Category Archives: Leadership
September 12, 2018 4 Ways Continual Learning Helps Leaders
Strong leaders are avid, continual learners. They don’t stop seeking out new opportunities after they’ve graduated or once they’ve landed a job; they treat every day as another chance to acquire knowledge and skills.
Why is lifelong learning so essential for leadership? How does curiosity and exploration build character, aid in personal development, and position you as a leader? Read on…
1. Continual Learning Preps You For Inevitable Change
In order to remain a relevant leader, you must learn and continue to learn. Just because you earned a leadership role 10 years ago does not necessarily mean you’re equipped to lead today. Each situation you encounter presents new challenges that can only be accomplished with an appetite for new knowledge. There’s a reason why medical doctors are required to continue their specialized education long after they graduate from medical school. Could you imagine going to a surgeon who was using standard practices from the 1940s?
The same is true in any office setting. Standards change; innovations occur. Capable leaders stay on top of those changes, adapt, and guide others to adapt as well.
2. Well-Rounded People Make The Best Leaders
To be well-rounded, you need to learn a wide array of subjects, disciplines, and areas of expertise. You don’t need to be an expert at everything, but it’s important to have a working knowledge of the world outside your niche, as it gives you a greater sense of perspective and maturity. Go outside your comfort zone; read history or philosophy if you’ve always been a numbers person. Take public speaking classes if you’re shy (Toastmasters is a great club for this). Learn a language. Focus on areas you’ve told yourself that you’re bad at, and give it another go. You may surprise yourself.
3. Learning Helps You Problem-Solve
If you’re constantly making an effort to learn new systems, programs, ways of thinking, etc. you’ll be more creative when it comes to problem-solving. If you train your brain to perform many different tasks (no matter what they are), you’re enabling yourself for outside-the-box thinking.
4. Your Actions Will Encourage Others to Keep Learning
As a leader, you set the standards. Your pursuit of innovation and discovery will encourage your team to also prioritize continual learning. Demonstrate that you’re willing to dive into uncharted territory, get your hands dirty, and make mistakes. Your example will help create a team that is willing to get creative, take a few risks, and figure out how to overcome obstacles.
How will you commit to continual learning? What will you do this week to help expand your horizons or learn a new skill? Start today!
Tags: career coach Margaret Smith, culture of learning, leadership and continual learning, leadership and learning, Lifelong Learning, lifelong learning work, margaret smith leadership, Margaret Smith minneapolis
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- Posted under Advice from a Life Coach, Changing Your Life, Leadership
September 5, 2018 Your Leadership Might be Missing…A Color?
Every leader has their strengths. You might be an excellent idea-generator or public speaker. Maybe you’re great with details. Or, maybe your team considers you a trusted confidante. Whatever the case, it’s great to celebrate and emphasize your strengths…but it’s also a good idea to identify your areas of opportunity.
No leader is perfect. There is always room for growth. But how can you get started with self-improvement? Isn’t that a bit daunting?
It doesn’t have to be.
By assigning certain personality traits certain colors, it’s easy to identify the areas where you are lacking. That is precisely what the Insights® Discovery program does. According to the Insights® color model, each individual has the capability to embrace and utilize all four color energies, but we typically only emphasize one or two. In essence, the color system breaks down like this:
The basic traits of each Insights personality. Everyone has a little of each color in them!
(For more information on Insights® Discovery, please visit my website!)
So what happens when, as a leader, you don’t tap into each color energy?
You may find that you’re not as well-rounded as you could be. For instance, if you lead with a lot of yellow energy, you may jump into projects feet-first without thinking through all the details. While this is great for motivation and could have positive effects on your team initially, the long-term effects may be disastrous if certain key factors were not taken into consideration (Oh…we needed to get permission from corporate before contacting that client…).
On the flip side, if you lead with a lot of blue energy, you may nit-pick the details to death and have trouble starting a project (let alone drumming up enthusiasm for it).
To examine this idea further, take a look at the following chart. Which areas in YOUR leadership need a boost? How could “Fiery Red” be useful at times? How could green? Yellow? Blue?
Coming from someone who is strongly yellow (with dashes of the other colors), I know the importance of tapping into my “blue side.” How will you call upon your under-utilized colors today?
