciously.

Executive Coaching to Develop Composure and Confident Presence

If you recognize yourself over-relying on your own voice to fill space and dominate interactions due to discomfort with silence, executive coaching can provide the ideal outside support to develop greater emotional intelligence, executive presence, active listening skills and communication excellence.

Please don't hesitate to reach out anytime if you see opportunity to grow your comfort with silence to empower yourself and your team. True poise and personal influence start with self-awareness - I'm happy to help. With practice, silence speaks louder than words.

Are You Truly Comfortable with Silence as a Leader?

In our increasingly busy, rushed, and distraction-filled digital work world, periods of silence can sometimes feel painfully awkward. We anxiously rush to fill any momentary conversational void or lag during meetings. But the most influential and emotionally intelligent leaders understand and embrace the unique power of deploying strategic silence to listen, project confidence, and empower others.

Common Causes of Discomfort with Silence

Many well-intentioned leaders and managers see silence as:

• Unproductive, representing zero active progress or forward momentum, wasting precious time. Silence makes them antsy.

• Intimidating, with mounting pressure to chime in or speak up building as gaps go unfilled. Silence spurs stage fright.

• Risky, as extended silence might cause others to disengage, get bored, or deem you as lacking ideas. Silence seems dangerous.

This instinctive aversion fuels nervous, constant chatter - speaking simply to fill space, lest anyone become bored or impatient in the absence of a voice. But silence breeds anxiety and undermines influence only when misused passively. Wielded strategically, silence conveys confidence.

The Multitude of Benefits Strategically Leveraging Silence Provides Leaders

When used with purpose at appropriate moments, embracing silence opens up space for magic to happen:

• Silence enables active, engaged listening - you hear people fully without interruption or distraction, absorbing their messages.

• Silence provides time for careful, thoughtful processing before thoughtfully responding - pausing allows insights to crystallize.

• Silence grabs attention and builds eager anticipation and engagement from groups - pausing intrigues.

• Silence empowers and emboldens others to confidently fill communication gaps themselves - people rise to trust.

Silence amplifies the resonance and impact of spoken messages when deliberately incorporated. With practice, silence truly speaks volumes.

Leadership Tactics to Start Effectively Leveraging the Power of Silence

Here are some impactful yet simple ways busy leaders can learn to utilize silence more effectively:

• Get comfortable allowing some silence to manifest during meetings - resist the urge to immediately fill every momentary gap in conversations. Learn to savor silence.

• After asking an insightful open-ended question, make it a point to slowly count to at least 5 in your head before even considering jumping back in to fill dead air.

• When others go silent during exchanges, learn to appreciate these gaps as productive thinking time where they are processing and formulating responses, rather than cueing you to speak.

• After making an important point, consciously let your words fully land with people before immediately moving on or redirecting the conversation. Reflection requires space.

Wielding silence with skill and confidence demonstrates you lead on your own terms, not out of reflexive fear. Reflection requires space. With consistent practice, silence gains gravitas to amplify your messages when deployed judiciously at the right moments.

Coaching to Develop Confident, Composed Communication

Need help becoming more comfortable leveraging the unique power of silence to communicate vision, lead meetings, and relate to your team as an executive? I offer focused coaching for leaders seeking to master critical emotional intelligence, executive presence, and communication skills. Please don't hesitate to reach out anytime if you would like to discuss working together. Wielding silence and space opens up new frontiers for your leadership impact. Let's connect.

Rethinking “Common Sense” as a Decision-Making Guide

“Common sense” has a deceptively comforting ring, evoking accumulated wisdom gleaned from lived experience and “simpler times.” But in truth, relying solely on common sense as your compass often leads to dangerously poor judgments and assumptions. While personal experiences provide one useful data point, true wisdom integrates broad, diverse perspectives.

The Flawed Notion of “Common” Sense

So-called common sense suggests judgments based on what seems obvious and self-evident from your specific background and limited life observations. But it suffers from severe shortcomings:

• It presumes that most people share your singular views, which is rarely the case in a complex world. In reality, different vantage points yield entirely different “common sense” conclusions.

• It recklessly extrapolates universal truths about issues from your own highly limited, subjective experiences and anecdotal information. There are typically exceptions.

• It conveniently aligns with your inherent confirmation biases that favor facts conforming to your existing worldview and discount contradicting evidence.

