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#Leadership : Avoiding A Career Killer: Subordinates Who Don’t Deliver Results…Great #Careers are Not made by Keeping Busy. They’re Made by Tackling the Most Important Tasks & De-Emphasizing Everything Else.

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Leaders & Managers Kill their Careers Because they Tolerate Direct Reports Who Can’t Step Up & Take Work Off their Plate. They’re stuck doing lower level work and never have time to tackle higher level projects. This signals their boss that they are not ready to move up. No promotion.

man-on-staircase

Consider the conversation I just had with the CEO of a fast growing manufacturing company. She was overloaded and looking to adjust her organizational chart in the year ahead. As we discussed each of her direct reports, she contrasted one VP who dodged responsibility for projects the she had delegated, versus another who actually told the CEO, “I’ve got this [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][project] and will report back if I run into any obstacles,” and delivered results. What a stark contrast. One will move up, the other will not.

Direct Reports Make The Difference
Is one VP lazy and the other industrious? No. Both are hard working. The difference is that one VP has direct reports who are growing in their roles and support the VP by doing parts of his job for him, freeing him up to take tasks from the CEO. As the business grows, this VP will gain a c-suite title and his team will follow him, staying near the top of the organizational chart. The other VP will move down a layer (at best) with a new executive placed above him.

Most of the time, executives & managers assume their direct reports have clarity on priorities and possess the skills and experience to tackle the important tasks, not just the urgent ones. They check in with subordinates on an ad-hoc basis and hear about “what’s going on” and “how busy things are.” The assumptions are wrong, and ad-hoc conversations won’t cut it.

 

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Great careers are not made by keeping busy. They’re made by tackling the most important tasks and de-emphasizing everything else. It’s the leader’s job to help their subordinates to do just that. They must require clear, written milestones for any projects in the hands of a subordinate and have weekly one-on-one meetings to examine how time will be invested in key priorities plus reviewing anticipated and realized progress. Most 1:1 meetings miss the mark and waste time. Here’s how to make them powerful.

Making Weekly 1:1s Powerful

For each subordinate:

1. Have them choose the five most important priorities/initiatives in the month ahead. Limit them to about five. Starting with a list of 20 important things on their plate is useless; even harmful. If they struggle to pick five, then you are getting your first lesson about why they’ve struggled to produce important results. Help them as needed to pick the five. Try not to do it for them.

2. Ask them for simple project plans for each priority. This is a chronological list of five to 10 key steps for the project, with a starting and ending date for each step, along with a guess on how many hours they are budgeting to complete the step. Many managers do not know how to do this. You may need to teach them how, doing it with them a few times. Part of your job as a leader is mentoring. Save a copy of these project plans in a shared drive.

3. Ask them how much of the week will be devoted to these five priorities. Assuming they are an exempt, salaried manager, I’d expect them to work around 50 hours per week total. Perhaps 25 hours goes to the priorities, with the rest going to “day to day” tasks. (Some line managers spend most of their time on day-to-day, so they might only have five hours for priorities.)

4. Ask them to allocate those 25 hours to certain steps of the five priorities. In writing. For example, five hours for each priority, with the specific step identified.

5. Meet weekly. The first few times you take a subordinate through the weekly meeting additional time may be required for mentoring. But by the third week, the weekly meetings should be held to 30 minutes or less. It begins with the subordinate producing last week’s plan (with their brief notes as to how their time was spent versus plan and what was accomplished) and their proposed plan for the week ahead (following the guidelines above).

Reviewing the prior week lets the subordinate know you’re looking and will call out any loss of focus. This visibility will help them stay focused amidst all their distractions (i.e. e-mails, lunch, meetings, travel). For the week ahead, you may modify the plan or adjust priorities. For any new priorities, you will review the step-by-step project plan briefly. An excellent subordinate working in a well-led environment will get their priorities right 95% of the time.

The meeting will be very fast. Your subordinate will exit the meeting feeling good that they know exactly what you want and have a plan for the week that they helped construct. And they’ll feel a bit of pressure that they’ve committed to focusing on specific priorities with certain accomplishments expected. That pressure is exactly what they’ll need all week long to resist interruptions, avoid attending worthless meetings, shorten long lunches and minimize time spent on “nice to have” projects. They’ll exhibit a more disciplined use of time.

Discipline Is Unnatural
For most humans, discipline is unnatural. Many executives start off this process well, then allow their subordinates to become undisciplined, and weekly 1:1s turn back into formless conversations that don’t produce results. Be rigid in what you require from each subordinate at the start of each meeting. Stick to the process.

Sometimes you’ll have to skip your 1:1 due to travel or vacations. I understand. But the subordinate should still turn in their weekly plan, and you should still look it over and respond by e-mail. Their simple act of writing and reviewing their own weekly plan has tremendous value. Your subordinate’s productivity is too important to your career to allow a full week without a plan and your brief review.

Sometimes a week seems too frequent, especially for subordinates who are supervisors, with a majority of their work falling into the day-to-day category. While in some cases a every other week interval can work, I instead recommend shortening the weekly 1:1 to a five or ten minute meeting. A weekly cadence is powerful in helping keep focus on priorities, which can sometimes include managing key performance indicators along with initiatives.

In all of the companies I’ve consulted for, great leadership is sought after and rewarded. Far and away, promoting from within is the preferred approach, but only if there are executives who are signaling that they are able and willing to step up. Managers and executives who help their boss win by taking tasks off their plate are positioned as ideal candidates for promotion. Companies benefit through accelerated growth when the entire leadership team is stretching and growing; tackling new challenges. Make implementing this management discipline a priority throughout your leadership ranks.

Also on Forbes:

Follow me @RobertSher and check out my new book, Mighty Midsized Companies; How Leaders Overcome 7 Silent Growth Killers.

 

Forbes.com | July 21, 2015 | Robert Sher

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Your #Career : 7 Ways To Deal With Today’s Long Job Hiring Process…If you’re Looking for a Job, You Might have Sensed that it Seems to be Taking Longer to Snag an Offer Than in the Past. You’re Right.

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A Recent Study from the Employment Site Glassdoor.com Found that the Average Interview Process in the U.S. is Now 22.9 Days, Nearly Double the 12.6 Days in 2010.  It’s a maddening shift that’s only added stress for job hunters. I’ll provide tips on how to deal with this new reality in a moment, but first it’s important to understand what’s driving this change.

