The Best Leaders Tip #12 – Lead holistically

This is my final of 12 posts about how to be among the Best Leaders.  In these, I provide inspiration for everyone seeking professional and personal growth as a leader of people, projects, groups, teams and organizations. I welcome your comments and feedback.  Visit my website for more information.

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BE A GROWN-UP

Best Leader Tip #12        Lead holistically.  The academic field of leadership is evolving to this, more holistic view of leadership. – where although we understand and acknowledge the various types and styles of leadership and when to use them, we lead as whole people, embracing our teams with all their differences, demonstrating values-based behaviors, setting a clear vision and motivating our people to achieve it, communicating authentically and powerfully, and making sure our organizations are aligned with their entire systems.  This is also known as integrative leadership. 

To me, this sums up all the steps to being the best leader.

The Best Leaders Tip #11 – There is no direct line between working around the clock and success

This is my 11th of 12 posts about how to be among the Best Leaders.  In these, I provide inspiration for everyone seeking professional and personal growth as a leader of people, projects, groups, teams and organizations. I welcome your comments and feedback.  Visit my website for more information.

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BE A GROWN-UP

Best Leader Tip #11        Take care of yourself.  The most effective leaders know that there is no straight line between success and working around the clock.  Not having a social life, never exercising, eating poorly, and letting your body and mind get out of balance, however, IS a direct path to feeling bad and even illness.  Take care of yourself while you work hard.  Be super organized with your time and you’ll find room for all your priorities, which must include your physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental health.

The Best Leaders Tip #10 – Be a Grown Up: Don’t gossip

This is my 10th of 12 posts about how to be among the Best Leaders.  In these, I provide inspiration for everyone seeking professional and personal growth as a leader of people, projects, groups, teams and organizations. I welcome your comments and feedback.  Visit my website for more information.

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BE A GROWN-UP

Best Leader Tip #10        Guard the reputations of others as if they were your own.  Gossip has ruined many solid professional reputations.  Get to know people one on one, and believe your own experience rather than coffee-room whispers.  Forming relationships based on trust and mutual respect allows you to more easily approach people directly if you have questions about them or their work, and to hold the necessary difficult conversations. If you don’t do it for others, do it for yourself:  gossipers create untrustworthy reputations for themselves in the long run.

The Best Leaders Tip #7 – Be a good leader, not just good at your job

This is my 7th of 12 posts about how to be among the Best Leaders.  In these, I provide inspiration for everyone seeking professional and personal growth as a leader of people, projects, groups, teams and organizations. I welcome your comments and feedback.  Visit my website for more information.

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GET SMART

Best Leader Tip #7          Be a good leader, not just good at your job.  People get promoted much of the time because they’re proficient at the core business of their organizations.  CPAs become CFOs, engineers become project managers, journalists become executive producers.  Organizations need to do a better job at making sure the core requirements of these promotions include expertise related not just to technique, but also to people.  This includes getting educated and experienced in areas like interpersonal communication, motivating teams, creating and communication an organizational vision, providing formal and informal feedback, holding effective meetings, predicting and managing change, and so much more.  conducting evaluations, giving and receiving feedback, and self-awareness, which is the foundation of all of this. (For one example, click here for a New York Times article about 360-degree evaluations.)

The Best Leaders Tip #6 – Get Smart: Effective listening is not passive

This is my 6th of 12 posts about how to be among the Best Leaders.  In these, I provide inspiration for everyone seeking professional and personal growth as a leader of people, projects, groups, teams and organizations. I welcome your comments and feedback.  Visit my website for more information.

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GET SMART

Best Leader Tip #6          Listening isn’t passive.  Effective listening is active, in which the listener participates by asking questions, summarizing what they’ve heard, and clarifying.  At the same time, they refrain from assuming, interrupting, cutting the speaker off, arguing, and making it about them.  How do you know if you’re listening enough?  After your next meeting, ask yourself what specific points of information you gained. If it’s fewer than three items, chances are you’ve spent most of that meeting talking, not listening.  A bonus:  Listening shows you’re interested in people.  And the best leaders are all about their people.

The Best Leaders Tip #4 – Be Brave: be humble

This is my 4th of 12 posts about how to be among the Best Leaders.  In these, I provide inspiration for everyone seeking professional and personal growth as a leader of people, projects, groups, teams and organizations. I welcome your comments and feedback.  Visit my website for more information.

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Best Leader Tip #4          Be humble.  You don’t know everything, and people know you don’t, so stop trying to pretend you do.  It’s really okay – people will still admire and respect you.  Humility requires bravery – a sense of self confidence that empowers you to know that asking for advice, input and feedback doesn’t diminish nor belittle you in any way.  So go ahead – hire people who are smarter and more experienced than you in the areas in which you are not as strong.  Take their advice.  The best leaders also know they are not perfect, and when they make mistakes, own them rather than blame others or circumstances.  Apologize and make it right with those who are impacted.  Read more.