• It often lacks broader contextual facts, nuance, alternate hypotheses, and empirical testing required to determine causality versus correlation.

• It frequently conflicts with scientific consensus, rigorous data analysis, and subject matter expertise that reveal more complex dynamics.

Relying solely on “common sense” dangerously neglects to reality test your assumptions and mental models against alternative explanations. It breeds false confidence in gut reactions and facilitates decisions founded on intellectual quicksand.

Cultivating Broader, Evidence-Based Perspective

The attached Psychology Today article by Jim Taylor Ph.D. neatly encapsulates the inherent need to move beyond “common sense” alone if leaders wish to form accurate, nuanced perspectives. Some key principles include:

• Maintain an open, growth-oriented mindset willing to reach conclusions that may contradict your pre-existing hunches, assumptions or expectations. Don’t let bias limit input.

• Proactively hypothesize multiple, alternative explanations for outcomes, not just those you intuitively favor or wish to be true. Welcome having your beliefs constructively challenged.

• Seek out and collect a large, highly diverse sample of perspectives, data points and information. Don’t just ask those who you already know share all of your current views and biases.

• Commit to analyzing any information you receive completely objectively, not just selectively looking for data to affirm your preliminary opinions. Let facts guide conclusions, not the reverse.

• Draw reasoned conclusions predicated on synthesizing insights from a rigorous, inclusive inquiry process, not emotion, convention or groupthink.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201107/common-sense-is-neither-common-nor-sense

True Wisdom Requires Integrating Broad Inputs

While your past experiences and observations provide one very useful vantage point, true wisdom integrates a mosaic of many different sources of data, ideation, and expertise before reaching conclusions or choosing courses of action. Any leader who dismissively claims “common sense” alone is sufficient reveals their own profound intellectual limitations.

Lasting progress requires humility about how much you don’t know, comfort with ambiguity, intellectual curiosity about different worldviews, and skill synthesizing diverse perspectives - abilities executive coaching can directly strengthen. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you need any support combating the immense perils of relying solely on “common sense” as a decision-making guide. Our shared growth depends on moving far beyond the gaps and biases inherent in any one person’s subjective life experience. A bigger world awaits.

What are You Saying? Listen to Yourself for Self-Awareness

When's the last time you really actively listened to a recording of your own voice, communication style and behaviors? If you’re like most people, it may have been a while, if ever.

Many of us instinctively cringe at the idea of hearing recordings of our own interactions at meetings, public speaking, client calls, and so on. The sound of our own voice often makes us painfully self-conscious, bringing out our inner critic. But if we can learn to listen to ourselves with openness, empathy and the intent to learn, reviewing recordings can massively expand self-awareness and emotional intelligence.

Our Natural Discomfort with the Sound of Our Own Voice

Most of us experience immediate discomfort when initially hearing audio or video of our own voice played back during recordings of interactions. We tend to pick up on every pause, diction imperfection, awkward phrase, and nervous tic. We judge ourselves far more harshly than we typically judge others.

This ingrained discomfort and self-criticism often causes many leaders to avoid listening to recordings of themselves altogether after an initial unpleasant experience, robbing them of invaluable opportunities for growth.

The key mindset shift is to learn to listen to yourself with the same self-compassion you would extend to a peer, direct report or friend, not the amplified self-judgement your inner critic projects. This takes mindfulness but allows you to extract lessons.

The Wealth of Insights Recordings Can Provide When Reviewed With Balance

If analyzed objectively, recordings of your communication and leadership presence provide unique insights you cannot easily gain elsewhere:

• You may pick up on subtle but important unintended tones that wrongly imply emotions, indifference or judgement you aren't actually feeling internally. These inadvertent slip ups can undermine trust.

• You can spot unproductive patterns such as frequently interrupting people, not letting others fully finish thoughts before interjecting, failing to ask real open-ended questions, etc.

• You can assess effectiveness and impact of different aspects of your communication style based on how others in the recording react and respond in real-time.

• You can analyze whether you tend to over-explain concepts or points repeatedly. Self-listening surfaces blind spots.

• You can determine from air time whether you share the conversational space appropriately or dominate discussions. Silences speak volumes.

Without listening to yourself, it remains almost impossible to accurately gauge the holistic impact of your presence, words and behaviors on others. Listening courageously lets you be your own mirror for growth.

