Freeze?!

It's winter - let's talk about the FREEZE!
Does your boss do this?  Freeze?
When it's time to make a decision, do they just walk away and not decide?
When they hear the President is coming to visit, do they just stop and not know what to do next?
When they are confronted with a problem or by a customer, do they just abdicate to someone else?
I call this the freeze.
Unlike the polar bear, this boss/leader does not like the lonely cold, even though they signed up for it when they started out in the world of work.
It can happen at any level...the situation will not go away unless you deal with it to resolution.  You can not run from it or ignore it...fixing the problem, handling the customer, making a decision is the only way to move forward.
Like the polar bear in the picture, you may need to tread lightly and be very careful about where you are going, but you can get there...just try.
Stay warm.

The Season

Blessings of the Season from our house to yours.

the Leadership NOT to Do Team

Competitiveness - Is It In You?

Does your leader do all the heavy lifting or do they just think they do?

Are they afraid to compete with you so they keep you locked down on projects that take little effort and provide even less challenge?  What happens to make a leader lose their competitiveness?

Leaders can get caught in the trap of competing with their team because the have a fear that the team can out-do them, even surpass them or get promoted around them.  Unfortunately, this type of competitiveness will not drive the organization forward...it could cause good people to leave.  There needs to be a balance between challenge and effort; competition for the sake of development.

Leaders can also lose their competitive edge in the market, become complacent and forget that to stay competitive, they need to stay visible, keep learning, keep listening and keep innovating.

What to do?  Show the leader that you are all one team...competition is healthy and helps development of everyone.  Especially in the market - devise a strategy that can help keep everyone in touch with the competition and the changing environment in your business.  Everyone will benefit, including your customers.

Worry or Stifle

It often happens that leaders get caught up in the worry and start to stifle the ideas that flow around them.

Worry can cause leaders to refuse to open their eyes (or their mind) and see around or over roadblocks, consider other perspectives or even alternative solutions....their worry leads back in a circle to themselves.

They are concerned more with how they will look by taking a new path, they worry about how they will be perceived by their peers if they take the advice or draw on the perspective of others.  They worry what the consequences will be if they take an alternative route to a solution.

What to do?  Help the leader see that they can spend a few minutes sorting out all the 'what ifs ' of the worry?  What if exercises can be both in positive or negative voice.
What if the project fails?
What if the alternative solution makes us more profitable?
What if my peers see me taking the advice of the team?


This helps guide the leader to understand -what's the worst that could happen but also what's the best that could happen, while at the same time taking time to learn along the way.

Meeting Boy

Yes, I am on Twitter...and I follow quite a few interesting people. One of my favourites is Meeting Boy!  @meetingboy

He tells great stories..especially on Fridays.  Quick quips that keep you in stitches, and he invites everyone to share their meeting horror stories!  And many NOT to Do stories.

Check out his blog: http://meetingboy.com/

Guaranteed Laugh!

The 3 Hour 30 Minute Meeting

Would you like to have one of these at your next meeting?

If you have a boss like I had long ago, they would call a 'quick' 30 minute meeting....
....and we never got out in under less than 3 hours!  And everyone in the department, no matter what the role, was required to attend.

What a waste of time!  We ended up calling this the 'M' Meeting!

Having a meeting without a purpose or agenda, it was all about feather-fluffing and her talking about what she just did or what she still has to learn and why she (meaning us) is always behind on every project.

Not fun!

What to do?  Let the boss know that an agenda would be appreciated so that you can prepare for the meeting.  Also, request that your team need not attend because you would be happy to provide the meeting details and action steps so they can keep working on the project at hand, keeping productivity moving efficiently.