 

In changing times, you need a plan

The start of a new year is always marked by change.  2017 is set to make history, beginning with the dramatic shift in power in our nation’s capitol and its sweeping effects for businesses, organizations, and inevitably, on individuals.  What do these changes mean for you? Whether change has been foisted upon you, or you are determined to finally take charge of your own career and life, you can find guidance in a new book.   This Changes Everything:  Transforming Your Life from the Inside Out is available just in time for you to make this year everything you want.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/0692296921

A highly experienced coach and thought leader on personal and organizational change, I wrote this book to share my proprietary, five-stage model for turning dreams into reality.

I provide explanations of the distinct phases of the change process and practical tips, techniques, and exercises you can use to navigate the emotions and psychology of change.  Full of inspiring stories about how other people have adapted and grown, this lighthearted, empathetic, personal, and even humorous book will empower and equip you to plan and stay on a positive journey toward your best life.

I look forward to hearing how you are changing everything for the better in 2017!

Visit www.communication-leadership-change.com for more information about change, leadership, and coaching from Jaya Bohlmann..

The Best Leaders Tip #2 – Have a soul: Share the Wealth

This is my 2nd of 12 posts about how to be among the Best Leaders.  In these, I provide inspiration for everyone seeking professional and personal growth as a leader of people, projects, groups, teams and organizations. I welcome your comments and feedback.  Visit my website for more information.

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Best Leader Tip #2          Share the wealth.  Who are the best leaders?  You can tell by how successful their subordinates are.  Unfortunately, too many people at the top think the way to stay there is to defend their position against perceived threats… including against talented high performers.  This leads to hoarding information, money, opportunities, political capital – things that could be shared with others in order to help them grow.  As in our homes, hoarding is detrimental to organizations for many reasons.  First, ultimately, leaders who hoard are weaker and more vulnerable because they have not engendered the loyalty among their people.  Second, they haven’t created a pipeline of qualified people to succeed them.  This gives the leader and the follower less room to move.  So, be a strong leader by building up those under you. Reward good work with recognition (public and private), bonuses, perks, development opportunities, and other things important to your teams.  Share information that can help them do their jobs well and feel empowered.  In giving, you are stabilizing your organization’s future – and your own.

The Best Leaders Tip #1 – Have a soul: Be the Golden Rule

This is my 1st of 12 posts about how to be among the Best Leaders.  In these, I provide inspiration for everyone seeking professional and personal growth as a leader of people, projects, groups, teams and organizations. I welcome your comments and feedback. This is my 2nd of 12 posts about how to be among the Best Leaders.  In these, I provide inspiration for everyone seeking professional and personal growth as a leader of people, projects, groups, teams and organizations. I welcome your comments and feedback.  Visit my website for more information.

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HAVE A SOUL

Best Leader Tip #1          Be the golden rule.  What you hold inside you is what you’ll see manifested in your external world.  If you treat people with kindness, generosity, honesty, caring, and accountability, you will see those qualities returned to you many time over.  It’s the best, and most important, ROI in the world of leadership.  First, be a person of quality – tend to your soul and clean out any darkness there.  Then, lead with your soul shining out to your work and your people.  You’ll know you’re doing it right when you generate respect, love, recognition, and wealth.

Daily Thought: The things that support us can constrict our true, natural power. Know the balance.

I’ve been wearing a soft foot brace for a tiny fracture below the fourth toe on my left foot.  I wear it especially when I run to support the foot and to try to avoid further injury at the very least, if not promote healing.  The brace does its job, while at the same time definitely making its presence known.  I feel it as the appendage it is.  While it keeps my foot compressed and still, it also creates pressure on the bottom of my foot and after a couple of miles, this is irritating.  Today, I ran without the brace.  In the first few steps, I felt a twinge of unease in that foot and nearly turned back to get the brace, afraid I couldn’t do it on my own power.  I kept going, gingerly, slowly, cautiously.  I gained my stride, the discomfort disappeared, I ran my entire distance sans brace.   As usual, I find many running metaphors suitable for advice on life.  In life, as well – the things that we think support us actually do constrain us helpfully.  They also can constrict if too tight, held onto too long, or do not honor our own power that lies just beneath the bands that tie and bind.  What is holding you closed right now?  Is it money you’ve borrowed, a salary you just have to have, a relationship that keeps you safe but chafes at you where your own power meets the road you’re traveling?  Then try a few steps on your own – no support, no artificial structure.  Just you, your power, your honor, your will. Although it might be uncomfortable at first, you just might find yourself hitting your stride quite quickly, and you will flourish in the movement, and in the knowledge that it’s all being done with your own, unfettered power.