MARGARET SMITH IS A CAREER COACH, AUTHOR, INSIGHTS®DISCOVERY LICENSED PRACTITIONER, FOUNDER OF UXL, AND CO-FOUNDER OF THE TAG TEAM. SHE HOSTS WORKSHOPS FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED CAREER OR PERSONAL GUIDANCE. YOU CAN VISIT HER WEBSITE AT WWW.YOUEXCELNOW.COM
Tags: business coach Margaret Smith, improve leadership, Insights and Leadership, Insights Discovery, insights discovery leadership, leadership lacking, margaret smith leadership, Margaret Smith licensed Insights practitioner, well-rounded leader
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- Posted under Insights Discovery, Leadership
July 25, 2018 5 Ways Leadership is Like Camping
It’s the season of pitching tents and building campfires. Camping can be easy and enjoyable…or it can be downright miserable. In that sense, it has a lot in common with leadership! What else do they have in common?
Here are 5 ways leadership can be a lot like camping:
1. You can weather any storm with the right equipment
Just like a quality tent and sleeping bag will help you survive the driving rain or bitter cold, so too can well-developed leadership skills help you handle even the most difficult situations. Some of these skills you might learn through time, experience, and trial and error, and others you might acquire through classes, like the Build A Boss program.
This “equipment” can prepare you for dealing with tough conversations, coping with major organizational changes, or tactfully approaching staff reduction. Leadership isn’t always going to be sunny days and clear waters. You’ll have to rely on your skill set to see you through some difficult situations.
2. It’s unpredictable
Camping can be wonderful and relaxing—filled with swimming, fishing, and campfires—or it can be rainy, cold, buggy, and just plain miserable.
In the same way, leadership has its ups and downs. As a leader, you might have days or weeks that are productive and inspiring…and then you might find yourself in a downward spiral of awfulness. As a leader, you have to ride those waves and use your ingenuity, adaptability, and drive to create strategies to overcome them.
3. It’s fun…with the right attitude
Have you been on a camping trip with someone who insists on not having fun? That person might complain about the dirt, the bugs, the camp food, the campfire smoke, the cold water and on and on…but they completely miss the fresh air, sunshine, and freedom.
Leadership is all about perspective. Leaders tend to face a lot of tough situations and difficult people, BUT they also have amazing opportunities. As a leader, you are given a chance to head up amazing projects and teams of people, you’re entrusted with big responsibilities, and you have the opportunity to be the face (or at least somewhat the face) of the company. Focusing on the positive aspects of your leadership and striving to create constructive change will help you realize that leadership can be rewarding and even (gasp!) fun.
4. It’s energizing
Paddling a canoe, hiking, setting up camp—it’s all invigorating and can give you a burst of energy. Similarly, leadership can be just as motivating. Just ask someone who has rallied a team of twenty people to work together on a unified task. Or someone who has helped amp up their company’s profit margin. Or someone who has mentored an individual and helped him thrive. Good leaders find energy in actions such as these and also strive to motivate others.
5. It leaves you vulnerable
Just like camping leaves you vulnerable to the elements, so too does leadership leave you somewhat bare. You are thrown into the spotlight; all eyes are on you and your example. What are you going to do?
Situations like these are common, and you have to decide how you will handle them. In my experience, it is better to be candid, transparent, and authentic than closed off and secretive. If you are open and honest with your team (within reason!), they are more likely to be open and honest with you when they have an issue or would like to talk over a bold new idea. This kind of open communication creates a healthy, humming work environment. Have courage. Be willing to own up to mistakes, be genuinely you, communicate with authenticity, and be a tad vulnerable.
This summer, I hope you have sunny days, refreshing afternoons in the water, and zero bug bites…but if you do encounter these things, I hope you’ll face them with the proper gear, a little ingenuity, and a lot of positivity.
MARGARET SMITH IS A CAREER COACH, AUTHOR, INSIGHTS®DISCOVERY LICENSED PRACTITIONER, FOUNDER OF UXL, AND CO-FOUNDER OF THE TAG TEAM. SHE HOSTS WORKSHOPS FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED CAREER OR PERSONAL GUIDANCE. YOU CAN VISIT HER WEBSITE AT WWW.YOUEXCELNOW.COM
Tags: build a boss leadership program, energized leader, Inspiring leader, leadership and camping, leadership tips, margaret smith leadership, strong leadership, vulnerable leader
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