Skip to content

UXL Blog

“Creating Successful Leaders”

Tag Archives: Improving Leadership

March 19, 2014 Balancing Head And Heart: Friendships At Work

Friendship on the job can be beneficial to everyone. It makes work a fun place to be. It brings unity and camaraderie to the business. 

But friendships can potentially make it hard on your responsibility as a leader to remain consistent and fair. It might be easy for you to give your friend a break, extend a deadline, or ignore or overlook a mistake. And this is where having friends in your business can be detrimental.

The recent Harvard Business Review article offers a few helpful insights on how to navigate the tricky waters of managing your friends.

1. You’ll make them angry sometimes, but this is okay.

You have a job to do. Above all, remember why you’re there, in the position you’re in. You’ll have to “turn up the heat” on everyone from time to time, and this includes your friends.

They probably won’t be too pleased at this, at least not at first. Remember that this is their problem, not yours. Stay consistent, compassionate, but firm with your staff, and in time your work friends will appreciate and respect your consistency.

2. Learn to disagree with friends while still being their friend.

Disagreements are a natural part of any relationship. You can be passionate about a disagreement without being disrespectful. It’s a tricky balance, but it’s possible.

3. Keep work out of it at the dinner party.

When you spend time with them outside the office, remember the rules and standards of the workplace do not apply outside.

4. This arrangement won’t always work.

In some cases, having friends that report to you just doesn’t work. As the article’s author, Peter Bregman, points out: “Even if you have clarity about your role as a leader, emotional mastery, and friendship skills, the other person may not be able to live with your decisions.” As tough as it is, it’s better for both parties in this case to accept the reality of the situation and move on.

On the flip side, there are countless instances where your friendship with a staff member motivates them to do their best work. This is why knowing your staff is so crucial, so that you’ll be able to determine the relational dynamics early on and avoid potential conflicts.

Tags: , , , , , ,

March 13, 2014 Are Mobile Workers A Good Fit For Your Business?

More and more workers are stepping out of the office permanently, according to an article I just read which talks about how working from home has risen from three years ago.

The benefit for the worker is pretty obvious, and workers have been in favor of this for a long time. More flexible hours, convenience, and independence, to name a few. But now business owners too are beginning to see the value of the mobile worker.

The reason for this, according to the article, is “the access they [business owners] now have to professionals without geography posing a barrier.” Thanks to technologies like Skype and cloud-based file sharing, businesses now have a much larger pool of talent to choose from without needing to keep their search limited to the city where their headquarters is based.

Having a mobile workforce also boosts productivity, as workers feel more ownership over their work and enjoy the freedom to work where and when they choose.

So the benefits are pretty compelling. Is this something you’ve considered for your business?

To get comfortable with a new approach to leading and managing people, you’ll need to:

-Familiarize yourself with the tools that ensure communication between you and the mobile worker. Skype, the internal social media site Yammer, and Dropbox (or something like it) are crucial.

-Trust your mobile workers know what to do without your constant supervision. Micro-management, which I’m opposed to in the first place, is impossible with this worker arrangement.

-Determine what jobs can be done outside the workplace.

-Make a point to have face-to-face meetings periodically. The power of real face-time always trumps mobile communication, so schedule consistent times where mobile workers can come in and feel a part of the team.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

February 27, 2014 Dealing With Setbacks

We show our true colors when things don’t go as planned. It’s easy to be kind, confident and happy when everything goes our way, but not so much when we encounter that unavoidable road block.

If you have a pulse, you’re going to hit road blocks. So how do you prepare yourself to deal with failures and letdowns with grace and character?

1.  Take a step back.

Think of all the times in your life when you thought it was the end of the world. How often did that turn out to be true? I’m guessing never, since the world is clearly still here. It’s easy to get trapped in doomsday thinking when you run into a real problem. The truth is, it’s almost never as bad as you think it is at that given moment. When you learn to reinforce this while you’re brain is in crisis mode, you’ll be able to take a step back and see the situation more clearly.

2. Don’t give up.

Your self-destructive voice in your head I like to call your saboteur will take every stumble as a chance to encourage you to throw in the towel. Don’t listen!

It takes thousands of hours of work to reach success and mastery, and nobody gets it the first time around. Be patient with yourself, and keep plugging away.

3. Reach out.

Letdowns, failures, and detours can be embarrassing. The last thing you may feel like doing is going to someone else for help and support. But just remember, there’s no shame in failure, only shame in not trying in the first place. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how happy your friends and family will be to get behind you. You need only be humble and honest about your situation.

4. Revise your plan of attack.

If you’re constantly failing at the same task or project, there’s a good chance you need to change your plan altogether. The definition of insanity, after all, is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Take hiccups as a chance to reassess your strategy. What’s not working? Why? How can you make it work? You may need to reign in your goals a bit, and this is okay. It’s better to make incremental steps forward than to have grand plans that you’re unable to reach.

Take comfort in the fact that setbacks are part of the process, and keep plugging away!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,