Business | Thierry Dentice Leadership

Category: Business (page 2 of 5)

April 7, 2020

How to Spot a Bad Leader

Having a strong leader to effectively run a team or business can make or break success. Leaders are what drives a business forward, but they can also be what holds it back. This is why it is so important to know how to spot a bad leader. While there are definitely obvious ways to know when someone is a bad leader, there also characteristics or habits that can fly under the radar. Here are the best ways to spot a bad leader:

Without Vision

An effective leader will always have their mission in mind and know exactly how they want to portray that to their team. Bad and ineffective leaders often lack vision. Without vision, there is nothing driving them forward. A leader without a vision is often aimless and will ultimately fail. In order fo the team and the business to be successful, it’s important to have a clear vision or purpose in a place that everyone is aware of.

Too Fearful

In business, you have to know when to take a risk. Without taking any risks, there is no way to ultimately find success. A leader who fears too much is not going to be able to lead the business. There are certain decisions that need to be made by a leader and if they are lead by fear, nothing will ever move forward. While a leader shouldn’t be completely fearless, it’s important to sometimes take a risk to reap the rewards.

The Know-It-All

One of the worst things a leader can do is thinking they know everything. No matter how high you are up in the business, there is always something that needs to be learned. Whether it is a new leadership strategy and a business theory, it’s important for a leader to recognize they do not know everything. A know-it-all leader will never be willing to learn which can lead to their ultimate failure.

March 12, 2020

How to Build a Successful Team

Being put into a leadership role comes with a lot of responsibility, especially if you do not even have a team first. When building a team as a leader, it’s up to you to find the most qualified individuals to be successful. Even though there is a lot of pressure and the task may seem daunting, there are a few tips you can follow to help build your team:

Letting Others Lead

This may sound counterproductive but, this is a great way to build a strong and successful team. If you already have one or more members on your team, let employees make their own decisions and take the lead on projects. By doing this, you are encouraging them to become more self-sufficient and productive. Giving them the independence to develop their own problem-solving and analytical skills helps you as a leader take on the bigger tasks and trust them to carry out their work.

Determine The Leader in You

Think about what type of leader you are while developing your team. Try to really look into yourself to determine whether you are empathetic, kind, strict, laid back, or anything else that affects the way you lead. Once you know the type of leader you are, you will have a better chance of understanding the type of team members that will thrive under your leadership.

Establish Team Values

When building a team, it’s important to remember what your core values and goals are. Think about the purpose of why you are building this team and what you want to accomplish. Hire members that share the same values and who will work hard to see the team’s goals fulfilled. As your team builds, make sure they are staying true to these values and how they’re job performance effects this.

Focus on Communication

Once you have your team assembled, it’s important to do all you can to keep it functioning like a well-oiled machine. The best way of doing this is through effective communication. Make sure there questions, comments, and concerns are always heard, welcomed, and honored. When a team feels that they are heard, they work much better, On your end, don’t be afraid to voice what needs improvement or to give credit where credit is due. Effective communication can make or break a team’s strength.

January 10, 2020

Time Management Tips for Leaders

As a leader, one of the greatest tools you can have for better performance and productivity is time. Time can make or break the success of your team. The more responsibility you take on as a leader can easily lead to the loss of time management skills. Going through daily tasks and some things taking more precedence than others, it’s easy to fall behind and get caught up. These are some easy ways to improve time management as a leader:

Set Your Goals First

The first and most important step to managing your time better as a leader is setting your goals first. Think about how you want to improve your team and what tasks need to be done first. Choose the goals that are top priority and stick to those. Not only will this help put a lot into perspective, but it will also help you keep track of your progress and track what needs to happen next.

Create a System

With goals in mind, it’s time to think of a proper system. A good system for time management is the quadrant time-management system. This system divides your tasks into four quadrants based on urgency and importance. Things that are not urgent or important must take the back seat, while other tasks that need your attention first. By creating a system for managing your time, you will have a greater chance of succeeding.

Plan for Interruptions

When planning out your next weeks, days, or months, be sure to set aside time for speed bumps and interruptions. One big mistake many leaders tend to make is not preparing for setbacks, especially when it comes to managing their time. It’s important to not jampack your schedule and leave room for any mishaps along the way. If there happen to be no setbacks of interruptions, then you’re ahead of schedule.

