Having the right people in your leadership team is one of the most impactful choices we make as CEOs. People with the right leadership characteristics not only bring successful results to your organization they also contribute to our personal sense of fulfilment, success and happiness. Gut feel is important as is testing that gut feel over a few meetings to really get to know a potential addition to your executive.

We all get the same amount of time – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year – it’s what we do with our time and how we talk to ourselves that makes all the difference. 

We are also hearing from lots of clients about finding their purpose in pursuit of living their most fulfilled life. In a recent strategy development workshop our participants painted their inspiration on black rocks to capture their team purpose. It felt as good as winning the lottery at the realization of how important their work was.

I’m reminded of the life lessons that taking on running parallels with any difficult goal you want to attain. The most important lesson I keep coming back to is: you have to run slow to run fast.

We all have a vision for the future and contribution we want to make, to our organizations, to our community, to our social networks. All these aspirations lead to tension and there is no escape – with ambitions for a better future comes the possibility of failing to achieve it. The grander the vision the more risks come along for the ride. The work of leaders is to act on purpose towards our vision and accept the risks. Leadership is inherently risky and requires courage.

We all have a vision for the future and contribution we want to make, to our organizations, to our community, to our social networks. All these aspirations lead to tension and there is no escape – with ambitions for a better future comes the possibility of failing to achieve it. The grander the vision the more risks come along for the ride. The work of leaders is to act on purpose towards our vision and accept the risks. Leadership is inherently risky and requires courage.

If you want to develop stronger, more confident, and greater success with your team and team members, a culture of empowerment is key. These five elements of empowerment will provide you with the building blocks to grow empowerment with your team.

Creating a set of norms is a helpful practice in high-performing teams. It’s the easiest and most proactive step a team can take to help team members be clear about each other’s intentions and build trust. We should also keep the perspective that everyone on the team has a positive intention to follow the norms. It’s the minimum standard of trust needed to build stronger relationships.

You’re exhausted. You made it to the end of the project or through another challenging yet successful year. At the end, it can be easy to push on to whatever lays ahead or to collapse into vacation or a quiet period. I want to encourage you to take a moment to do something else first, even briefly. Celebrate. There is huge value in arriving and taking stock of the journey you’ve completed. Doing so means looking back and reflecting on where you started and what you’ve accomplished. It’s important to acknowledge the effort, learning, challenges overcome and growth that it took to get here.

No can be a difficult answer to give when you value the relationship with a team member, colleague, client or other stakeholder. Feelings of disappointing others, appearing difficult or being unhelpful can get in the way. And yet, you find yourself saying yes and then feeling a pang of regret right after. You might even engage in negative self-talk for saying yes instead of no. Effective leaders master the ability to say no with grace so they can align with what they believe and value.

There’s a feeling inside of wondering. A curiosity that can feel unsatisfied. How am I really doing? Am I making the impact that I want? What don’t I know? How could I become even better? Lacking feedback contributes to feeling this uncertainty, but how can you resolve these feelings when you’re in a leadership role with a vacuum of feedback from your team, peers or even your boss (if you have one)?

What kind of impact does your vision have on the people around you? I’m often in leadership discussions about the future of an organization where the topics start out around an ambitious goal – to be the leader in… or achieve a revenue target of X. Recently, one leader of a small business explained, “I would like to have 5x our current revenue in 2-3 years so that I can have flexibility when and where I work.” This falls short when it comes to inspiring your customers, shareholders, employees and everyone else that supports your organization.

What makes a leader? I’m often asked this question and find myself reflecting on it almost weekly. One of the inspirations I look to when considering this mystery is the work of Simon Sinek and the idea of leadership outside of business. Outside of a titled role. His book, Leaders Eat Last, speaks to the small everyday actions people take that transform them into leaders. In his book, Sinek says, “Leadership is not a license to do less; it is a responsibility to do more. And that’s the trouble. Leadership takes work. It takes time and energy. The effects are not always easily measured and they are not always immediate. Leadership is always a commitment to human beings.”

There is no shortage of leadership resources online, in print and live, including talks, conferences and workshops. So why is it so challenging to develop as a leader? The secret is intentional practice.

It started with the president climbing up onto the top of the telephone pole and one by one we all did it over a two-year period. Our company developed the most amazing corporate culture as a result. People were excited and afraid, and I learned a lot. Feeling awkward with my bum sticking out in the air trying to climb up, I remember the facilitator asking me, why are you worried about how you look trying to get up onto a telephone pole?

How do I maintain my friendship with my former peers now that I’m their boss? How do I help them accept me in my new role as their leader? These are questions that frequently come up with my coaching clients and perhaps are questions you’ve struggled with yourself, maybe even now. If you’ve come from a team that had great chemistry and an exceptional collaborative culture, you may have also developed close friendships with your team. After all, we spend a great percentage of our lives at work. Transitioning to a new relationship once you are promoted can be tricky.

No news is good news. Or is it? As I was debriefing a leadership 360 assessment with a client recently, she expressed her relief to finally receive some feedback. This Vice President never receives feedback from her leader or her team, and wonders if no news is good news. The 360 assessment reminded her that no news doesn’t feel like good news and instead leaves her regularly wondering if she’s having the impact she wants.

The last big thing I did before the great COVID lockdown in March of 2020 was taking the stage at my university, I felt a great sense of responsibility. I had the opportunity to mentor from the front of the room in a way I haven’t before as the keynote speaker at my university for International Women’s Day. While I told my stories of success and hardship with hopes to inspire other women of all ages, it was important for me to acknowledge some of the many mentors who have helped, supported, and inspired me along that journey. In sharing my story, I wanted to help other women see that they are infinitely powerful and will overcome any adversity that comes their way. I also wished to inspire both men and women to mentor, support and champion more women.

I feel it like a pit in my stomach and my heart shrinks. Maybe you feel it like a warm flush that passes over you or perhaps tunnel vision takes over for just a moment. This feeling is the result of a mistake, a misstep, a screwup and it's yours. These are some of the ways we all feel when we’ve made a mistake.

Nelson Mandela said, "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." Words greatly influence our thinking and leaders must take great care in the words they use. They aren’t just words, they create emotions in response. The words you use are crucial to clear, effective, and kind leadership.