NOTE: Before recording anything make sure you know the law about recording for where you live. Remember these recordings are for private use only.

Healthy Ways Leaders Can Build Self-Listening to Boost Self-Awareness

Here are some best practices and tactics to guide productive self-listening for maximizing learning:

• Occasionally record short snippets of 1-on-1 meetings, virtual team meetings, webinars or conference presentations. But notify participants politely in advance and ask their permission.

• Analyze patterns and themes vs. over-criticizing one-off mistakes when reviewing. Look for trends and consistency. Remember that everyone mispeaks.

• Balance taking notes on both effective areas of strength as well as opportunities for improvement. Strive for a constructive ratio.

• Remind yourself frequently to focus commentary on specific fact-based behaviors you can change, not imagined traits about who you are as a person. Avoid faulty self-assessments.

• Note 1-2 concrete things you would recommend to someone else if you were coaching them to address similar patterns witnessed in the recording. This objectivity fuels progress.

With consistency and the right constructive mindset, regularly scheduling time to listen to yourself fuels dramatic positive growth by increasing self-awareness and emotional intelligence. All leaders have room for improvement when it comes to mastering high-impact communication. Be your own trusted mentor.

An Outside Listening Ear: Coaching for Communication Excellence

Need a neutral, experienced executive coach to lend an objective outside ear to share candid observations on your communication style and leadership presence based on recordings? I’m happy to listen collaboratively and provide entirely constructive feedback tailored to your growth goals.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to discuss how we could potentially partner. You keep expanding as a leader when you stay curious about yourself and keep dedicating time to active self-improvement. Personal growth never stops when we commit to lifelong learning. My door is always open.

Do You Talk Too Much? The Critical Importance of Listening as a Leader

The most effective leaders view communication as a two-way street, listening at least as much as they speak. But in our ego-driven business culture that rewards and even idolizes extroversion, many default to talking too much and listening too little. Here’s how to spot this tendency in yourself and cultivate deeper, more mindful listening skills.

There’s an old adage stating that we as humans have two ears and only one mouth. The inherent implication is that we should aim to listen twice as much as we talk. This wisdom rings even more true for leaders and executives responsible for building trust, spurring innovation, developing talent, and unlocking others’ potential.

Warning Signs You May Be Talking Too Much and Listening Too Little

If you find yourself exhibiting some of the following patterns, it likely indicates areas where you can stand to improve your communication ratios by reducing excessive talking and increasing thoughtful listening:

• You frequently jump in quickly when others are already speaking, sometimes even interrupting people outright before they can complete their thought.

• You often catch yourself barely listening, but rather waiting and looking for the next possible break to interject whatever you want to say, rather than truly absorbing what the other person is expressing.

• You finish people’s sentences for them, assuming you already know exactly what they will say based on the few words you heard.

• If you were to review detailed notes after meetings, you’d observe that you personally dominated well over 50% of the overall airtime, talking over peers.

• You feel impatient, distracted, and tempted to redirect the conversation when discussion centers on topics that do not particularly interest you.

• You find yourself repeatedly reiterating the same points multiple times to try to ensure your perspectives land and sink in with others.

These types of patterns clearly reveal you have ample areas for improvement when it comes to exhibiting openness, curiosity and presence through more mindful listening rather than simply waiting for your next turn to promote your own views.

The Multitude of Benefits More Active Listening Provides Leaders

Making a concerted effort to increase listening while reducing excessive talking yields profound benefits:

• You build far deeper and more trusting relationships when others feel heard and respected.

• You surface more diverse insights, perspectives, concerns and opportunities through uninterrupted conversations.

• You quickly identify emerging needs, grievances, roadblocks and disconnects early before they escalate.

• You powerfully model openness and interest in others that everyone else you lead will then emulate.

• You defuse unnecessary conflicts and tensions before they metastasize by hearing people out.

When leaders consciously listen first with presence and care before speaking, their words hold exponentially greater weight and influence. Talk less, accomplish more.

Actionable Ways Leaders Can Start to Improve Their Listening Ratios:

Here are some tactical steps you can take to become a better listener by redistributing conversational airtime from excessive talking to deeper listening:

• Set an initial goal to listen 70-80% of the time during most meetings rather than defaulting to a 50/50 split. This means talking 20-30% or less.

