Virtually every organization I work with wants their leaders to be good coaches. Gone are the days where self-oriented, command and control leaders rule the roost. The most effective leaders today understand that their success, and that of the organization, is inextricably tied to the success of their people. Leadership is an others-oriented approach, where…
2020 was quite a year and it was certainly reflected in the questions Madeleine received from her readers. Here is a list of the top five most-viewed columns. They tell a story of the year we’ve been through. Madeleine will be back next week with a new year of questions from well-meaning managers—possibly yours? Best wishes…
Today’s blog covers the promised Part Two from last week’s blog post. If you missed it and want to see the whole letter and the context, click here. Here’s the part of the letter, signed Paralyzed, that I am addressing today: “I asked my manager to tell me what she thought the most critical thing…
We are often asked how managers can support direct reports who are going through a learning and development or coaching journey. As it happens, manager support is the most overlooked leverageable asset for ensuring the success of any development activity. Many organizations have “Develops Others” as a competency—and supporting people who are engaged in learning…
Dear Madeleine, I am a director in a global manufacturing company. I manage managers and I am responsible for about 300 people around the globe. I was trained as an engineer and I really loved my job— until recently. I am not sure what happened, but about a year ago—long before the COVID crisis—I noticed…
Dear Madeleine, It has recently become apparent that one of my newer direct reports is lying. In one instance, he told me a presentation was proofed and ready to go and I found out it wasn’t when I went into the document on our shared drive to make a change. In another instance, I learned…
Dear Madeleine, I lead a marketing department for an operating company of a massive global conglomerate (yes, those still exist). When the shelter-in-place rule was announced, I did a really good job of making sure my team was set up to work from home, and have figured out the flex time/PTO situation for those who…
Dear Madeleine, I manage a small team in a fast-growing area of a giant information security company. There is so much opportunity for my industry right now (have you seen the stuff about “Zoom-bombing” in the news? We stop that kind of thing). I have always been ambitious—and right now, during this crisis, I am…
With all of the change and disruption in today’s world, leaders are being asked to lead their teams through new situations never navigated in modern history. It can be overwhelming when everyone is looking to you for the answers. Leaders can take a cue from the coaching world on serving people and meeting them exactly…
We’ve just celebrated the fifth anniversary of this blog. My goal has been to host an advice column for you, the well-intentioned manager. Over the past five years we’ve looked at over 200 different questions from people working to lead at a higher level. As a coach for the past 30 years I have seen…