by Jason Miller Something happened in 2020 besides a global pandemic that sent the world reeling. The very idea of work and what it looked like changed, and even as we emerge from the COVID-19 era, things are not returning to pre-pandemic norms. Most leaders face a “new normal” when it comes to the management and engagement of employees. A part of this is a workforce that is … [Read more...]
The Most Important Word for New Leaders to Learn
A few years ago, the concept of leading remotely was foreign and scary to a lot of supervisors and managers. New leaders, in particular struggled with the notion of trying to do all the “leadership stuff,” when people weren’t in the same location. But now there is an entirely new generation of leaders who got their first assignments either just as remote work was booming, or … [Read more...]
Do You Hold People Accountable or Help Them Be Accountable?
Accountability. We throw the word around quite a bit in leadership circles. We use phrases like ‘holding people accountable.” To many managers, it’s the stick we use when the carrot doesn’t work. In the words of that great philosopher Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Can we hold people … [Read more...]
The First Rule of Remote Leadership
In all the talk about hybrid work and RTO (Returning To Office for those of us who are acronym-intolerant), it’s easy to stress out. Let me remind you of a very simple rule to help guide your thinking. In The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership, we have 18 (sort of 19) rules for leading at a distance. But whether all of your people are remote, only … [Read more...]
Be Honest About the Known Unknowns When Returning to the Office
What do you know about how the next couple of months look for your team? There’s a strange tension in the air right now as people see the end of the COVID tunnel. Many organizations are making concrete plans for returning to the office, a continuation of remote work, or some oddball combination of those. But what are the assumptions you’re working under, and how valid are … [Read more...]