Delegate Your Attention

As a leader, there are many people and tasks that require your attention. When getting back on track and making an effort to manage your time better, delegate your attention. It’s important to get a sense of things that need your immediate attention and what can wait. If your team in bombarding you with questions and interruptions, make it clear that some of the questions will have to wait until you and the rest of the team are back on track. Know what needs your immediate attention first and what can wait. This will make you a master of time management.

September 17, 2019

Ways to Foster Belonging at Work

The human sense of connection is incredibly important: it impacts our health and productivity. While it may seem that belonging only matters in our personal lives, research conducted by the leadership development startup BetterUp indicates that workplace belonging is key to employee well-being and organizational functioning. Exclusion can beget both pain and psychological ailments.

BetterUp found, among other statistics, that employees see a 56% increase in job performance when they feel like they belong. Furthermore, belonging benefits workers’ careers, since those who felt highly connected received twice as many raises and were 18 times more likely to be promoted in a six month period. Cofounder and CEO of BetterUp Alexi Robichaux states that the most important assets to your company are your people. “Belonging should be at the heart of every human capital strategy.”

If you’re not sure how to do that, here are some strategies that came out of their research.

Create Allies at Work

A powerful solution to prevent feelings of exclusion is to add an ally to the team. Having an ally can counteract the 25% productivity loss seen in those who didn’t have one. This can be as simple as having someone who acknowledges and includes you. Peers make for very effective allies, and fortunately, there is no hierarchy to allyship: anyone can be an ally.

Encourage Healthy Interactions

Psychologists Jane Dutton and Emily Heaphy coined the term high-quality connections (HQCs) to describe interactions that have a positive impact on our lives and work. In a high-quality connection, each person reciprocates positive regard and care, and as a result, both feel valued. HQCs play an important role in close relationships but also have the power to unlock meaning in less intimate interactions. These interactions can be brief and emotionally neutral, but the key is that they happen regularly and are not negative.

July 30, 2019

Tips on Recovering from Failure

When we think of leaders and successful people, we usually just picture them in their successes. Seldom do we think of their failures. Failure can cause emotional pain and embarrass us, but the silver lining of failure is that it is an opportunity to grow and enrich our lives both personally and professionally.

The first gift of failure is humility. Acknowledging a mistake and/or failure takes us to a place of vulnerability. Admitting to it is powerful and helps us to affirm that we want to do the correct thing, in the case of wrongdoing, or to do better if we fell short. Humility is also a reminder that as humans, we are social and need to rely on one another.

Another gift of failure is compassion. Admitting to mistakes can be unbearably embarrassing, painful, even, but that embarrassment can increase our compassion for others. Research has shown that we tend to focus more on ourselves when we are successful and have achieved a higher status. The vulnerability of failure opens us up to connecting with others. Sally Blount, a contributor to Forbes, puts it best: “It turns out that engaging in the small joys and comaraderies of everyday life is one of the best ways to soothe a chastened ego.”

One of the best ways to recover from failure is to keep an openness to learning. Many people find they learn best through experience, and that includes experiencing failure. Of course, this isn’t easy, as we tend towards safety and comfort. The combination of humility and compassion helps us learn and better connects us with others. While success may increase confidence, it is failure that builds wisdom.

July 10, 2019

Five Things Sucessful Leaders Do Every Day

To be a leader successfully there are a number of qualities one must possess. It can be a balance that once attained is the key to a business running smoothly and prospering. For example, leaders need to be able to make critical decisions that not everyone agrees with while still empowering their employees and making them feel confident in their own positions. While maintaining this balance there are five habits that become natural to leaders in any industry.

Making Big Decisions (Quickly)

Leaders are counted on to make things happen. This means that most decisions fall to them, or at the very least they are always informed of the why’s and how’s someone else reached a critical decision. Often times there are choices to be made quickly and it’s a leaders job to keep the momentum going and make the big decision confidently. This comes with experience and skills acquired over time because while some would struggle to weigh all options, leaders are thinking a few steps ahead and able to produce an answer or solution quickly.