Interviewer3

On the surface, the trend towards longer hiring cycles seems counterintuitive. After all, as the war for talent has been heating up, you’d expect employers to act faster, not slower, to lock-in the best candidates. The unemployment rate just hit a seven-year low (at 5.3%) and the CareerBuilder jobs site says 49% of employers plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in the second half of 2015, up from 47% last year.

So what gives?

According to Glassdoor Chief Economist Andrew Chamberlain, there are several reasons why the interview process is taking longer these days.

“Overall, the interview process has become longer largely due to the fact that more employers are requiring more comprehensive interview processes,” Chamberlain told me via email. “For job candidates, that basically means more hoops and hurdles they may have to jump through.”

Screening methods such as group presentations, IQ tests, personality tests and drug tests have gained in popularity, each lengthening the hiring timeline.

Chamberlain also noted that there’s been a marked change in the composition of the workplace in recent years, with a shift away from low-skilled, routine jobs and towards higher-skilled positions requiring more sophisticated skills. Hiring specialized and technical workers requires a more careful — that is, longer — vetting process.

Of course, hiring timelines vary according to job type and industry. Glassdoor says hiring decisions for entry-level jobs like retail sales clerks take less than a week, while the process for senior-level execs typically drags on for two months or more. If you’re a law enforcement candidate, you’d better have a holster full of patience: the average hiring time for police officers clocks in at a painfully slow 128 days.

Glassdoor says neither age, gender or education affect hiring time, though.

7 Tips for Job Seekers

Its report leaves little doubt that you should expect your job search to last awhile. Given that reality, here are seven ways to better manage the wait and, with any luck, cut the time it takes for you to get hired:

1.  Do your homework about the employer’s hiring process.Learn what you can before you apply. This will help you tamp down expectations.

Many companies now post information about their particular hiring process on the career page of their websites; some even offer online chats for prospective applicants.  You can also research the interview process by reading employer reviews on sites like Glassdoor.com or Indeed.com as well as by speaking with friends who work at your target employers.

 

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2. Ask about “next steps” at the end of each interview. Find out if more interviews will be needed — and if so, roughly how many, how soon they’ll occur and how they’ll be done (group, individual, phone, etc.). Ask the employer if you’ll need to provide any additional information such as references. Or, if appropriate, whether you’ll need to schedule drug testing. The more proactive you are about handling needed tasks early on, the less chance of delays happening on the back end.

3.  Do what you can to nudge the process along. While you can’t do much to control the employer’s internal decision-making process, there are a few ways to bolster your standing and help speed up a potential offer.

For one, send a compelling thank-you note that clearly explains why you’re the best person for the job. It’s not only the polite thing to do; the note will provide a reminder that you’re a savvy candidate who might get snatched up by a competitor if the employer doesn’t act quickly.

If you know someone who works for the employer, ask him or her to put in a good word for you. As I’ve written before, a strong internal reference is one of the most effective ways to best the competition.

Of course, it’s wise not to appear too eager. There’s a fine line between good follow-up and looking desperate. So demonstrate your interest by touching base at the agreed upon checkpoints, but resist the temptation to check in every time you get anxious.

4. Don’t read too much into employer promises. Even if you’re told “We’ll definitely have a decision by next week” or “You’re one of our top two candidates,” take such comments with a grain of salt.

Employers’ plans change. A hundred things that have nothing to do with you can delay the decision: The hiring manager goes on vacation; an internal project suddenly requires attention; the company becomes the target of a takeover.

It’s fine to take a moment to relish any encouraging comments, but then plow full steam ahead with the job search.

5. Adjust your expectations (and advise your significant others to do the same). Reset your mental time clock and plan on the process lasting two or three times longer than the employer indicates. If it finishes sooner, great. But in the meantime, you’ll have an easier time managing your anxiety during the wait.

6. Keep your job application pipeline full. When you only have one prospect, you’ll obsess over it day and night. The best way to keep your sanity during a long interview wait is by generating a steady flow of new opportunities.

Even if your dream job seems within reach, keep searching, keep networking and keep applying. That way, you’ll feel like you’re making progress and you may uncover other interesting job openings in the process.

7. Snag a competitive offer. Nothing speeds up the hiring process faster than letting employers know you have another job offer. Just like dating, you’ll appear way more attractive to potential suitors once they know others are seriously interested.

Of course, there are risks involved with this strategy, so use it wisely. Once you tell an employer there’s a competing offer, you start the clock ticking. That’s why this approach can backfire if the employer’s lengthy interview timeline can’t be easily shortened. Also, some employers might resent being pressured into making a decision before they’re ready.

But when presented in a non-threatening and professional manner, having a bird in hand is one of the best ways to force the employer’shand — and maybe even get a higher starting salary to boot.

Nancy Collamer, M.S., is a career coach, speaker and author of Second-Act Careers: 50+ Ways to Profit From Your Passions During Semi-Retirement and a contributor to Next Avenue. Her website is MyLifestyleCareer.com; on Twitter she is @NancyCollamer.

Forbes.com | July 14, 2015 | Next Avenue 

#Leadership : Top Signs Your Colleague Is An Empty Suit…Is your Manager, Employee, or CoWorker an Empty Suit? And How Would you Know If They Were? Here are Some Tell Tale Signs You are Working with an Empty Suit.

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Unfortunately, They Lack Knowledge of What They are Doing in Their Work Role. In the Worst Cases the Empty Suit Can’t Manage to Explain the Goals of the Department. In a weak attempt to do so will say something similar to one or more of the following:

The Office

There is nothing wrong with dressing well for the office, but the problem comes when it’s all style and no substance. Expensive suits from Hugo Boss or Armani are no substitute for business acumen. Women and men are each just as guilty in this. Such people could be found in any company from the largest like Apple AAPL -0.1% andMicrosoft MSFT +0.28% to small entrepreneurial offices. Nowhere is immune from this scourge, unless you work alone.

Here are some tell tale signs you are working with an empty suit.

1. Thinks fine clothing is a substitute for brains. They might dress in clothing they perceive as superior and frequently demean your appearance with snooty comments.

For instance: “OMG, why are you wearing those single buckle monk strap shoes, that’s so last season.”

