Good communication is a fundamental leadership skill and a key characteristic of a good leader. Leaders must be skilled at communicating with others in countless settings and relationships — with individuals and at the organizational level, in communities and groups, and sometimes even on a global scale — in order to achieve results through others.

What Is Leadership Communication?

Leadership communication is how leaders inform and inspire others, and it encompasses verbal, nonverbal, and written messages. From giving instructions and feedback to direct reports, to sharing the vision with employees, to mediating conflict with teams, to providing updates to stakeholders — effective communication in leadership is critical.

Why Is Communication Important for Leaders?

At CCL, we see communication as one of the “fundamental 4” core leadership skills — those timeless skills needed by leaders in any organization, regardless of role, industry, or location.

Leaders must be able to think with clarity, express ideas, and share information with a multitude of audiences. They must also handle the rapid flows of information within the organization and among colleagues, customers, partners, vendors, and others.

Effective leadership communication allows managers to deepen connections, build trust, and drive creativity and innovation through their daily interactions with others. It also helps during change or disruption, as communication is one of 3 critical competencies that our research has found are essential for successful change leadership.

The Connection Between Communication, Conversations & Culture

In organizations, conversations are the foundation upon which the majority of communication happens, as people communicate every day through the formal and informal discussions they have with colleagues and leaders. And the more effective these conversations are, the stronger their organizations become — because better conversations drive better culture.

Core Traits of Successful Leadership Communication

Authenticity

Be honest and sincere. Find your own voice; avoid using corporate-speak or sounding like someone you’re not. Let who you are, where you come from, and what you value come through in your communication. People want, respect, and will follow authentic leadership. Forget about eloquence — worry about being real. Don’t disguise who you are. People will never willingly follow someone they feel is inauthentic.

Accessibility

Visibility is a form of communication. If you want to communicate well, be accessible. Emails and official missives aren’t enough. Be present, visible, and available. Getting “out there” — consistently and predictably — lets others know what kind of leader you are. People need to see and feel who you are to feel connected to the work you want them to do. Find ways to interact with all of your stakeholder groups, even (and especially) if communicating in a crisis.

Clarity & Confidence

Being clear and confident when communicating with your team helps avoid ambiguity, misinterpretation, and confusion. Speak in specifics, use nonverbal communication to augment your words, and speak not just with facts but also with feelings and values. Being able to speak clearly and confidently builds trust and commitment with your team.

Empathy & Respect

Empathy is critical for leadership success, and that extends to communication. Employees want empathy from their leaders and appreciate compassionate leadership. Acknowledge their feelings and pain points when you speak to them, and that will help them feel valued and heard, creating a strong culture of psychological safety.

Trust

Trust isn’t something you can mandate — it grows from consistently demonstrating your commitment to better communication with those you work with. By modeling the values you hope to foster in your team and in your organization, you can build trust. And by building trust, you also encourage those around you to communicate more authentically, contributing to a culture of psychological safety at work. When people feel safe with their team and organization, they’re more open to sharing ideas and taking risks, which can lead to more creativity and more innovation.

Learn how to communicate better, connect more deeply, build trust, and be more satisfied — inside and outside of work — with our book, Better Conversations Every Day.

15 Tips for Effective Leadership Communication

1. Communicate relentlessly.

Get vocal and get involved. Communicate information, thoughts, and ideas clearly — and frequently — in different media. Keep processes open and transparent, and find ways to help smooth the path of communication for your team, employees, or organization. Shed all traces of detachment and arrogance, and take the time to talk to your people.

2. Set clear expectations.

Set the tone. In every relationship, our behavior is guided by a set of rules or social norms — and in a professional setting, these norms tend to go unspoken. Be intentional about establishing team norms at your organization, whether you’re leading a group discussion, mediating a conflict between employees, sending an email to your colleagues, or having a one-on-one conversation with a direct report.

3. Simplify and be direct.

Say what you mean. Be direct. Don’t hide behind complexity or pile on a ton of information. Direct, clear communication can be the most important type of communication. This is even more important when communicating in a virtual setting.

4. Illustrate through stories.

Use stories to bring your ideas to life. When you tell a good story, you help clarify a vision, goal, or objective. Telling good stories creates trust, captures hearts and minds, and serves as a memorable reminder of the message. This is key when communicating the vision. Plus, people find it easier to repeat a story or refer to an image or quote than to talk about a mission statement, strategy document, or project plan. Your ability to create and communicate a compelling, authentic, and bold story will also help you bolster your leadership brand.

5. Be prepared.

Do your homework. Poor communication in the past might mean your audience resists what you have to say today. So start familiarizing yourself with the context around an issue, and any alternative viewpoints and perspectives about it, so you’re ready to handle any concerns or objections before you initiate communication. If you’re met with resistance or presented with a different position, solid preparation will make addressing and overcoming objections much easier and communicate your ideas more effectively.

6. Know your audience.

Communication isn’t just about what you say — it’s also about who is listening. Different stakeholders may have different concerns. The way you approach influencing others will vary from one group to the next, depending on their needs. Tailor your influencing strategy for the particular person and consider their personality, goals, and objectives, as well as their roles and responsibilities. For example, someone who is highly rational may be more easily swayed by a logical appeal than an emotional one.

7. Reinforce intent with body language.

Don’t rely just on words. Showing positive body language like eye contact, nodding your head, and other relaxed nonverbal communication can inspire team members and make them feel more comfortable communicating with you. A simple head nod or smile can go a long way to show you’re paying attention and that you care, and little gestures like this can add up, slowly helping you to build rapport and collaboration and transform your organizational culture, too.

8. Read the room.

Good leadership communication means being flexible. Watch your audience closely for nonverbal signs of engagement or disengagement, confusion or understanding, etc. and adjust your message and style accordingly. You can do this quite literally during in-person meetings, but you can also “read the room” in virtual settings by looking closely at others’ faces on the screen and by explicitly soliciting feedback.

If people are understanding your communication and aligned with your message, you may get lots of eye contact, see nodding heads, observe audience members leaning forward or demonstrating other body language that suggests alignment with your message. If you see listeners leaning back, with arms crossed, and bored or confused expressions on their faces, then you may need to adjust your message or delivery style.

It’s helpful to pause occasionally to let people ask questions and check for understanding, giving your listeners a chance to respond or seek clarification, etc. Stay flexible so you can continually notice how your communications are landing with your audience, and do ongoing adjustments based on the signals they send.

9. Ask good questions.

Leaders ask powerful questions. Ask powerful questions that open the door to learning what others really think and feel. The best leadership questions get right to the heart of things, cut through complicated situations, and identify levers that will really make a difference. Asking non-directive inquiries can also unlock insights — especially key in coaching people, such as direct reports.

10. Listen and encourage input.

Good leaders listen more than they speak. Leadership communication isn’t just about the messages you send, but also the messages you receive. The most effective communicators are also good listeners with strong active listening skills. When you listen well, you gain a clear understanding of another’s perspective and knowledge. So seek out, and then listen to, individuals from all levels of the organization — from the key stakeholders who have a lot of opinions you need to consider, to the new employees who may be reluctant to voice concerns. Allow people to air their concerns. Let team members know their input is valuable, so people feel comfortable speaking up. Pay close, respectful attention to what’s said — and what’s left unsaid. It will show those you lead that you care about both them and the organization.

Also, be okay with silence. Encourage others to offer their ideas and solutions before sharing yours. Do 80% of the listening and 20% of the talking. Demonstrate an interest in — and respect for — your colleagues, as this builds trust and makes the emotional connection that’s so important for effective leadership.

11. Take feedback seriously.

Feedback is a gift. Asking for candid feedback from your team or employees can foster a positive stream of communication, and it helps build trust overall. This tactic can also make your team feel more respected, giving them a chance to have their voices heard. If you take their feedback seriously, you will grow as a leader and enhance your skillset. However, if you ask for and then don’t incorporate their feedback, the opposite is true — it could lead to a loss of trust and alignment. In fact, our research has found that following through with action is critical for leaders to convey they really were listening, as it shows that they truly heard and understood the other person’s concerns.

12. Affirm with actions.

Leaders don’t just talk — they act. Again, if people hear one thing from you but see another, your credibility is damaged. If employees speak up and you seem to be listening, but then do nothing based on what you learned, they won’t feel heard. People need to trust you. Your behavior and actions communicate a world of information — so focus on following up where appropriate and be clear on the messages you are sending with your actions.

13. Initiate the tough, but needed, conversations.

Don’t shy away from conflict. Holding difficult conversations, whether with a customer or direct report, are an inevitable part of any workplace. It’s tempting to ignore conflicts, but effective leaders must be able to address concerns as they arise. Be sure to approach any difficult conversation from a neutral perspective and explore both sides before coming to a conclusion. Work to problem-solve by inventing options that meet each side’s important concerns, and do your best to resolve conflicts through open communication.

14. Involve others before developing a plan of action.

Leadership doesn’t stop when the communication ends. Take whatever you’ve learned in the exchange, synthesize it, and present your plan to the appropriate stakeholders. Generating buy-in and making sure that everyone is on the same page before executing on strategy will be key to achieving organizational goals.

15. Remember your reputation.

Good communicators never compromise their reputations. At times, you may feel you are walking a fine line between being too aggressive and being too relaxed, and as a leader, you need to make sure you find and balance and avoid leaning too heavily in one direction.

To navigate these challenges and bolster your leadership image, consider asking yourself thought-provoking questions like, “When do I stay out of an issue, and when do I get involved?” or “How do I respond when errors are identified?” Make a list of communication concerns you have, and ask a colleague to describe the behaviors they would consider too aggressive or too relaxed — their responses will help gauge how to move forward.

How Poor Leadership Communication Can Cost Your Organization

Workplace communication is a moving target. Leaders must continue to find new ways to make their communications more effective, purposeful, and trustworthy. But, what if communication becomes stagnant, unorganized, and messy?

Leaders may unintentionally derail their own efforts to enhance their communication. They may not communicate enough because of a fear of oversharing, they may think out loud at the wrong moment, or they may have been too honest with a colleague.

These challenges typically arise in high-stress situations, when expectations or deadlines aren’t met, when an opportunity is lost, or when innovation is lacking. It can be frustrating, but it’s worth putting in the extra effort to tackle these conflicts head-on with candid conversations and productive debate, because when a conflict is mismanaged, costs will continue to mount — whether they result in tangible out-of-pocket costs like turnover, or intangible costs like poor morale, decision-making, or broken trust. Learn more about the impact of poor leadership communication in such situations and the costs of conflict incompetence.

How to Evaluate Your Leadership Communication Skills

Strong communication is one of the quickest ways leaders can build trust. Here are some actions that you can take while communicating. As you’re reading them, rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5 — with a 1 signifying it’s an area that you need to work on, and 5 meaning that you have excelled:

• Avoid mixed messages: ensure that your words and actions are consistent.
• Act in ways that support the values of your organization.
• Go directly to the relevant individual to discuss the situation if having difficulty with another coworker or team member.
• Serve as a sounding board on sensitive issues for others.
• Share your opinions and perspectives, even when they’re different from the majority view.
• Avoid being a “yes” person.
• Keep your focus on the big picture and the shared goals of the organization.
• Accept accountability for your actions and the results of those actions.
• Promote respectful dialogue and productive debate.

Now that you’ve assessed your skills, how high is your score? How well did you do? If you identified any areas that need improvement, begin today by marking the one that you will start with immediately to improve your skills in leadership communication.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Effective communication for leaders is essential. Partner with us to craft a customized learning journey for your team using our research-based modules. Available leadership topics include Authenticity, Communication & Leadership Training, Feedback That Works, Emotional Intelligence, Influence, Listening to Understand, Psychological Safety, and more.

Or, build conversational skills across your team to scale a culture of open communication and feedback across your entire organization.

The post Essential Communication Skills for Leaders appeared first on CCL.

We need good leaders to help guide us and make the essential decisions, big and small, that keep things moving forward.

Our society is usually quick to identify a bad leader, but how can you identify a good one? What would most people say are the qualities of a good leader?

What Good Leadership Looks Like

Based upon our decades of research and experience working with leaders at thousands of organizations around the world, we’ve found that the best leaders consistently possess certain fundamental qualities and skills. Here are 12 essential leadership traits.

1. Self-Awareness
2. Respect
3. Compassion
4. Vision
5. Communication
6. Learning Agility
7. Collaboration
8. Influence
9. Integrity
10. Courage
11. Gratitude
12. Resilience

1. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is the understanding of yourself, including personality traits, behaviors, anxieties, and emotions. While this is a more inwardly focused trait, self-awareness and humility are paramount qualities of leadership. The better you understand yourself and recognize your own strengths and weaknesses, the more effective you can be as a leader. Do you know how other people view you, and do you understand how you show up at work and at home? Take the time to learn about the 4 aspects of self-awareness and how to strengthen each component.

2. Respect

Respect, when demonstrated consistently, is one of the most important things a leader can do. It helps ease tensions and conflict, fosters trust, and improves your effectiveness. Creating a culture of respect is about more than just the absence of disrespect. Respectfulness can be shown in many different ways, but it often starts with showing you truly value others’ perspectives and making an effort to build belonging in the workplace — both critical components of healthy workplace cultures.

3. Compassion

Compassion is more than simply showing empathy or even listening and seeking to understand. Compassion requires leaders to act on what they learn. After someone shares a concern or speaks up about something, they won’t feel truly heard if their leader doesn’t then take some type of meaningful action on the information, our researchers have found. This is the core of compassionate leadership, and it helps to build trust, increase collaboration, and decrease turnover across organizations.

4. Vision

Vision is your aspiration for the future. Motivating others and garnering commitment toward that vision are essential parts of leadership. Purpose-driven leaders ensure they connect their team’s daily tasks and the values of individual team members to the overall direction of the organization. This can help employees find meaning in their work — which increases engagement, inspires trust, and drives priorities forward. You’ll want to communicate the vision in ways that help others understand it, remember it, and go on to share it themselves.

5. Communication

Communication shows up in many ways, from transmitting information and storytelling to soliciting input and using active listening techniques. Effective leadership and effective communication are intertwined. The best leaders are skilled communicators who can communicate in a variety of ways, both orally and in writing, and with a wide range of people from different backgrounds, roles, levels, geographies, and more. The quality and effectiveness of communication among leaders at your organization will directly affect the success of your business strategy, too.