Challenging People

To get the best work leaders know how to challenge people while instilling confidence in them. This means knowing the capabilities of the employees and putting their minds to the task at hand. It’s important that everyone is always learning and by continually delegating and keeping people thinking, leaders allow the work environment to stay positive and fresh.

Providing Feedback

Everyone wants to feel appreciated. A successful leader is going to let their employees know that they are paying attention. By providing feedback, the relationship between the two naturally gains more trust and the chance for miscommunication narrows.

Allude Positive Attitude

Successful leaders are very aware of the benefits of a positive work space and they seek ways to improve morale. When people see their leader alluding a positive attitude it causes stability and inspiration. Everyone should feel like they contribute to the goals of the company, and leaders make sure to keep the energy motivating.

Keep Learning

Finally, to stay successful one must always be evolving. To stop learning is to stop growing and that’s the last thing a successful leader will let happen. While inspiring and teaching others, leaders must continue to educate themselves. By staying knowledgeable about trends, news, and any other statistics that can affect business the leader can be sure to also continue being a teacher to others that look to them for help and support.

December 17, 2018

Why Leading with Empathy is Essential

Leaders come in many forms, and with various styles come characteristics unique to each one. However, if there is one essential quality all leaders should possess, it is empathy. Empathy is described as the ability to share or understand the feelings of others. Why is this quality vital for leaders to have?

Empathy is a quality that leaders should have because it enables you to put yourselves in your follower’s shoes. Whether it be at school, work, or any other activity, interpersonal relationships create the foundation for greater productivity. You cannot foster a great relationship without understanding the difficulties that others go through. Your perception may not necessarily be indicative of the underlying truth. We all have difficulties that we face each day, but leading with empathy will permit you to lead more effectively.

The effectiveness of empathetic leadership does not apply to just your team or your follower. This also applies to your clientele. You cannot expect to earn the trust of the customers, or even gain new ones at that, if you do not understand their needs. Any entrepreneur or business can sell a product to anybody. However, the success of any business is contingent upon how strong the relationship with its customers are. The greatest way to strengthen a relationship with those who do business with you is to empathize with what they are looking for, and provide them with those needs.

Empathy may also be the biggest tool any entrepreneur may have at their dispsoal. This is because this quality enables you to strengthen relationships of all kinds. Monetary tools or analytics can help you to a great degree, but you cannot put a price on understanding the needs of those you are in contact with. It costs you nothing to attempt to understand what others need. You can choose to take that initiative.

The long-term goal of every entrepreneur is to change the world in some form. Businesses that are successful effectively addresses a need for the people. Whether this need be a product or a service, the entrepreneur empathized with the people and worked to devise a means by which those needs could be addressed. This was all because they had empathy guiding all of their decisions. Let empathy guide you to success.

November 30, 2018

Where to Learn Free Leadership Skills Online

There are many free resources online for those wanting to learn valuable management skills. Here are some of the best websites that offer university-level seminars and classes to aspiring leaders.

MindTools.com
MindTools is an easily navigable website offering everything from essays to YouTube videos on leadership skills in various contexts. They also provide courses on related subjects including stress management, decision making, and communication skills.

Level 5 Leadership
The concept of Level 5 Leadership was coined by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great. His website contains an hour-long lecture on ambition and leadership as well as several shorter videos and articles.

Latitude Learning
Effectively managing others is an important aspect of being an exceptional leader. Latitude Learning’s course “Supervising Difficult Behaviors” teaches users how to handle troublesome employees and workplace conflicts.

Coursera
Coursera is an established website offering hundreds of free courses on everything from product management to emotional intelligence. Users can complete courses on their own terms, making it perfect for people with a hectic schedule.

The Open University
The Open University offers a choice between undergraduate and postgraduate courses on business management, teamwork, business psychology, and more. Users can choose introductory-level or more advanced courses.

Alison.com
Alison.com contains hundreds of topics for every aspect of leadership in business. Users can participate in courses like “Leadership Skills in Business” or “Intro to Communication Skills” to learn hours worth of free information to increase their skill sets.

