Evergreen Leadership Blog

Leadership

Leadership 101: What You Do Matters. What You Don’t Do Matters Too.

Sometimes leaders think that communication is what happens when they make a presentation. Or send an email. Or hold a meeting.

In fact, leaders communicate every moment of every day. In their words. By their actions. With their inaction. Because people are watching and adjusting – sometimes to the subtlest of cues.

The minute you step into a leadership position, no matter what level, others begin to look to you for direction and guidance. And as such, what you say is important. Words matter and you can use them to further the worthwhile purpose you are leading. You can also, if not careful, use them to derail and detract and to detour effort.

This post helps you focus your non-verbal cues so that you can lead with clarity, congruence, consciousness.

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Leadership

Why What Millennials Want is Exactly What We Need

A lot of energy is being spent on the topic of how to manage Millennials. There is angst as they come in and expect a different workplace – one that works for them as well as their employers. There is eye-rolling as their older workplace peers snicker a bit and wonder how they can be so naive, self-centered, and immature. There is a whole lot of “things don’t work that way here” going on.

As with all generalizations, they hold some truth in the macro sense, while exceptions abound when looking at a population case-by-case. Nonetheless, trends across this age demographic are evident. A recent INC article, called the Quick Guide to Motivating Millennials, points to six things that this younger, tech-savvy generation are looking for in their work. And I am struck by the degree of alignment between this list and what research is showing us about emerging highly performing organizations. …

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Change

Divergent Thinking Does Not Come Easily

In organizations today, divergent thinking is becoming an imperative to sustainability – rather than an impediment to organizational stability. Disruption has become a competitive advantage, much in the same way market dominance was in the past. Organizations that regularly challenge the status quo in order to create new products and services stand a much better chance of surviving.

Yet those organizations know just how difficult it is to disrupt the existing order. We chastise ourselves for failing to raise our voice in meetings in which yet another ill-conceived project is launched. We shrug in resignation and halfheartedly carry out flawed plans that waste time, money and energy. And we are not alone.

Read more…

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Challenges

Let’s Put Humans Back in Charge

– and Relegate Technology to its Rightful Place

Ever feel like you are working harder and longer, yet getting less done? You are not alone. A recent article in HBR by Michael C. Mankins sheds some light on why. In his article “Is Technology Really Helping Us Get More Done?” Mankins, a partner at Bain, combed through email and meeting schedules using data mining and people analytics to confirm what you already know in your gut:

  • The easier it is to leave or send a message, the more messages you have to deal with
  • The easier it is to schedule a meeting, the more that get scheduled
  • The more meetings it takes to get work done, the slower the work gets done
  • The broader your network, the greater the number of interactions and requests for your time and attention
    • The net result is that a decreasing amount of time is spent on real work. We are meeting more, communicating more, and getting less done. And it takes longer to get things done. As a result, most everyone feels overwhelmed, stressed and overworked. A few simple actions can help…

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