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I have a slightly different take than some others on the following quotation from Teddy Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in…
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When the next opportunity arrives, it will be too late to start becoming the person who can seize it. Here are a few things you can do right now to begin preparing to outgrow your current role. If you have little margin: ✅ Identify one small habit you can begin practicing that will strengthen your…
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You wouldn’t sprint a mile like you would speed through 100 meters. You wouldn’t run a marathon the way you’d run a 5k. If you try to give 100% all day every day, you’ll burn out. Employees who are asked to give 90% tend to outperform those who are asked to give 100%. Sometimes, you…
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I read an article last week that proposed a remedy to toxic workplaces. A simple summary was that if managers would just be ethical and moral, then toxicity would disappear from our corporate settings. But some of the most painful events can be the result of sincere but ignorant behaviors. More than once I’ve made…
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“They know what they need to do; they’re just not doing it.” That was how someone judged their team members in a recent conversation. The person wanted to know how they could get the people on their team to step up and pull their weight. Some were producing results, and others weren’t. I asked about…
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As I work with growing leaders, one challenge we often work on is speaking with confidence to peers and senior leaders. 🤔 “I think…”🤔 “My opinion is…”🤔 “I’m not 100% sure …”🤔 “I could be wrong, but…” Part of overcoming impostor syndrome and becoming a more effective leader is learning to put an end to…
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“Why won’t they let us hire someone?” Losing a team member stings. Besides the emotional pain of feeling that someone has abandoned you, you also face a new logistical challenge of getting the work done with fewer people. Your natural response is to try to put things back the way they were — to hire…
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“Steve, it’s only fair to let you know this. I never cut anyone from my soccer team, and you’ll be able to wear a jersey and sit on the bench, but you probably won’t get much time on the field.” That was not what I wanted to hear after soccer tryouts in my senior year…
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Humility, Inclusion, Compassion, Servant Leadership, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), etc. … Someone once told me, “Steve, you’re one of the nicest people I know.” When I heard that, I thought I must really be doing well at all of those contemporary leadership “soft skills.” But that’s not what it meant. Sometimes a leader can become so…
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I had success all wrong. As an individual software developer, when my code did what it was supposed to do, the way it was supposed to do it, that was success. Then I became a leader of software developers. In that role, when our team project delivered what it was supposed to deliver, the way…
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Before I write this, let me check if I got a response to my question yet. Oh, and I needed to order more paper for the printer. And there are those three unchecked boxes on my to-do list. They’ll only take me about five minutes each and they’re just nagging me! Even if you use…
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Some leaders want to advance in their career. They make a pitch that they get good results and their team members and coworkers are happy. They connect with other departments to gain visibility and let other teams know they’re open to bigger opportunities. They tell their boss they want to be the first person in…