Introducing change can be a pretty messy affair, and may well open a Pandora’s Box of never ending problems. The main resistance to change is people, for people are creatures of habit, and tend to prefer staying within their comfort zone, the status quo. As such, it is pertinent that as leaders and managers, we carefully manage the introduction of change in a way that can produce maximum effects for our team.
In this leadership lesson, we shall look at five principles that we can follow as we set out to …

When moving on to head new teams, it is often tempting to dive in to find similarities between the new team and the previous team. Indeed, for some of us our previous team may be our only reference point for us to base any decisions or comparisons on. While it is certainly effective to find similarities between teams to guide our actions and decisions, more importantly it is crucial to note the differences between the teams that may potentially make the difference.
We have previously discussed the fatal mistake a leader …

“There is always something that can be improved, as long as we think creatively.” To many, such a statement may be deemed as easier said than done. To many, try as we might, everything seem to be well in place, and there really do not seem to be any room for improvement.
With regards to this problem, a more appropriate question to ask ourselves, rather than “What else may I improve?” is “Am I getting ALL the results I hope for my team to achieve? If not, why not? Or specifically, …

Among the highest order of maintaining a culture of respect with our team members is honesty and the provision of constructive feedback. This is not just a hallmark of a good culture of respect, it is also essential for healthy communication in the workplace. Many a time, we, as leaders and managers, fail to provide feedback to our team members when we see them performing below expectations as we are uncertain of how we may do so while being tactful, avoiding conflict and hurting their feelings.
At times, we don’t quite …

A leadership lesson on trust, The Speed of Trust by Steven Covey is a MUST READ for leaders who want to find out how they can instill a culture of trust in their team and foster a trusting working relationship within it.
The One Thing that Changes Everything
While traditional business owners define results to be the product of strategy and execution, Steven Covey contends this by showing how results may be killed in the absence of trust, even when there is a strong strategy and efficient execution. Instead, trust should be …

It is important that as leaders, we are aware of our own leadership styles, and the effects of it. One of the largest mistakes a leader can make is to be uncertain about his own style of leadership, as when he can’t make up his mind as to what kind of leader he wants to be, he’ll not just create confusion for himself but for his team too. Can you imagine if one fine day your boss wakes up and can’t decide whether he wants to be a dictator or …

So far, we have discussed how we can set standards, gain agreement in them, and achieve clarity in them. The final step towards having effective standards would naturally be to enforce them. In this final issue, we shall discover how we can enforce the standards we set so as to create an effective framework and culture for the team to work with.
If you were of the impression that setting standards is the end of it all and the start to a beautiful working culture, you’d be in for a rather …

I believe that as leaders, all of us are aware that we are responsible for not just our own success and failures but the success and failures of our team and each of it’s member as well. This includes being responsible for the team’s welfare, standards, culture and morale. In other words, anything that matters to any faction of the team matters to us. This unlimited liability of a leader only means that we are placed in a position to care about issues larger than ourselves.
The problems faced by our …