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The Six Stages of a Leader’s Journey

By Ron Price

I recently gave a presentation on the stages of leadership where I began by challenging the audience to tell me what they thought the six stages were. They huddled into groups, brainstorming the stages and validating their ideas to one another. Then several of the groups read their answers aloud, hoping to match my list. There was plenty of laughter and some groaning as I told each group that while their list was thoughtful, it didn’t match the six stages I had come to talk about that day.

I give this example to demonstrate how different the leader’s journey can be for each person, as well as how we each perceive the steps on that journey differently, depending on where they fall in our lives. Here are the six stages of leadership I presented that day:

What Not to Do in 2019

By Whit Mitchell

At this time of year, there is no shortage of people telling us what to do to make the next year a success. I’m going to take a slightly different approach and tell you what not to do.

Don’t set goals that sound good.
Instead of shooting blindly ahead, now is a great time to look back on 2018. What worked well for you this year? What didn’t work so well? What could have gone better? And what can you change to see success? Don’t fall into the trap of setting lofty goals that look good on paper or sound good when you say them out loud. You may miss reaching them in if they aren’t realistic, or if you don’t have a passion for achieving them. Think SMART when setting goals, and make sure they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.

4 Ways to Deepen Goal Setting

By Sunnie Stobbe

At the beginning of every year, most people make New Year’s Resolutions. Many of us set grandiose and often unattainable goals that are difficult to achieve. Here are some strategies to deepen your goal setting for 2019.

Start with the end in mind. Visualize where you want to be in three months, six months, and a year. There are several resources and tools that can help you imagine the future. For example, you could create a vision board. Select a mélange of images to display that represent the items, events, or accomplishments you desire. Seeing these images every day keeps them fresh in your mind and is a cue to focus on what matters most to you. Another tool that can help you visualize is journaling. You can use a simple blank notebook to jot down your thoughts, or a journal that offers prompts and categories to explore your goals in more detail. Whatever tool you choose, try to keep an open mind and allow to tool to work for you.

Unconscious Bias: How to be Part of the Solution

Guest Post By Stacy Ennis And Ron Price

Recently, Ron Price and I published a leadership fable, Growing Influence: A story of how to lead with character, expertise, and impact. Along with teaching leadership principles, the story tackles gender discrimination in the workplace. The main character, Emily, meets and befriends an older retired CEO named David. Through their friendship, David is exposed to the unconscious (and sometimes quite conscious) biases in the modern workplace; Emily benefits from David’s wisdom over years of leadership and uses what she learns to overcome what feels like an impossible situation.

Can I Be a True Leader?

Avoiding Judgments as an Introvert Leader

By Dr. Francis Eberle

This past year three coaching clients taught me to remember that this is a complex question. All of them were already in substantial leadership roles but were questioning whether others perceived them to be leaders, including their supervisors. For me there was no question; it was obvious that they were true leaders. For them it was a different story.

Their confidence in their ability to lead was waning and causing them stress. The company was growing and they wondered if they would fit in the new model. Each of them had a unique personality with firm ideas about their leadership, while exhibiting a more quiet, thoughtful and detailed approach to their work. Read More

Are You Meeting the Needs of Your Team?

By Whit Mitchell

When you think back on your life, can you pinpoint what helped shape who you are today? Perhaps it was a person—someone who saw greatness inside of you and helped you discover your worth. Maybe it was a profound experience—something that helped you discover the value of life and those around you. For 11 young athletes back in 1982, one of those life-shaping times occurred during Dartmouth freshman crew, class of ’86. I was their coach, and they were my team. My experience coaching those freshmen was one of the richest in my entire sports coaching career.

Three Steps to Personal Goal Setting for Leaders

By Ron Price

Most leaders have completed their organizational plans for next year, communicated with specificity and enthusiasm to their employees, and appropriated the necessary resources to lay the groundwork for a successful year.

However, I tend to find in my work that few have applied this same discipline to creating and implementing their own individual performance plans for the year. Sometimes this is nothing more than an oversight; other times it is because the leader doesn’t feel accountable to the same disciplines imposed on others, and sometimes it is because of deeper feelings of insecurity that produce a subtle but lingering fear of failure. Read More

5 Ways Vulnerability Can Be An Asset

By Dave Clark,

I did something very out of character for me one day last week. In fact, it was something I don’t think I’ve ever done in a 30+ year career in the workforce – I admitted to my manager that I simply just didn’t have it that day. My mental gas tank had gone dry.

A confluence of internal and external pressures created a perfect storm of mental chaos. Sleep deprived, overextended, and trying to keep up with my self-inflicted unmanageable schedule led to elevated-stress levels that pushed me over the edge. My will to conquer the world was put on hold – even if just for one day.Read More

The Power of DISC Language

Improving Communication During High-stress Situations and Making Performance Evaluations More Meaningful

Debbie Cronin is an administrative manager responsible for directing a busy 30-person department at St. Peter’s Health, where she works with a diverse team of professionals from a variety of practices. When Debbie is on the floor, she wears many hats, acting as is the admin of the day, the house supervisor, the wound and ostomy nurse manager, and the float department manager. Not only is she accountable for the floor, but she also has to contend with a multitude of personalities, work behaviors and communications styles throughout her day. All of this, coupled with a non-stop stressful work environment, can be a challenge to say the least. Read More