• Ask more thoughtful, open-ended questions during discussions then make sure to pause and truly listen to the full responses before replying.

• After important meetings, review your notes objectively – is the balance of documented viewpoints heavily weighted toward your own perspectives versus a diversity of stakeholders?

• Make a point to thank other participants for their unique insights and explicitly mention something valuable you learned from what they shared, even if you disagree.

• Reflect on why you felt compelled to interrupt someone else - what insecurity or need is driving that impulse? Then consciously resist the temptation the next time the urge arises.

The more leaders intentionally embody patience and curiosity through their listening, the richer insights they will gain. While becoming a better listener requires awareness and practice, active listening builds all relationships and pays dividends for life.

Executive Coaching to Develop Active Listening and Communication Excellence

Need additional support and guidance improving your listening abilities and ratios as a leader? I offer executive coaching engagements tailored to leaders seeking to hone emotional intelligence skills like mindful communication, empathy and self-awareness. Please don't hesitate to reach out anytime if you'd like to discuss how we could potentially collaborate. Listening forms the very foundation for impactful leadership and human relationships. My door is always open.

The Transformative Power of Committing to Ongoing Self-Reflection

In our increasingly busy lives full of endless tasks, distractions, and pressures, it’s easy to operate perpetually on autopilot. We rush from meeting to meeting, e-mail to e-mail, and project to project without ever pausing to reflect. But regularly stepping back to deeply reflect is absolutely vital for personal and professional improvement, growth, and clarity. Carving out time to honestly examine your thoughts, decisions, priorities and progress enables course correction and actualization of your full potential.

The Multitude of Benefits Reflection Provides

Dedicated time for self-reflection delivers profound and multidimensional advantages:

• Assesses how well (or not) your daily activities and time investments actually align with your core values, mission, purpose, and overarching goals. Shows where they may have drifted out of alignment.

• Provides penetrating insights on improving all aspects of your decision making, time allocation, daily habits, communication style, and leadership presence based on objective outcomes and facts rather than fleeting subjective emotions.

• Allows adjustments and course correcting when needed based on rational analysis of real outcomes rather than making decisions based on temporary feelings or intuition.

• Fuels greater self-awareness regarding your leadership style, level of emotional intelligence, communication approach, and the tangible impact you have on peers, colleagues, and direct reports.

• Offers valuable opportunity to fully process experiences, emotions, tensions, failures and highlights before immediately moving onto the next challenge or fight. Prevents burnout.

• Provides broader perspective on what’s truly working well versus areas ripe for refinement or improvement. Outside the fray, the path ahead comes into focus.

Without periodic reflection, we quickly lose sight of our why behind the what of all the activities that fill our days. Voices of self-deception start to dominate as we justify shortcuts and assumptions rather than reality testing them. Reflection provides objectivity.

Small, Manageable Ways to Incorporate More Tactical Self-Reflection

Here are some simple, pragmatic ways to integrate more frequent bite-sized self-reflection into your life and leadership practice:

• Schedule 15-30 minutes at the end of a major project, initiative, event or milestone to conduct a lessons learned analysis. Identify key strategic and operational takeaways.

• Keep a daily reflection journal, either written or audio recorded, to help process experiences, tensions, conflicts, failures, emotions and ideas. Externalizing your inner landscape brings order.

• Block time on your calendar periodically for unstructured thinking time free of meetings, e-mails, calls or other distractions. Let ideas percolate.

• Take a quarterly half day or annual solo retreat strictly to reflect on what worked well, where you’re off track, and defining next steps and goals.

• Enlist a trusted mentor, coach, or advisor to share candid observations, provide an external mirror, and ask probing reflective questions. Different perspectives stimulate insights.

The key is to start small – even 5-10 minutes of daily reflection alone can spur major cumulative benefits when done with consistency. Over time self-reflection will feel natural, not forced.

Make Tactical Reflection a Personal and Team Ritual

Reflection should never be viewed as an unnecessary luxury or indulgent distraction. Like any muscle, your reflective abilities and self-awareness grow exponentially stronger through regular short intervals of focused exercise.

To avoid losing perspective and your way amidst the inherent busyness and chaos of life, take time now to intentionally institute space for reflection. Treat it as sacrosanct. When reflection becomes a habitual ritual, you’ll reap the compounded benefits for years to come. Lasting progress requires regular perspective.

