Hope is Not a Strategy
Growing up, my father taught me a valuable lesson that has stayed with me. He would often remind me that hope is not a strategy. As someone who always had high hopes and big dreams, I realized later in life that my father intended to motivate me to action to achieve my goals. It was […]
Nurturing Creativity as a Leader
Effective leadership requires inspiring and motivating people to collaborate toward a shared objective. As leaders, we need a combination of skills, knowledge, and personal attributes to achieve success. Many leaders neglect an essential factor that can enhance their leadership and amplify business outcomes. Creativity! Creativity is a powerful tool that can unlock new solutions, ideas, […]
The Power of “Thinking Time” for Leaders
As leaders, every decision we make has costs and benefits, including how we spend our time. For several reasons, leaders need help carving out time to think and be strategic. Sometimes, it is just a lack of discipline; at other times, it is simply procrastination, but frequently, it is the unrelenting nature of our calendars. […]
Testing Assumptions
One of the greatest lessons I have learned in my leadership journey is that I often make assumptions by creating my own narrative between data points. These assumptions can lead me to draw wrong conclusions, make poor decisions, and have negative feelings toward others. As a leader or manager, it’s natural to want to make […]
Cultivating Your Learning Mindset
It takes more than having good management skills and experience to be a successful leader in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world. A learning mindset is crucial. The ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn to adapt to the challenges of the constantly evolving landscape is a critical skill that all leaders need to cultivate. Developing a […]
Self-Doubt
Being a manager or leader can be challenging, involving tough decisions, tight deadlines, and high expectations. It is natural to question our abilities when faced with making the right choices. Many managers and leaders feel that their success hinges on every decision they make. Unfortunately, self-doubt can hinder productivity and confidence in our leadership potential. […]
Overcoming Decision-Making Fatigue
As managers and leaders, decision-making is vital to our roles in our organizations and companies. Whether hiring new employees or budgeting finances, strategic decisions can determine the success of a team or organizational unit. The constant pressure to make effective decisions can take a toll, leading to decision-making fatigue. This exhaustion can impact our ability […]
Leading in the Advent of AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a common buzzword as digital transformation reshapes our world. AI is permeating every industry and starting to change the way businesses operate. As leaders in this modern technological revolution, it is essential to understand the potential effect AI will have in our professions and within the workforce. How can AI […]
Wars, Battles, and Skirmishes
A mantra I live by as a leader is prioritizing winning the war for my teams, knowing it means losing some battles and skirmishes along the way. Distractions can easily veer one off course, but I make it a point to stay focused on my ultimate goal and embrace obstacles. Doing this has taken time […]
Do you say “yes” too often?
How many times do you say “yes” to a request only to find yourself stressed or in a time crunch? Are you the person everyone knows will say “yes” when asked to do something? What do you think motivates this type of behavior? While saying “yes” and sorting out details later can be effective in […]
Do you fall in and out of love with your job?
For the past twenty-three years, I have worked at the same organization, and I am frequently asked what has kept me engaged for such a long time. Oh, my goodness, there are so very many things, the research, the faculty, the constituents, the staff, and last but not least, my fantastic leadership team. Not too […]
A different type of resolution: What is your “mission-critical” statement?
The tradition of making resolutions goes back to Babylonian times, and research on why we make New Year’s resolutions suggests that using temporal landmarks, dates of significance that provide a frame for a new beginning, are helpful in physiologically providing us with a sense of renewal. As we roll into a new year, many of […]
Managing emotions in the workplace.
Throughout my professional career, I have never seen or taken a managerial course about managing my emotions or the emotions of others in the workplace. Yet, during the course of my career, I have found that emotions are at the root of most of the behavior I have had to navigate. For many of us, […]
The art and science of asking questions.
As a child, I asked a lot of questions, and many times, my mother would recite the proverb, “curiosity killed the cat,” then, with a big smile, would state, “but satisfaction brought it back.” She always had great patience with all my questions and never tired of my curious mind. Asking questions has always been […]
Our words matter.
Many of us struggle with language and the use or perceived misuse of words. In recent years, our word choices in certain areas have come to communicate much more than the plain meaning of a word. Words like diversity, privilege, and ally have taken on meanings based on the cultural and social context of the […]
