“Well this is garbage, we’ll have to start this over from the beginning…” When I heard my client, Trish, say that to one of her team members my heart sank. I immediately looked at the designer’s face and saw that she was barely holding back tears. Trish was trying to be helpful. She didn’t see…
I usually hear this from clients right after they hire a new person. “I’m pulling my hair out! After spending three months interviewing candidates, and checking references, I thought this person was going to be PERFECT for this job.” “But it’s their first week and every single thing they’ve done has been messed up…and it’s…
Tuesday I wrote to you about “Joshua,” a young employee who had taken the initiative to make himself several different roles within my client’s company. He was filling holes that he saw in what needed to be done, sometimes dropping some balls in the process. My client was frustrated with his performance. I used Joshua’s…
As the boss, you get to see daily progress. When a deal closes, or a project finishes up, you know it. When a client is excited about the changes you made for them, you hear their praise. You have access to a lot of positive feedback that the rest of your team doesn’t see or…
I’m so grateful for those who have written in the last few weeks. I’ve gotten a bunch of positive responses like this one from Byron, When you decided to increase your emails to this current pace I was “Crap, now I will have more emails to delete”…..just the opposite…I am amazed how you can come…
Making significant decisions is one of the most challenging aspects of leadership. When you are making decisions outside of your experience base, or when the landscape has changed, and the data isn’t pointing in a definite direction, this gets even more challenging! Maybe there are strong opinions in your team that are leading in different…
As business leaders we have one job, and that’s to make decisions. But how do we make decisions? What process do we use? Do we “go with our gut”? Or look at all the angles and reason it out? The best business decisions are those that are made purposefully, without wasting a lot of time…
Bosses don’t get the same feedback as other people because it’s costly for people to call you out. When you embarrass someone, or get angry for no reason, or say something inappropriate, there may be an awkward silence, but there’s rarely someone getting up in your grill about it. So if you’ve been a “boss”…
A week or so ago, I wrote about The vulnerability of the business owner, and that post generated a lot of responses! There are a couple that I’d like to lean into over the next few emails. One business owner replied to that email by saying: Thank you for acknowledging that feeling vulnerable is inherent…
Vulnerability is basically uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. ~Brene Brown Business owners are often indistinguishable from their businesses. Our self-worth and our identity are all tied up in our business performance. When the business performs well, we’re champions; when it doesn’t, we can feel worthless. Each of our decisions, good, or bad, nudge our business…