Coaching to Accelerate Your Reflective Leadership

If you need a trusted thought partner to help you carve out time for self-examination or make reflection a team ritual, I’m here. As an executive coach, I provide proven tools, frameworks, and support for leaders seeking deeper self-awareness and commitment to continual improvement at both individual and organizational levels.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you would like to discuss coaching or any aspect of elevating reflection in your leadership practice - I’m happy to help. Investing in self-understanding through reflection is quite possibly the wisest and highest-yield investment you can make in your growth. The time is now.

Surround Yourself with Courageous Truth-Tellers, Not Sycophantic “Yes Men”

As leaders rise through the ranks, they often find themselves increasingly surrounded solely by supporters who agree with everything they say and crave their approval. This insular echo chamber effect can lead to dangerously ill-informed decisions and stagnated growth if left unchecked. Here’s how to proactively ensure you have access to hard truths.

The Perils of Insular Leadership Devoid of Dissent

When executives and senior managers hear only positive feedback, validation, and endorsements of their perspectives, several risks emerge:

• You become overconfident in your own ideas, strategies, and capabilities since no one questions your thinking or challenges your assumptions. Blind spots grow unchecked.

• You lack access to diverse points of view that could profoundly broaden your worldview and leadership mindset. Information diversity fuels innovation.

• You stop developing critical thinking skills and stop growing as a leader without candid critique stress testing your logic and mental models against reality. Intellectual muscles atrophy.

• You begin making poorly informed, suboptimal decisions without the benefit of devil’s advocates who surface smart counter perspectives you need to hear but don’t know exist.

• People on your team start withholding constructive dissent and feedback that could dramatically help you, the leadership team, and the entire organization out of fear of potential repercussions of honesty. Truth-tellers become an endangered species.

Leaders who surround themselves solely with supporters telling them what they want to hear quickly lose touch and perspective. Their growth stagnates. They sow the seeds of their own demise.

Proactive Tactics to Continuously Elicit Unfiltered Feedback and Input

Here are some intentional tactics and strategies to solicit unfiltered input and insight, even if difficult to hear:

• Carefully examine your own reactions when someone questions or disagrees with you. Do you become defensive, irritable, or feel the urge to override them? Make sure you truly seek first to listen and deeply understand dissenting perspectives before reacting. Remain open to being wrong.

• Explicitly reward contrarian thinking and constructive pushback from your team. Make it safe for people to civilly and thoughtfully challenge your assumptions without fear of negative repercussions. Invite dissenting views.

• During meetings, proactively ask probing questions like “what are we missing here?” and “what are potential downsides or risks we haven’t fully considered?” to draw out objections and ensure all perspectives are aired. Disagreement shouldn’t feel threatening.

• Occasionally poll team members privately to surface concerns, doubts, or ideas they may not be comfortable sharing publicly yet. Anonymous input often highlights blind spots.

• Bring in external advisors, coaches, consultants, and subject matter experts with differentiated thinking and outsider perspectives into key meetings and decisions. They ask fresh questions and are unafraid to challenge groupthink.

• Carefully and open-mindedly read anonymous employee engagement survey feedback. Look for patterns and recurring themes. Then publicly share key takeaways and actions to build trust in the process.

• Watch for the clear warning signs of groupthink taking root such as lack of dissent, desire for harmony overriding realistic debate, and people self-censoring themselves from deviating from perceived consensus. Then actively encourage team members to take on the contrarian role.

Hearing critical feedback and accepting that your initial thinking may be flawed or incomplete is a sign of substantial strength and wisdom, not weakness. As leaders, we cannot grow and reach our potential without truths we may not like or want to hear. But we must hear them.

Who Will You Empower to Tell You the Hard Things You Need to Hear?

Surrounding yourself with emotionally intelligent team members armed with the courage and confidence to tactfully provide contrarian perspectives represents an incredible competitive advantage for any leader committed to continuous improvement. Allowing dissent helps ensure blind spots don’t devolve into pitfalls.

If you need guidance making it psychologically safe for people to constructively disagree and push back without fear at your organization, executive coaching provides external support perfectly tailored to your culture, leadership style and emotional intelligence blind spots. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to discuss how we could potentially collaborate. With the right team around you willing to speak hard truths, the sky is the limit on what you can achieve. But first you must show you can handle the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable.