Category Archives: Leadership

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4 Ways To Balance Leadership Roles And Personal Identity

When I started to blog, I found myself losing myself. I wanted so badly to be successful that I gave up a lot of my identity. I stopped watching television and movies, I changed the way I dressed, and I even left behind hobbies I enjoyed.

What happened here?

I lost my personal identity. I let my role as a leadership blogger supersede my personal identity. And it sucked.

Woman sitting in front of an Apple MacBook laptop

Photo by Mapbox on Unsplash

While I saw success blogging and sharing my leadership insights, I felt adrift. I felt like I was missing something. I was. I was missing myself.

Talking to other leaders, this happens often. New leaders have their own unique style that gets pushed to the background so they can fit in with the current slate of leaders. The same leaders that come and go.

Here’s the crazy part. One thing remains the same: YOU.   Read more...

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The Power Of Active Listening In Leadership

There’s an age-old saying that people don’t care what you know until they know how much you care. This quote has been attributed to Theodore Roosevelt. Regardless of whether or not Roosevelt actually said this or not, it’s an important aspect of leadership.

Your people want to know you care. One of the ways you can show this is through listening… active listening. 

Carl Rogers and Richard Farson introduced the idea of active listening in 1957. According to Duke University, active listening is listening with the intent to really understand how the person is feeling and be able to put yourself in their shoes to empathize with them. 

That’s a lot to take in. 

To be a great active listener, you have to:  Read more...

  • Listen
  • Have intent
  • Be willing to understand the other person
  • Put yourself in their shoes
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5 Leadership And Personal Development Books To Read In January 2024

As the calendar turns to a new year, many people are looking for ways to improve their family life, personal life, and career. New Year Resolutions are made (approximately 80% of those are broken by February).

I know you, though. You’re not the normal New Year’s Resolution maker. You know how to make a commitment and stick with it. You want to grow, improve, and become more than what you were.

Today, I’m bringing you five of the best books on leadership and personal development. Because of that, some of these books are not new. They’re 20, 30, or even more years old. These books contain wisdom that has been passed down through the ages and has helped millions of people to improve their lives.

Are you ready? I hope so!

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The Art Of Negotiation: Essential Skills For Leaders

Everyone negotiates

The art of the deal or the art of negotiation, whatever you call it, knowing how to negotiate is a critical skill for a leader. You’re always wheeling and dealing in a good way, trying to make things better for yourself and those you lead.

Don’t fret if you lack the skill of negotiation. Negotiation skills can be learned.

And, great for you, that’s exactly what we’re going to discuss in this article.

Man in a black suit with blue tie sitting at a wooden table. He has a coffee cup in one hand.

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

The Art Of Negotiation: Essential Skills For Leaders

Why is negotiation necessary? Every leader needs to know how to hold a strategic discussion between parties to resolve issues, whether it’s for a deal or to resolve conflict. Negotiation often ends in both parties finding the resolution acceptable.

Think about it… We all need to know how to negotiate. 

Some of the areas you may negotiate are:  Read more...

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Emotional Intelligence: The Key To Effective Leadership

When employees leave an organization, it’s typically not the organization they leave. It’s terrible managers or leaders. They’ve become fed up with how they’re treated and their leadership’s lack of emotional intelligence.

It’s why I left one of my jobs.

Emotional Intelligence: The Key To Effective Leadership

My manager became disengaged from his employees. He lacked an emotional awareness of what was happening in the lives of his employees and how those situations impacted the lives of his employees. He also failed to show up with emotional intelligence, trying to scare employees into staying with the organization.

Eventually, he was left with a gutted team, and the employees were left with negative memories of their interaction with him.

His lack of emotional intelligence killed his team. But it doesn’t have to kill yours.

Mental Health America defines Emotional Intelligence as the following:  Read more...