Unfortunately, they lack knowledge of what they are doing in their work role. In the worst cases the empty suit can’t manage to explain the goals of the department. In a weak attempt to do so will say something similar to one or more of the following:

“You know, we do awesome things.”
“We’re the glue that holds the company together.”
“Optimize processes for better efficiency.”
“We’re like the people people.”
“It’s like we forward the empowerment goals of the company.”

 

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2. Talks primarily in platitudes. For instance, in response to “why aren’t any of the computers in the department working today?” says one of the following:

“These things happen.”
“It is what it is.”
“I can see that being a problem.”
“It’s nobody’s fault.”
“It’s a pity.”
3. Parrots the company line even to the extent of unwittingly sounding foolish to others.

On Monday, says: “Oh yes we are committed to providing our employees with the best training in the industry.”

On Tuesday, says: “No we can’t possibly spend money on training because we have to cut costs.”

When confronted about the obvious dichotomy will say one of the following to deflect:

“Not my decision.”
“We are all together in this.”
“My hands are tied on that one.”
“It’s the same everywhere else.”
“I’m doing what my boss told me to do.”
4. Never takes responsibility for errors. For instance, fails to purchase the necessary beverages for the office party, despite multiple requests from the boss to do so. In defense, says one or more of the following:

“I agree we could have done better.”
“Things take time.”
“These things happen.”
“We can’t always get it right”
“I don’t recall being asked.”
Note the lack of “I screwed up” or anything else taking personal responsibility.

 

5. Shows no original thought. Just when you think your empty suit colleague might have provided an insightful suggestion, you actually realize that you’ve heard it before. Where? Likely one of the following:
You made the same suggestion last week (now its being passed off as new.)
It’s recycled from the CEO’s group webcast.
Your colleague suggested it yesterday. The “suit” now takes ownership after ridiculing the idea previously.
The idea has failed many times but the empty suit is too dumb to understand.
The suit saw the idea watching reruns of Seinfeld; thinks no one will notice.
By now you should have identified if there are any empty suits in your work group. If it’s your boss there is no alternative than to find a new job or else suffer in silence as the empty suit leads your department down the road to well deserved obscurity.

If it’s one of your coworkers then be sure not to work on any teams with them if you can help it. And if you are lucky enough to have no empty suits in your team then pray that it stays that way.

In the meantime, don’t forget to plug your brain in as you put on your business clothes.

Simon Constable is a New York-based writer.

 

Forbes.com | July 14, 2015 | Simon Constable 

#Leadership : The Daily Habits of 35 People at the Top of Their Game…Nearly 3 Dozen Successful Leaders Share the Rituals they Say Help them Succeed in Business & Life.

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When it Comes to Achieving Success, Actions Speak Louder than Words, Connections or Opportunities. Think about the importance of your daily habits, for example. Do you run five miles every morning because you value being fit and healthy? Or is it your regular routine to watch three hours of television every night because you feel the need to escape? Without a doubt what you achieve in life depends on your actions. Take it from 35 founders, entrepreneurs and executives who have achieved great things and credit simple daily rituals for helping them do it. Here are their quotes on what helps them get more out of business and life.

1. Hold back-to-back meetings in one location.

If I must have multiple meetings throughout a day, I often aim to set them back-to-back in one location. This way, I maintain efficiency and focus throughout the meetings, setting the pace according to the agenda and maximum time allotted [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][while] knowing we must get straight to the points at hand since the next meeting is impending. Additionally, placing these meetings back to back enables me to maintain a clear frame of mind during the times before and after the block of meetings, since I am freed from the constant self-reminders to be punctual to the next meeting.

– Tiffany Pham, founder and CEO of MOGUL, an award-winning technology platform for women.

2. Read voraciously.

My first job at Warner Bros. was preparing a daily press packet without internet. I had to read everything physically, clip pertinent articles, copy and distribute them to execs. This job taught me the power that one garners by knowing everything that’s going on in business and the world — who’s doing well and might be a candidate for a sale of a popular Warner Bros. TV series or movie and who is in trouble and might be a candidate and need a hit TV series or movie. One needs to be able to converse with other executives intelligently about their business.

–Eric Frankel, founder and CEO of AdGreetz, a cloud-based SaaS platform that empowers brands such as Intel, NBC and Toyota to deploy relevant, personalized video messages that build stronger customer relationships and increase engagement, activation and revenue.

3. Constantly triage your to-do list.

“The role of the CEO is really to keep the team focused on the most important topics, and it’s important that you do the same for yourself.”

–Vikram Aggarwal, CEO of EnergySage, a solar-marketplace company that recently secured a $1.5 million Series A round of funding and announced a partnership with Green America.

 

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4. Unsubscribe mercilessly.

I get a lot of unwanted email from folks who’ve subscribed me to lists that are irrelevant to me. I combat this clutter daily and find it’s a useful way of removing one distraction from my day.

–Apu Gupta, CEO of Curalate, a platform for marketing with images that works with 650 brands, reaching millions of consumers a day.

5. Block time on your calendar according to tasks.

It is so easy to fall into daily distractions, forcing you to play catch up the next day. This cycle can go on forever. Time blocking keeps me on track. I schedule a time frame where I am responding to emails, and then the next hour is blocked for meetings, etc.

–Jayna Cooke, CEO of EVENTup, an online marketplace for event venues that has listed more than 15,000 venues and attracts more than one million consumers a month.

6. Connect with your passion.

Every week I check in and participate with the product and technology teams. Even as the company has grown, I have forced myself to make time to stay connected. As an engineer, I personally enjoy participating in the technology challenges and love to learn about the solutions our team comes up with. Not only does it keep me up-to-date on latest ideas, but it also gives the team an opportunity to see the bigger picture and ask “why?” Not all startup CEO/founders are technologists, but each CEO has a passion. Staying connected with your passion will keep you engaged, even when your job evolves into bigger strategic thinking. Sometimes you have to let yourself have fun with the things you love.

–Alex Muller, CEO of GPShopper, a developer of mobile apps with a focus on the retail industry and annual revenue growth of 50 to 70 percent.

7. Limit the time spent on email every day.

It’s easy to get caught up answering emails all day and feeling like work is being done but by the end of the day realize that no progress has been made on strategically pushing the business forward. You just spent the whole day fighting fires and solving immediate problems but the to-do list remain the same as the day prior. Email can also be a bit of disruption given that it comes in in random intervals and thus can take focus away from projects and work that requires a continuous block of time and thinking. As a result, it is really important to invest blocks on time on email every day also block off times where email is not checked. I do not let email become the “default” work item because it eventually [becomes an] insidious kind of semi-procrastination.

–William Hsu, co-managing partner of Los Angeles-based VC Mucker Capital, which was ranked as the number two accelerator in the U.S. by Seed Accelerators Ranking, a joint study by MIT and Rice University.

8. Spend one hour outside every day.

As a digital-only company, almost all of my time is spent in an office in front of a computer. This is why I make it a rule to be outside for at least one hour a day. Be it walking my dog, riding my bike or just sitting at a patio with friends, I find being outside as a form of meditation. No matter if it’s broken into 20-minute chunks or late at night, the fresh air helps me relax, release any stress and restart my mind for the next challenge.

–Alex Matjanec, CEO of MyBankTracker, a Brooklyn-based personal finance and banking hub, which helps more than 1.5 million visitors a month make smarter banking decisions.

9. Use technology for Personal Relationship Management (PRM).

Every CEO has a to-do list or actions that they need to accomplish daily. While we have many strategic objectives and initiatives that we work on, one daily habit is to target relationships to accelerate or organizations progress. These include clients, partners, internal team members and board members. I weekly schedule an agenda of engagement with each of these relationships via a PRM tool, CallPlease which allows for real-time daily prioritization of these relationship interactions. I leverage the mobile CallPlease app on my iPhone and since it is a team-based system my executive admin can also support these interactions via a web console through its workflow.

–Kris Snyder, CEO of Vox Mobile, a Cleveland-based enterprise mobility solution provider with annual growth which trends above 30 percent, a recent funding round closing at $6.7 million, and consistent inclusion in Gartner’s MMS Magic Quadrant. Snyder is also the founder of the Global Enterprise Mobility Alliance (GEMA).

10. Prioritize key employee objectives.

I know that even my best employees have a range of focus and performance. In addition to motivating them through traditional recognition methods I’ve found that letting them know that their personal objectives are important to me earns their best efforts and loyalty. In the past this has included sponsoring night classes not directly related to their job and helping an employee secure a book deal with a major publisher.

–James Roche, CEO of Houseplans.com, a San Francisco-based stock home design site which has grown 25% year over year.

11. Focus on two to three things a day.

I can’t multi-task. It creates too much chaos.

–Tim Eisenhauer, president of San Diego software provider Axero Solutions, a profitable bootstrapped company with hundreds of customers playing in the crowded enterprise software market with huge venture-backed competitors.

12. Have a family dinner.

We may be co-founders, but we are also mom and dad to three daughters. No matter how hectic running a fast-growing startup is, we make sure to shut off the cell phones and have a family dinner with our girls. While many CEOs are still going strong at 6 p.m., we’re passing the green beans and focusing on what matters most to us — our family. What’s most amazing is how many of our business and marketing ideas have come from our twin 8-year-olds and our 11-year-old right at the dinner table.

–Scott and Missy Tannen, founders of Boll & Branch, a New York based company with a line of accessibly priced luxury bed linens which launched in January 2014 with first-year revenue topping $2 million and more than a $10 million run rate in its second year in business.

13. Get home on time.

I try and be religious about the time I leave my house in the morning for work and the time I get back. It helps balance things and ensures I am present, both physically and mentally, with my family.

–Jeff Braverman, CEO of snack and candy store Nuts.com which has grown revenue to $35 million, up from $1.5 million in 2002.

14. Exercise every day.

I try to run every day and science now shows a positive correlation between running and creativity. It has helped me maintain a sense of balance, it grounds me, and offers an outlet on my most stressful days, and allows me to lean into risk and uncertainty. What I find is that many people, especially executives, take the workouts off the calendar when they get busy or are dealing with a particularly stressful time in their careers or lives. It should be opposite. The more stressed out you may feel the more important it is to carve that time for workouts that nourish not only your body but your soul as well.

–Julie Smolyansky, CEO of Lifeway Foods which has grown gross sales to $130.2 million.

15. Every morning read 20 to 30 unsolved customer support tickets.

I think proactively knowing about customer problems can really help you build a long-term intuition about the important things you need to get right when you build your company. And it helps you build empathy with the people that ultimately have to do the hard work of working through those customer problems.

–Suhail Doshi, CEO of Mixpanel, an analytics platform for mobile and web which helps companies gain insights into user activity and leverage this data to build better products. Mixpanel now tracks 50 billion actions people take in applications per month.

16. Check KPIs first thing in the morning.

As an organization grows, it’s easy to let a little distance get between the CEO and the day to day. By checking KPIs first thing in the morning, I already know the answer tohow we’ve been performing and can immediately move on to the why. I’m in a better position to ask my team important questions, and we can all work more efficiently and effectively.

–Michael Ortner, CEO of Capterra, a web service that has helped companies such as Coca-Cola, Walmart and The Home Depot find and purchase business software.

17. Be unpredictable.

Successful people predict trends but they are original and innovative. Have your own workflow, stick with it or break the rules, but try to stay ahead of others by gettting away of patterns.

–Serban Enache, CEO of global stock photo site Dreamstime.com, which has been used by more than 11 million users since its launch in 2000.

18. Always ask why.

So much of work becomes too focused on the what–the plan we’re writing, the project we’re trying to complete on time, the deadline we missed. We don’t ask “why” enough and it’s the best way to get context for the stuff we’re trying to get done. I’ve found asking it of myself is as important as asking it of the people I work with. It’s critical to staying grounded in what’s most important. I try to keep asking why until I can’t go any deeper. Then get going.

–Jay Simons, president of software company Atlassian which offers team collaboration products including JIRA, Confluence, Bitbucket, and HipChat which are collectively used by more than 48,000 companies worldwide.

19. Allow enough unscheduled time during the day to think, react or write.

This enables me to gets things done on the same day instead of allowing the guilt pile to build up. I keep blocks on my schedule to avoid over-scheduling each day… I am significantly more productive when I am not forced to multitask. Studies have shown that multitasking leads to inefficiency. By creating pockets of time in which I can work alone, I am able to accomplish tasks on the same day and also leave time for collaboration.

–Dr. Walter S. Scott, founder, executive vice president and chief technical officer of satellite imagery company DigitalGlobe, which provides images and geospatial content to U.S. government defense and intelligence agencies, international governments, every major online mapping platform such as Google and other commercial customers.

20. Exude positivity.

I’ve made it a habit to be a positive, enthusiastic source within my company. Even in the morning “hi” or “welcome” has huge ripple effects across the organization at scale. It seems so simple, but has the power to make employees feel valued and appreciated.

–Kris Duggan, CEO of BetterWorks, an employee-related goals platform that recently closed a $15.5 million Series A round and is more than doubling active users every quarter.

21. Prioritize a daily to-do list.

I’m a zero-inbox CEO. Occasionally I don’t get there, but each night I give it my all to power through via all available gmail shortcuts and give folks the responses they need as quickly and efficiently as possible. I hate feeling like a delay on my response might prevent Omada employees from quickly progressing their work.

–Sean Duffy, CEO of Omada Health, a digital-therapeutics company that was selected by Fast Company as one of “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies.”

22. Talk to people.

This is often described as “managing by wandering around” but don’t under-value it. Having random conversations with different people across the organization will really help you keep your ear to the ground on what is really happening. Be respectful and don’t interrupt people who are working but catching someone making a coffee in the kitchen, give them a big smile and learn a bit about their day in a friendly, non-creepy way. You will easily stay on top of the pulse of the organization.

–Jonathan Cogley, CEO and founder of IT security company Thycotic which ranks at the 2,671 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in 2014, up 760 spots from 2013.

23. Prepare budgets by initiatives and expected outcomes rather than by functions.

Thinking about spending this way keeps me focused on how each dollar contributes to building the company.

–Mike Zivin, cofounder and CEO of Whittl, an online appointment booking platform for neighborhood businesses, which recently raised a $3.3 million series A round with backing from GrubHub co-founder Mike Evans as well as GrubHub’s first VC, Origin Ventures in Chicago.

24. Get coached.

Olympic athletes have coaches — so should CEOs. I have had a coach for years, Ed Batista, who I work with at least biweekly to recognize and improve my weaknesses.

–Douglas Merrill, former CIO of Google and now CEO of ZestFinance, a big-data startup that uses more than 100,000 data points about an individual to figure out if he or she will pay back a loan.

25. Keep a close eye on the competition.

I use the first 15 minutes of each day to read competitive web sites and any press they might be receiving. Knowing what our competition is doing or thinking is critical to our ability to both win and keep business.

–Darin LeGrange, CEO of Aldera, a company that provides health plans (insurers) with the back-office technology that handles billing, claims processing, coverages, and more.

26. Get moving.

I am a huge believer in walking, and in moving around in general. At the very least, I make sure to get up from my chair every hour, and walk the office. Not only does this get the blood flowing, it helps me see what the team is working on and helps spur the spontaneous discussions that lead to new ideas and innovations. I also love to do walking meetings. Instead of going into a conference room, we’ll walk around our neighborhood, a mix of businesses and beautiful old houses and apartment buildings. I find this brings out more natural and authentic discussions, and keeps people in the moment – you can’t mentally check out like you can if you’re sitting at a table.

–David Kalt, founder and CEO of Reverb, a marketplace for musical instruments and gear that has raised about $5 million in funding and expects to do $130 million in transactions this year, up from $40 million last year.

27. Read the news about your industry first thing in the morning.

“The first thing I do once out of bed is read 15 to 30 minutes religiously. I jot down anything interesting for rumination vis a vis healthcare [such as] Netflix’s god mode, or Jaguar’s brainwave tracker. It’s amazing how many dots you can connect by just reading.”

–Ahmed Albaiti, founder and CEO of Medullan, a digital health innovation company that works with payers, providers, and pharma on patient engagement.

28. Adjust your perspective.

Every Tuesday at noon San Francisco administrators test the emergency alarm system, which I now use as a marker for a notable time in each week. Every Tuesday at Noon, I deliberately try to “let go of all things negative, retain all things positive, and march forward to a better week, and a better you!” Though this started as a personal habit, it’s become a company-wide event, across multiple time zones.

–Neha Sampat, CEO of digital tech solutions provider Built.io, which powers innovation at the intersection of enterprise mobility and the Internet of Things (IoT) for startups and Fortune 500 companies. Sampat also co-founded KurbKarma, was named a “San Francisco Business Times 40 under 40″ honoree, as well as one of “50 Women in Tech Dominating Silicon Valley” in 2015.

29. Get to inbox zero.

“Anything that’s not actionable immediately, I get out of my inbox. This frees me up to think and focus on the tasks that I know will take up most of my time, like building a team of amazing people who are smart, thoughtful and motivated who are trying to achieve something. That is the number 1 most important thing in building a company as I truly believe a company is only as good as what is made up of. ”

–Rick Morrison, CEO of Comprehend Systems, which works with big names in the life-sciences industry, such as Boston Scientific, Astellas, and AstraZeneca, modernizing and improving the quality in their clinical process through cloud-based tech.

30. Make a daily “top three” to-do list.

As CEO, my to-do list is never ending, so it’s important for me to prioritize. Typically, I’ll make a daily list of the three most important things I need to get done that day. It really helps to make my day more manageable. As a morning person, I tend to complete those activities before noon, which then gives me time to address other urgent items that come up during the day.

–Ratmir Timashev, CEO of Veeam, a data center backup company founded in 2006 which now employs more than 1,500 employees around the world and brings in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, with its sights on reaching $1 billion in revenue in the next five years.

31. Get up to speed with direct reports first thing.

Informally, I call each of my direct reports between 7 to 8 a.m. daily to catch up and get updates on various parts of the business.

–Michael MacDonald, CEO of nutrition and weight-loss company Medifast.

32. Plan your work and work your plan.

I think Evander Holyfield said that. But anyhow, I use [the project management app]Trello to manage my day-to-day. It’s color-coded between Hiring, Investor, Legal, Sales/Marketing/Press, Product, Admin, and JFDI. Every Sunday night, I get my week prepped by looking at my calendar and my Trello board. Then, every morning, I take a quick look at the Trello board and mentally prep myself for the day.

–Jason van den Brand, co-founder and CEO of online mortgage refinancing startupLenda, which graduated from Silicon Valley-based 500 Startups last year. Since then, the company raised its first round of funding, has been growing 40 percent month over month since December, and recently passed the $40 million mark in loans financed through the platform.

33. Keep a short to-do list.

I keep my to-do list short. Every morning I write down the three most important things I need to do that day to move the needle forward. This helps me to make sure I’m playing more offense than defense. It’s so easy to get bogged down in email and other people’s to-do lists that when you look up at the end of the day you realize you didn’t make any progress on the things that are most important. Keeping my to-do list forces me to prioritize and do just the things that are most important.

–Ethan Austin, founder of the online fundraising website Give Forward, which has raised more than $150 million and hosts 20,000 active fundraisers at any given time.

34. Take time to reflect.

As a CEO, you can’t be afraid of the decisions you make. But it’s just as dangerous to have full confidence in your decisions. Every day I reflect back on the effects of my decisions that day and how I can improve upon them in the future.

– John Yung, CEO of cloud application management platform Appcara which is used by customers including Sysorex, AIS, HP Cloud Services and Intermedia.

35. Be consistent and proactive.

I was an avid bodybuilder back in my college days and to succeed you had to be religiously consistent day after day with diet, nutrition and training. I applied the same in business. It takes time to create great products and a stable business so I’ve learned to succeed you have to remain consistent especially when you truly believe in something. It’s a two-edged sword that if not tamed can also have negative ramifications, so I also try to be proactive to know when to change angles when the need arises.

– Payman Taei, is CEO and founder of Visme a DIY online tool that has empowered over 200,000 businesses and non-profits create better presentations and infographics. He is also the founder ofHindSite Interactive an award-winning web agency that helps companies improve their online presence with effective websites.

What daily habits help you achieve more in business and life?

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
Image: Getty Images
Inc.com | July 13, 2015 | 

BY CHRISTINA DESMARAIS

Contributor, Inc.com

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#Leadership : Overcoming Burnout: 5 Ways To Get Back On Track At Work…What Is Burnout? Career Burnout is a Chronic Psychological Condition Characterized by Exhaustion, Cynicism & a Lack of Professional Efficacy

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Why People Experience Burnout ?  Excessive workloads, unrealistic time pressures and resulting exhaustion certainly contribute to burnout, but they alone are not responsible. Day-to-day social interactions and a lack of civility in the workplace are a primary cause.

Burnout_Woman

“I haven’t seen you smile in a week,” Anne vividly recalls her husband saying. She was in the depths of burnout. She worked as a medical professional in a relentlessly pressure-packed environment, with an unreasonably heavy workload, yet she didn’t think her job was the source of her unhappiness. She had come to blame herself, believing she was simply incompetent.

With the support of her husband and a counselor, Anne began to see that work and misery didn’t have to be synonymous. She realized there was a difference between being busy and burdened, and she regained control, partly by making an effort to pause throughout the day to relax or exercise. Eventually, she even recognized that she could truly be good at her job.

Anne is just one of an increasing number of people who have experienced workplace burnout. “It’s more common than the average worker recognizes,” says Chris Ebberwein, Ph.D., a behavioral faculty member at Wesley Family Medicine, University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita and member of the American Psychology Association.  “It can creep into your life and make you start to think unhappiness at work is normal.”

 

What Is Burnout?

Career burnout is a chronic psychological condition characterized by exhaustion, cynicism and a lack of professional efficacy, says Christina Maslach, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. “It’s not simply that people are tired…It’s not just that people have a bad attitude,” she says. “It’s that they’re working in a socially toxic workplace,” one that lacks support and transparency from supervisors and colleagues.

The idea of workplace burnout first gained traction in the 1970s, but awareness of the problem has peaked lately. “The workplace is just squeezing people harder and harder in a lot of ways, and burnout is that reaction to chronic, everyday stressors,” says Maslach. “People experiencing burnout talk about erosion—I love my job, I’m good at my job, but working in this environment is socially toxic.”

Job burnout affects professionals working across all occupations, but appears to be most prevalent among those in service jobs, particularly physicians, 46% of whom have reported experiencing it, according to the Medscape Physician Lifestyle Report 2015.

 

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Why People Experience Burnout

Excessive workloads, unrealistic time pressures and resulting exhaustion certainly contribute to burnout, but they alone are not responsible. Day-to-day social interactions and a lack of civility in the workplace are a primary cause.

“Something as little as someone rolling their eyes can wear away at you,” says Maslach. “It’s also sarcastic tone of voice, being nasty and rude. It’s what you say, how you say it and how you act.”

According to Maslach, There are 6 Areas Where Trouble can Lead to Burnout. These are:

1. Workload: Do you have too many tasks and not enough time to complete them, or too few resources? Is the flow of your assignments unsustainable?

2. Control: Does your job allow you a level of autonomy? Do you have control over what you’re doing and when?

3. Reward and positive feedback: When you do something valuable for your employer, are you recognized for your work? Do you feel appreciated?

4. Workplace community: Do you work in a supportive, transparent environment, or are you surrounded by destructive competition and gossip?

5. Fairness: Is everyone within your organization treated with respect, fair opportunity and equal access, or do you perceive favoritism and cheating?

6. Values: Do you find your work meaningful, or does it require you to compromise your personal values?

 

Overcoming Burnout

If you feel like you’re on the path to burnout, here are five ways to get back on track.

1. Seek input from within your organization.
In many cases, professional burnout is not exclusive to one individual within an organization. Identify other employees who may be experiencing the problem and collaborate with them to start to fix it. “People have to work together to figure out what’s creating a less than ideal working environment,” says Maslach. “Ask yourselves, ‘How do we turn this around?’ See if there are ways for the organization to work with everybody to find a solution.”

A successful example of this is CREW (Civility, Respect and Engagement in the Workplace), a burnout intervention program first implemented in Veterans Health Administration hospitals. Over a six-month period, participants met weekly to discuss respectful workplace relationships and participate in communication exercises. Outside of meetings, they were encouraged to practice positive social exchanges. The program yielded improved civility and decreased burnout more than one year later.

2. Establish new relationships.
If everyone in your office social circle has given up on escaping the burnout rut, it’s time to make a change. Surround yourself with coworkers who want to make positive strides in their work lives and draw support from one another. In “Conquering Burnout,” in Scientific American, Maslach and a coauthor write, “Receiving good vibes from others is an uplifting experience, but so, too, is expressing them to others.”

3. Find meaning in your work.
Identify the most fulfilling elements of your work and dedicate more time to them. If you can, talk to your supervisor about better aligning your responsibilities with your strengths and interests. “If you feel like the projects you’re taking on match what you like to do, burnout will diminish, because you’re enjoying yourself at work,” says Ebberwein.

4. Make a conscious effort to take breaks.
Whether for a few minutes or a few days, take time away to recharge. Set an alarm every 30 minutes as a reminder to get up and move around the office, suggests Maslach in “Conquering Burnout,” and make use of your vacation days. “Some companies love people who never take breaks,” says Ebberwein. “But that praise is moving them down a path to burnout.” If appropriate, talk to your employer about switching to a more flexible work schedule. Customizing your schedule to your needs can offset burnout by giving you a greater sense of control.

5. Change organizations or career paths.
Despite your best efforts, sometimes you can’t possibly overcome burnout where you work. In that case, beating burnout may require you to consider a new job or an entirely new field. “Some jobs are, by nature, difficult, tiring and stressful,” says Ebberwein. “If you can’t say you do it for a specific reason, explore other options.”

 

Forbes.com | June 23, 2015 | Vicky Valet 

#Leadership: 4 Things You Should Ask an #Employee Who’s Leaving… A Solid Exit Interview that will Hopefully not Only Yield Valuable Insights, but That will Leave Everyone Feeling Good about our Experience Working Together.

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I wouldn’t have tried to talk her out of her decision, but there are a few questions I would have asked her if I had the chance to do it over again. (For the record, these are my questions as a #Leader & #Manager, not necessarily from a #Legal or # HR standpoint. Google is your friend if you want loads of suggestions on that front.)

Career Guidance - 4 Things You Should Ask an Employee Who's Leaving

A few months ago, one of my employees decided to leave the company. Her exit wasn’t a total surprise—we’d hired her originally as an intern, and we all knew her heart and her passion resided in the nonprofit realm. I tried to convince her that our business—employee engagement consulting—was saving the world in a different way, but alas, she wasn’t buying it.

We’re a relatively small organization, and life gets busy. On her last day, I was in client meetings and didn’t really get a chance to say a proper goodbye. I didn’t do an exit interview with her, either. (And I know what you’re thinking, by the way—so just do what I say and not what I do, OK?)

I’ve thought about her a lot over the last couple of months. I miss her presence in our office, but truthfully, I think she made the right decision. I’m a big believer in following your passion and purpose in life, and my guess is she will ultimately be much happier in a job that better fits with her life goals.

I wouldn’t have tried to talk her out of her decision, but there are a few questions I would have asked her if I had the chance to do it over again. (For the record, these are my questions as a #Leader & #Manager, not necessarily from a #Legal or # HR standpoint. Google is your friend if you want loads of suggestions on that front.)

1- How did the job match your expectations?

Our own research at Brilliant Ink tells us that creating accurate first impressions is a key driver of employee engagement, so one of the first things I’d want to know is how the day-to-day realities of the job stacked up to our description of it when she began work with us. This doesn’t necessarily change the nature of the work in the future, but it would certainly help us know how to sell the job more effectively and accurately to result in better hires (which, in my opinion, is the toughest nut of all to crack).

 

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2- Did you feel that the work you were doing aligned with your personal goals and interests?

We do a goal-setting process with our employees at the beginning of the year, and we revisit these on a quarterly basis. However, these are mostly professional development goals that tie directly to our business objectives. With this question, I’d be assessing how her work fits into the bigger picture of her life—something Millennials say is more and more important to them. And our research indicates that fully engaged employees report a greater likelihood of tapping into personal and professional passions and interests at work compared to less-engaged employees.

In this case of this particular employee, I already knew the answer—she had a passion for environmental work and causes, which doesn’t really relate to our field. And I wouldn’t necessarily change the nature of the work accordingly. But again, it gives clues into the kinds of questions we should be asking at the start of the hiring process and could guide conversations between managers and employees throughout their life with our company.

3- Did you have the tools and resources you needed to effectively do your job?

This is a big one. In the early years of the company, I got pretty comfortable with bootstrapping my way to success, which means we still operate pretty lean and mean. This is a good thing in terms of conserving costs, but we also have to remember that we can’t deliver outstanding work without the right systems in place to make the magic happen. Understanding how my employee felt about the kind of support she was getting would help us know what kinds of investments we should be making in the future.

4- Would you recommend this as a great place for a friend to work?

Would I get an truthful answer to this question? I honestly don’t know, but it’s worth a shot. The employee in question was a good, solid member of our team, and I’d trust her recommendation on future hires. If the job wasn’t a great fit for her, the next best thing I could hope is that she’d be an advocate for our company and a referrer of great potential employees. Plus, with the business that we’re in, it pays to know how we can improve our own employee experience.

Here’s a final exit interview question I don’t recommend: During a wrap-up interview, I once had a former boss ask me if there was anything she could do to change my mind. I enjoyed the job but was incredibly underpaid, so I felt a faint glimmer when she asked me this question. I told her a nominal raise would do the trick. Unfortunately, she promptly replied that it wasn’t possible. The lesson: Don’t offer something you can’t deliver. There’s nothing worse than getting your hopes up—only to have them doused with ice water.

We have an amazing team in place, and I hope I won’t be saying goodbye to anyone else for a very long time. But if we do, I’ll make the time for a proper goodbye—and a solid exit interview that will hopefully not only yield valuable insights, but that will leave everyone feeling good about our experience working together.

Photo of person leaving office courtesy of Shutterstock.

About The Author

Career Guidance
Liz Kelly is the CEO and founder of Brilliant Ink, an employee communications and engagement consultancy with offices in Oakland and New York. She recently co-authored the award-winning Employee Experience Survey, a study of more than 300 Fortune 1,000 employees that correlates key moments of the employee experience to overall levels of employee engagement.

 

The Daily Muse | June 2015 | Liz Kelly 

#Leadership: 3 Reasons Being A Manager Is Overrated…Before you Start Dreaming about Stock Options & your Name on a Door Plaque, Here are a Few Downsides of Being Top Dog

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Being a Boss Means that you’re Ultimately Accountable for the Output of your Team — for Better or Worse.

A statistic I stumbled across while researching a previous piece has been stuck in my head this week. According to Deloitte’s 2015 Millennial Survey, 53% of Millennials across the globe aspire to be senior leaders (up to and including the CEO) of the organization in which they currently work. Far be it from me to rain on anyone’s parade, but I have to wonder if these (likely) entry-level employees have any idea of what they’re really in for as they climb the ladder to the corner office.

 

Before you start dreaming about stock options and your name on a door plaque, here are a few downsides of being top dog:

The Buck Stops With You

With great power comes great quarterly expectations. Being a boss means that you’re ultimately accountable for the output of your team — for better or worse. While you look like a hero when those under you overdeliver, if your team comes up short, you’re the fall guy. As a manager, you don’t live and die based on your own efforts, but how well you’re able to motivate and manage the efforts of others. Your success is no longer directly within your control, instead it’s based on an aggregation of what those who work for you achieve, which can leave you feeling powerless instead of powerful.

You’ll Be Dealing With Drama

If you’ve never aspired to go into politics or to work in a daycare, perhaps being a manager isn’t for you.  Immersing yourself in uncomfortable interpersonal situations that call for outstanding tact will become a significant portion of your workload. You will have to do performance appraisals of your subordinates and find the most constructive way to provide negative feedback on a subpar work effort. You’ll have to terminate employees and some of them might not go quietly or graciously. You’ll have to mediate petty conflict between team members without seeming to play favorites. You’ll have to switch up your communication style based on which employee you’re talking to and figure out the best way to motivate a group of individuals who may not have the same goals and definitely won’t respond to the same incentives.

 

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You’re No Longer A Doer

Ironically enough, once you’re a manager, you’ll be doing a lot less of the type of work that got you promoted to that level. You may love being a designer, but once you’re leading a team of designers, your focus shifts from figuring out the best way to create visually appealing and intuitive experiences across various media to how best to manage other people who are doing that and how to effectively allocate your own limited time. If you find fulfillment in getting your hands dirty with the daily intricacies of your work (be that teaching, coding, number crunching, etc.), a managerial role might feel oddly empty — you’ve been rewarded for all your good work by no longer getting to do that work. As Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes notes, most companies don’t have a clear career trajectory in place to advance and reward employees who are specialists in their jobs but not interested in or suited for management roles:

What’s missing, not just in the tech world but across the board, is a dedicated track—complete with titles, incremental pay raises and true upward potential—for exceptional performers who aren’t keen on managing people. These are the experts within an organization who have amassed a unique body of knowledge and who continually push their company to perform better. They may be leaders, but they lead by example, not by mandate. They inspire co-workers around them with their singular contributions rather than through direct instruction.

The Bottom Line?

There’s another statistic within the same Deloitte survey that’s also worth pondering and might shed a little more light on Millennials’ managerial aspirations. According to survey findings, only 28% of Millennials feel that their current job takes full advantage of their skill set. Looked at through this lens, the urge to be the boss may be less about grabbing the brass ring and more about feeling that moving up the corporate ladder is where greater autonomy and freedom lies. That might not be a accurate assumption, but it’s a very understandable one.

Learn more about my work and connect with me on Twitter.

 

Forbes.com | June 11, 2015 | J. Maureen Henderson

#Leadership: Agile Leadership and the Manager/Entrepreneur…Remaining Flexible is One of the Most Important Traits a Leader can Possess–Especially Today.

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Over the last number of years, the word “agile” has been tossed around in numerous ways. The most common use has roots in the programming world, where “agile” is regarded as one step forward from “waterfall” as a means of making incremental improvements, to assure that the final product grows and is adjusted through the development process to be aligned with customer demand. In recent years, agile has emerged as “agile leadership.”

IMAGE: Getty Images

Some people have a rigorous notion of agile. Others prefer to use agile as a synonym for the ability to be flexible and responsive to a particular situation. Fortunately or unfortunately, the term itself is used in a non-concrete way.

What does agile leadership mean? At its core, my approach to agile leadership is predicated on the assumption that leadership is as much about how one adjusts one’s leadership style to a situation as it is on the embedded personality characteristics of the leader. Agile leadership, in this sense, implies contingency that how one leads is dependent on how one analyzes and views a particular situation.

For example, if the situation is one of stability, minimum uncertainty, and routinized expectations, then, as a leader, you lead in one way. If the opposite is true–unstable environment, high uncertainty, and ambiguous expectations–then, as a leader, you lead in another way.

Leading a manufacturing division is one thing; leading R&D is another. Leading when customer expectations are clear demands one kind of leadership; leading when customer expectations are not clear demands another.

 

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Agile leadership demands a mindful consideration of the context and an ability to adjust your leadership style appropriately. Agile leaders are able to vary their leadership style along a continuum. The question, of course, is what is this continuum?

The classic distinction is facilitative and directive leadership. The challenge for an agile leader is to balance their directive and facilitative style. Directive leadership sustains control by allocating resources, making expectations clear, defining goals, and establishing the parameters of success and failure. Facilitative leadership is based on giving individuals maximum flexibility and autonomy–giving them flexible goals, and letting them define and deal with parameters and constraints on their own.

In balancing these two leadership styles, an agile leader needs to be clear about which style is appropriate. During lean and difficult times, you may want to explicitly define goals, with the assumption that by delineating goals and specifying expectations will allow you to better control resources. In times of growth and abundance, you may want to define goals more broadly and give autonomy to be open to opportunities.

The challenge for an agile leader is to understand which style is appropriate at which type in time. The challenge is to balance leadership styles.

In these times, agile leadership is a special challenge for managers & entrepreneurs because they are caught on the horns of a dilemma. On the one had, they want to lead in such a fashion to give their organizations and teams the space to be innovative to assure the cutting edge. On the other hard, entrepreneurs have a short leash when it comes to resources and time. They have to be continuously accountable to assure a concrete ROI. The need to stimulate creativity and innovation may demand that the entrepreneur place a greater emphasis on their facilitative style while the shadow of ROI may demand that they emphasize their directive style. Agility is the capacity to juggle both styles as necessary. Entrepreneurial leaders need to get beyond blinders and personality and be aware of when one style suits the situation better than the other.

Even before “agile leadership” was in vogue, leaders of organizations of all sizes were well aware of it. The name may be a fad, but agile leadership has always been a core behavioral trait of successful managers & entrepreneurs.