MIT Online
Plenty of universities offer free online courses, and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is no exception. They offer “Organizational Leadership and Change,” which is a graduate-level course exploring leadership qualities and the skills needed for future success. “Building and Leading Effective Teams” informs users how to manage and communicate as a group leader properly.

Master Class Management
Master Class Management displays an organized list of topics all relating to leadership. Users can easily pick from titles like “How to Delegate Confidently, “Holding a Meeting,” and “Dealing with Conflict” to improve weak points and gain confidence in their management abilities. Each section includes a story, a presentation, and a short test at the end.

These free resources make it possible to be a great leader without investing thousands of dollars.

November 6, 2018

Best Podcasts to Improve Leadership Skills

Leaders have the role of leading their organization to success. While effective leadership is heavily dependent on one’s personal qualities, a lot of these qualities can be learned or improved with intentional training. Leaders looking to grow in their roles should look into the following podcasts for personal and professional development.

Dov Baron: Leadership and Loyalty

Dov Baron focuses on inspiring leaders that want to find more purpose in their lives. Dov hosts speakers and leaders from different industries to talk about a leadership model that engenders loyalty in leaders as well as their followers.

Strickland Bonner and Doug Sandler: The Nice Guys on Business

Stickland and Doug’s podcast invites leaders to participate in conversations on how founders can grow their business based on ethics and values. The podcast highlights the importance of trust, integrity, and professional relationships to modern businesses.

Dave Stachowiak: Coaching for Leaders

According to Dave, no one is born knowing how to be an effective leader. This is why he focuses on teaching leaders the essentials of leadership, including how to lead by example, how to draw the best qualities out of others, and more.

Richard Rierson: Dose of Leadership

Dose of Leadership is a series of interviews between Richard and leaders from various industries and areas in life including business, military, and religious organizations. Listeners can expect to learn how to better themselves and how to improve the organization that they are responsible for leading.

Jesse Lahey: Engaging Leader

Jesse Lahey’s show teaches that communication is one of the most important aspects of modern leadership. Jesse invites his interviewees to discuss different tactics that help to foster better communication among teams.

Andy Paul: Accelerate

Andy started his career working in sales. Though he wasn’t initially successful, he found his bearings as a leader. In his podcast. Andy shares his life experience to help listeners find their own success and grow successful teams in their organizations.

It is up to leaders to work on their own personal development. Anyone hoping to reach their full potential as a leader should be sure to take a listen to these six podcasts to gain better insight into what makes a successful leader.

October 15, 2018

How to Deal With Conflict in the Workplace

Conflict in the workplace is always tricky. At its worst, it can practically ruin careers, and even minor strife can make going to work every day feel like a serious chore. If you find yourself at odds with a coworker or even a supervisor, here are a few things that might help you work through it.

Communicate

Many workplace conflicts arise from poor communication. A co-worker might misunderstand something you did or said, or they might lack a key piece of information that either one of you might need to do your jobs. Situations like this are always easy to clear up, but you need to communicate to make that happen. Speak to the other person to find out if there is any misunderstanding, and go from there. As long as you both act like professionals and agree to work together to clear up any misconceptions, things will be just fine.

Don’t Get Emotional

Of course, it’s going to be harder to clear the air with someone if either of you gets too emotional. People tend to say and do rash things when they’re upset, but you cannot let this happen at your workplace. That’s the kind of thing that can cost people their jobs and ruin careers. If you or the other person are too upset to talk, take some time to cool off or talk to someone else who can act as a mediator. Once both of you can remain calm, you can address your conflict rationally.

Prevent Conflict Whenever You Can

Conflict can’t always be avoided, but you can address any potential issues before they turn anyone against each other. If you feel that there is a potential conflict between you and another person or between two other coworkers, address it and come up with some solutions before things get ugly.

Pick Your Battles

Even though issues will come up whenever people spend any amount of time with each other, you cannot start fights over every minor disagreement. Some things are worth arguing about, but you would be surprised at how much you can just ignore. If you’re going to spend about 40 hours a week with people, you cannot make enemies out of them simply because of your personalities. As long as neither of you isn’t doing anything that creates a hostile work environment, you can learn to accept and get along with just about anybody.

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