6. Learning Agility

Learning agility is the ability to know what to do when you don’t know what to do. If you’re a “quick study” or are able to excel in unfamiliar circumstances, you might already be learning agile. But anybody can foster and increase learning agility through intentional practice and effort. After all, great leaders are really great learners.

7. Collaboration

Collaboration is a characteristic shown when leaders work effectively with a variety of colleagues of different social identities, locations, roles, and experiences. As the world has become more complex and interconnected, good leaders find themselves spanning boundaries and learning to work across various types of divides and organizational silos. When leaders value and embrace collaboration, whether within their teams or cross-functionally, several benefits arise — including increased innovation, higher-performing teams, and a more engaged and empowered workforce.

8. Influence

Influence, or being able to persuade people through thoughtful use of appropriate influencing tactics, is an important trait of inspiring, effective leaders. For some people, “influence” may sound unseemly. But as a leader, you must be able to influence others to get the work done — you cannot do it all alone. Influence is quite different from manipulation, and it needs to be done authentically and transparently. It requires high levels of emotional intelligence and trust.

9. Integrity

Integrity is being consistent, honest, moral, and trustworthy, and it’s an essential leadership trait for the individual and the organization. It’s especially important for top-level executives who are charting the organization’s course and making countless other significant decisions. Our research has found that leader integrity is a potential blind spot for organizations, so make sure you reinforce the importance of honesty and integrity to managers at all levels.

10. Courage

Courage enables both team members and leaders to take bold actions that move things in the right direction. It can be hard to speak up at work, whether you want to voice a new idea, provide feedback to a direct report, or flag a concern for someone above you. That’s part of the reason courage is a key leadership trait — it takes courage to do what’s right! Leaders who promote high levels of psychological safety in the workplace enable their teams to speak up freely and share candid concerns without fear of repercussions. This fosters a coaching culture that supports courage and truth-telling.

11. Gratitude

Gratitude is the uplifting emotion experienced after receiving something of value. Being thankful can lead to higher self-esteem, reduced depression and anxiety, and better sleep. Sincere gratitude can even make you a better leader. Yet few people regularly say “thank you” in work settings, even though most people say they’d be willing to work harder for an appreciative boss. The best leaders know how to show frequent gratitude in the workplace.

12. Resilience

Resilience is more than the ability to bounce back from obstacles and setbacks — it’s the ability to respond adaptively to challenges. Practicing resilient leadership means you’ll project a positive outlook that will help others maintain the emotional strength they need to commit to a shared vision, and the courage to move forward and overcome setbacks. A good leader focuses on resilience, both taking care of themselves and also prioritizing leading employee wellbeing, too — thereby enabling better performance for themselves and their teams.

3 Core Truths About Characteristics of Good Leadership

At the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)®, we’ve been researching the traits of a good leader and the role of leadership for nearly 6 decades. Here are 3 of our core tenets about good leaders and effective leadership.

Good leaders are made, not born.

First, we believe that leaders are made, not born. Put another way, leadership is a skill that can be developed. Good leaders are molded through experience, continued study, intentional effort, and adaptation. So you can strengthen any of these 12 characteristics of a good leader, if you’re open to growth, use your experiences to fuel development, and put in the time and effort toward self-improvement.

Similarly, organizations can help their people hone these top leadership qualities by providing ample opportunities for training, offering support for learning from challenges, and providing access to coaching and mentoring programs.

Leadership is a social process.

It’s also essential to recognize that leadership is less about one strong or charismatic individual, and more about a group of people working collectively to achieve results together. If you demonstrate several of the characteristics of a good leader, but fail to grasp this key point, chances are you won’t get very far on your own. You may be well-liked and respected, but it will be challenging to accomplish team or organizational goals. At CCL, we like to say that the outcomes of leadership are about creating direction, alignment, and commitment, or DAC, within a group.

Good leadership never stops.

Also, we believe that leadership isn’t a destination, it’s a journey — it’s something that you’ll have to work at regularly throughout your career, regardless of what level you reach in your organization or what industry you work in. Different teams, projects, and situations will provide different challenges and require different leadership qualities and competencies to succeed. So you will need to be able to continue to apply these leadership characteristics in different ways throughout your career. Just continually keep learning and growing, and you’ll be an agile learner with a long career.

How to Develop and Nurture the Qualities of a Good Leader

Organizations can strengthen leadership qualities and foster deeper levels of engagement at work through providing a variety of on-the-job learning experiences, mentoring, and formal development opportunities. At CCL, we have many award-winning leadership solutions with clients around the world, and we’d be honored to work with you and your organization as well.

But individuals don’t have to wait to begin strengthening these leadership characteristics within themselves. If you decide you want to work proactively on developing your leadership qualities and skills, download our action guide & visual summary of this content. And get our tips on how to convince your boss to make an investment in you and your future. We’re here to support you every step of the way on your journey to becoming a better leader!

Ready to Take the Next Step?

After you download the 12 Characteristics of a Good Leader, keep on learning and growing: never miss our exclusive leadership insights and tips — subscribe to our newsletters to get our research-based articles, webinars, resources, and guides delivered straight to your inbox. 

The post 12 Essential Qualities of Effective Leadership appeared first on CCL.

And if you aren’t currently measured on your “ability to develop and coach others” — that’s likely to change soon.

Coaching provided by outside experts continues to be important and valuable, but increasingly, organizations are looking at skill-building for coaching people as a vital tool for developing talent and meeting performance goals. And managers play the key role.

The problem is that leaders are being held accountable for developing others, but few are taught best practices for coaching others. So they end up giving reviews and giving advice, but they don’t really understand how to have a coaching conversation with their people.

That’s why we’ve been partnering with client organizations to help them develop leader-coaches who understand how to be an effective coach, outlining specific actions for coaching people well.

How to Coach People Using LACE

4 Core Skills for Coaching Others Effectively

At CCL, our coaching methodology is based on research and our over 50 years of experience coaching others in organizations around the world. We believe that whether you’re a professional leadership coach, or a leader with coaching responsibilities, you need to build both your skill at coaching others and the relationship itself.

Unlike some coaching models that can be convoluted and theoretical, the 4 core skills we teach for coaching people effectively ensure that in the moment, you’re not trying to remember a concept or a theory, but have pragmatic guidance to follow. Just remember LACE, our acronym for the 4 core skills for holding conversations that coach others:

• Listen to Understand
• Ask Powerful Questions
• Challenge and Support
• Establish Next Steps and Accountability

1. Listen to Understand.

Listening starts with paying close attention, repeating back concepts to build understanding, and summarizing what you hear. But listening to understand goes beyond these active listening techniques for coaching others.

Listening to truly understand someone starts with recognizing that multiple levels of information are conveyed in a conversation: facts, emotions, and values. Naturally, when listening, you pay attention to the facts being discussed. But listening to understand also means paying attention to other levels. Listen too for the values behind the matter at hand, as well as the emotions that people feel. Notice not only their words, but also the tone of voice, body language, beliefs, and what seems to be most important for the other person. Coaching others well requires that you listen for all 3 levels, and you will really be listening to understand the other person’s perspective.

2. Ask Powerful Questions.

This is really the ability to ask courageous questions, moving the conversation forward, and provoking new insights, rather than just providing them for the other person. Making non-directive inquiries that draw out more information and stretch the other person’s thinking is a learned skill that must be practiced. Examples of powerful questions include:

• What else could you do?
• Who else have you talked to about this?
• Who else is affected in this situation?
• How do you want the rest of the team to feel about this?

Beyond creating mutual understanding about facts, asking powerful questions like these when coaching others can help uncover insights and unspoken reservations that wouldn’t have come to light otherwise.

3. Challenge and Support.

We all need our thinking challenged at times. Challenge can stress-test ideas, yield productive dialogue, and uncover unexamined assumptions. It can lead to stronger, shared understanding.

Ultimately, coaching people is about getting them to try something different from what they have done before, or creating a significant shift in perspective. It’s about uncovering answers through inquiry, openness, and exploration, and there usually aren’t quick fixes.

But challenging someone is only effective when combined with the right amount of support. You must show that you’ve truly listened to the other person and understand their feelings and values. A challenge should be offered within an environment of safety. Taken too far — or offered at the wrong moment and without sufficient support — challenge can cause damage.

When done well, challenge builds trust and encourages honesty and transparency, rather than triggering defensiveness.

4. Establish Next Steps and Accountability.

Having an effective conversation is only one aspect of successful coaching. The real work happens later when insights are applied and new behaviors are tried. The skill of creating accountability lies in creating clear, specific, and meaningful actions.

Connect conversations to action by establishing next steps (“So, I’ll send you an email by Friday, letting you know how it went”). This ensures that the value, insights, and decisions created by a coaching conversation aren’t lost.

The goal of a conversation is always that those involved walk away with a shared understanding of what they discussed, and conversations like these increase the chance of successful follow-through that creates growth and fosters courageous actions that lead to meaningful change.

To Coach People, Focus on the Relationship

Leader-coaches can aim for transformation, even in 10-minute hallway conversations.

But creating the right relationship is critical. This ensures you have a safe, trusting, and productive space for conversations where you coach others.

At CCL, we believe effective leaders “bring their whole selves to leadership.” To be a leader-coach, focus on boosting your self-awareness, showing vulnerability and empathy, and creating an environment of psychological safety. In addition, set a foundation of high ethical standards and ground rules of agreement.

Once you have the tools and some practice with the 4 core conversation skills under your belt, you’ll find that coaching people through conversations are an effective way to develop and motivate your direct reports. And you will benefit, too; as you improve your skill at coaching others, you’re developing leadership capabilities that have benefits in other work relationships as well. A manager’s ability to build relationships, elicit information, challenge assumptions, support others, and clarify goals goes a long way in helping you to succeed as a leader.

Learn how to communicate better, connect more deeply, build trust, and be more satisfied — inside and outside of work — with our book, Better Conversations Every Day.

Create a Culture of Coaching Others By Scaling Conversational Skills

Coaching people can have both an individual and organizational impact. Helping individual leaders build the conversational skills they need to coach others effectively is the first step toward implementing a coaching culture across your entire company.

Our philosophy is that everyone in an organization benefits when people are using coaching skills every day. Enabling the 4 core skills of LACE creates better conversations that create a common language, a better foundation, and a stronger platform on which to build other enterprise-wide initiatives.

Once these 4 core skills for coaching others permeate everyday conversations, they enable leaders to build stronger relationships and enhance a culture of psychological safety, increase engagement, and foster development.

Organizations that want to truly scale a coaching culture will also want to:

• Offer everyone access to developing skills at coaching others, no matter where they sit in the org chart.
• “Seed” the organization with role models who coach people well.
• Link coaching outcomes to business goals.
• Coach senior leadership teams.
• Recognize and reward coaching behaviors.
• Integrate coaching others with other people-management processes.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Individual participants in our coaching skills program for leaders learn how to coach others more effectively. Or, your organization can partner with us for enterprise-wide conversational skills training with our Better Conversations Every Day suite and scale a culture of coaching others across your entire organization.

The post How to Coach People appeared first on CCL.

Across the globe, we all know that change both big and small is inevitable — but with it comes the potential for immense progress. This is why leadership matters, every day and at every level.

Our most popular resources from the past year reflect the topics that resonated with you most: creating psychologically safe work cultures; providing leaders with skills that minimize daily challenges; welcoming diverse perspectives from across the organization; and learning to stay agile and future-ready for a continuously disrupted world. We believe these themes will continue to be important in the months to come.

Read on as we recap our top leadership advice from some of our most popular content.

Our Best Leadership Advice for 2025 & Beyond

1. Get to know the challenges your leaders are facing.

Leadership development initiatives are most effective when they align with employees’ real-world needs. By examining data from over 48,000 global leaders, we learned that the challenges of leadership generally fall into 3 high-level themes. Understanding these shared issues can be a catalyst for customizing solutions that grow leadership capabilities within your organization.

Discover the most common leadership challenges at every level. Read The Top 20 Leadership Challenges.

2. Foster a more empathetic workplace.

When leaders show empathy, they improve their effectiveness and increase trust and collaboration within their teams. Taking the time to learn a direct report’s interests and goals — as well as their unique signals of overwork — can boost performance and minimize turnover.

Learn how to show more empathetic leadership. Read The Importance of Empathy in the Workplace.

3. Commit to the mechanics of leadership.

Effective leadership happens through direction, alignment, and commitment. When everyone on a team agrees on where you’re going, how you’re getting there, and why it matters, progress is made and potential is realized.

Learn more about the importance of direction, alignment, and commitment, and how to increase it within your organization. Explore How Leadership Works.

4. Build a community of influential leaders.

An influential leader is someone who has the power to affect the behavior of others and motivate colleagues toward a desired goal. Leaders who possess the skills needed to inspire, persuade, and encourage can advance their own careers, yes — but they can also bolster an entire team’s commitment to the work, sustain positive momentum, and expand an organization’s capacity.

Take steps today to become an influential leader. Watch our webcast How Effective Influencing Can Be a Game-Changer.

5. Hone the “Fundamental 4.”

Even as your roles and responsibilities evolve, you must continue to develop in these 4 areas: self-awareness, communication, influence, and learning agility. As you grow in your career, keep a focus on these “fundamental 4” leadership skills, and you’ll be more prepared for new challenges.

Looking to strengthen the most important leadership skills? Read The Core Leadership Skills You Need in Every Role.

6. Boost psychological safety at work.

When people feel comfortable speaking up, asking questions, and disagreeing with the status quo, they also feel comfortable taking risks and exchanging innovative ideas. A psychologically safe environment starts with a feeling of belonging, where people feel assured their perspectives are valuable.

Learn the 8 steps toward creating a more psychologically safe workplace. Read How Leaders Can Build Psychological Safety at Work.

7. Manage change & disruption with change leadership.

Change is inevitable. Whether it occurs on a smaller scale or at an organizational level, navigating change successfully is one of the biggest hurdles that organizations may face. For managers to effectively lead through the process of change, it’s critical for them to be aware of the people side of the change equation, as well as the rationale for the change itself.

Learn more about effective change leadership. Read How to Be a Successful Change Leader.

8. Lead employees with a focus on wellbeing.

People want careers where they do meaningful work on a team where everyone is encouraged to thrive — whether they’re remote, in-person, or hybrid. Managers should focus on taking care of themselves and building a sense of community, connection, and belonging to help their employees achieve greater wellbeing.

Learn more about how leading with wellbeing influences engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity. Read The Keys to Wellbeing and Leadership.

9. Listen with the intent to understand.

Listening is a key part of being an effective communicator. And active listening is more than just hearing someone speak. It requires leaders to pay attention to the facts, feelings, and values that may be hidden behind the words being shared. At the organizational level, when everyone has developed strong listening skills, this fosters a workplace culture of truth-telling and candor.

Improve your active listening skills by using 6 techniques. Read What Is Active Listening?

10. Learn what it means to be an authentic ally.

Leaders often ask us how they can serve as an ally and, more fundamentally, what it even means to be an ally. A strong foundation of knowledge and awareness will help you turn allyship from a buzzword into sustainable behaviors that support others and create truly inclusive environments.

Move beyond awareness and into action. Read What Is Allyship? Your Questions Answered.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

We have one more piece of leadership advice for you. As you and your organization move forward, one thing remains certain — leadership makes all the difference. Explore our research-based, world-class leadership programs, available for leaders at every level of the organization, to bring out the best in yourself and your team.

The post Reader’s Choice: Your Favorite Leadership Advice appeared first on CCL.

Feedback is sort of a necessary evil. No one particularly likes to listen to what they’re doing wrong, and often the words are difficult or confusing to hear. And giving feedback isn’t especially easy, either. But as a leader or coach, it’s your job to know how to give feedback, as constructive suggestions can help your direct reports and colleagues succeed. So make sure you understand what it takes to coach people.

Whatever your style or your company’s system, chances are that performance reviews are less-than-satisfying events for you and your direct reports. But learning how to give effective feedback and avoiding common feedback mistakes can make the difference between a meaningless (or disastrous) review and a constructive coaching conversation.

Feedback is one of the most important elements of successful performance reviews because it engages the employee in the conversation and puts the spotlight on key issues. In fact, we believe giving effective feedback is the key to improving your talent development.

If you understand the 4 types of feedback, and which one is most effective to start with, giving feedback will feel easier, and your reviews will improve.

What Is Effective Feedback?

The 4 Types of Feedback 

Which Seems Most Effective to You? 

Virtually all feedback can be classified as one of these 4 types:

1. Directive
2. Contingency
3. Attribution
4. Impact

1. Directive feedback tells someone what to do, even if you’re phrasing it “nicely.” For example, “I suggest that you make priorities clearer to your team.”
2. Contingency feedback gives a future consequence: “If you keep interrupting people in meetings, they’ll stop cooperating with you.”
3. Attribution feedback describes someone or their actions in terms of a quality or label, as in “You’re a good communicator” or “You’re undisciplined.”
4. Impact feedback informs the receiver about the effect their actions have had on other people or on the organization. Impact feedback is important in performance reviews because it can shed light on something your direct report never knew or thought about. It gets at why their behaviors are either working or not working. An example of impact feedback is: “Team members were confused, and I felt frustrated.”

You’ll be better at giving effective feedback if you’re skilled at using all 4 types of feedback for the right times and for the right reasons. You’ll be even better with lots of practice.

Why Impact Feedback Is the Most Effective Type of Feedback

It’s important to remember that you can’t control how someone feels about or reacts to feedback. Different people will perceive the same situation in different ways. You can’t “make” someone like or agree with what you’re saying, but you can increase the chances that your feedback will be well received and not rejected by learning how to give feedback effectively.

The recipient of feedback is more likely to take feedback well if it isn’t authoritative. If the feedback giver is perceived as leveraging positional power or as commanding, dominating, arrogant, or self-centered, the message will be lost. The recipient of the feedback is likely to be defensive or argumentative — or passively accept what you say, but resent the feedback and act in counterproductive ways later.

Among the 4 types of feedback, impact feedback is the most effective to start with because it informs a person about the results of their behavior without dissecting the details, assuming motivation, or placing blame. Try using our widely recognized Situation – Behavior – Impact model to give feedback and explore intentions, making the feedback a two-way discussion.

Impact feedback isn’t authoritative — you aren’t telling a person what to do, setting forth consequences, or judging. Instead, impact feedback informs the receiver, empowers them, and increases the chance they’ll decide to accept the message.

Impact feedback is a great way to start a conversation and set the stage for more authoritative feedback if it’s needed. Once the feedback receiver realizes the impact of their behavior, they’re more receptive to prescriptive aspects of authoritative forms of feedback.

Giving feedback to others about their performance is a key developmental experience. Learn how to make the feedback you give even more effective so that others are more likely to hear and benefit from your message.

How to Give Feedback: 10 Do’s & Don’ts

1. Discuss actions without judgment.

Do: Provide feedback that helps and supports employees. Feedback is about addressing specific actions — it’s not about fixing employees.

Don’t: Judge individuals. This can make people feel defensive by sending the message that only you know what’s right or wrong. 

2. Make sure the feedback is clear.

Do: Present clear and honest feedback, whether it’s negative or positive. If you want to encourage someone to repeat productive behaviors, also tell them what’s going well so they can keep doing it.

Don’t: Offer generalized, clichéd catchphrases that are vague.

3. Speak for yourself, not others.

Do: Deliver feedback based on the information that you know — and be clear that it’s coming from you.

Don’t: Drag a third party’s name into the mix. This can confuse the recipient, who then wonders why others are talking about them behind their back.

4. Embrace the value of negative feedback.

Do: Know that negative feedback can be a positive experience for employees. Our research (see below) suggests that most people actually prefer receiving more negative feedback than they’re getting.

Don’t: Sandwich negative feedback between positive messages. When you sandwich the feedback, employees will learn to ignore the first (positive) part because they know the bad news is coming next. And they won’t hear the last (positive) part because they will be focusing on the bad news. (See below for more advice on delivering negative feedback.)

5. Be intentional with the words you use.

Do: Think about what you’ll say before you say it. Like any skill, giving effective feedback requires practice — so plan time to rehearse the conversation if you need to.

Don’t: Use exaggerations such as “always” and “never.” Words like these can make people feel defensive because there’s usually that one time that was an exception.

6. Stick to feedback about behavior.

Do: Be specific about the behavior you observed.

Don’t: Psychoanalyze the motives behind behavior. It could be a divorce, resentment over a co-worker’s advancement, or burnout, but whatever you think you know about someone’s intents and motives is probably wrong.

7. Know the limits.

Do: Be concise and limit the number of examples and key points. People need time to process the information they’ve received.

Don’t: Go on too long or pile on with too many similar examples.

8. Deliver feedback with care.

Do: Show empathy. By showing that you genuinely care about their welfare, you’ll increase feedback recipients’ interest and enthusiasm for accepting and using the feedback.

Don’t: Imply a threat. Telling someone their job is in jeopardy doesn’t reinforce good behavior or illustrate bad behavior. It only creates animosity.

9. Keep snide comments to yourself.

Do: Deliver feedback with the tone appropriate for your team and culture.

Don’t: Use inappropriate humor and don’t substitute sarcasm for feedback.

10. Make declarative statements.

Do: Be direct, so the feedback conversation can be more effective.

Don’t: Phrase feedback as a question. It’s too indirect to be effective, and it may even be interpreted as sarcastic: Really?

How to Give Feedback That’s Negative

Based on Our Research to Help Employees Improve

Most of us like to give and receive positive feedback — it feels good, and it can be helpful to know what’s working. But negative feedback is just as important to help people improve what isn’t working. And, if done well, both kinds of feedback are motivating.

In fact, the employees we surveyed in past research reported that they’d actually prefer to get less positive feedback (65% as compared to the 77% they were getting) and more negative feedback (35% as compared to the 23% they were getting).

With careful thought and planning, negative feedback can be a valuable tool. In addition to the tips listed above, consider these best practices when offering negative feedback.

1. Aim to give feedback that’s 75% positive and 25% negative overall. When giving negative feedback, get straight to the point. It may seem like a good idea to lessen the blow of negative comments with positive ones, but the recipient is smart enough to read between the lines.
2. Give negative feedback as soon as possible after a key event, so the employee can accurately recall the event and avoid repeating the same behavior.
3. Create a favorable feedback environment. Within your team, and even your organization, valuing truth, courage, and a coaching culture along with psychological safety can pay off when employees are comfortable receiving, seeking out, and using feedback to improve their performance.

Trying to balance feedback — positive and negative — can feel uncomfortable. But with the right technique and plenty of practice, it can go more smoothly.

How to Customize Feedback to Avoid Resistance

Lastly, it’s natural that people will react differently to information about their behavior and performance. Although you can’t force someone to agree with the feedback you give, it may help to consider changing the way you deliver the message to maximize understanding and acceptance. When you’re considering how to give feedback, particularly negative feedback, keeping these things in mind can reduce resistance. 

1. Consider the specific situation.

Giving feedback to a new employee who’s anxious about their first presentation is different from giving feedback to a confident, long-term employee who’s eager for more visibility.

2. Remember that people process information differently.

Some people understand your message quickly, while others need time to absorb it. Some will want to focus on decisions, actions, and implications. Others will want to ponder and work out possible solutions on their own. Consider the different ways to influence people and choose the most effective tactic for your situation.

3. Factor in the recipient’s health, personal, and family problems.

Resistance to feedback or unexpected reactions may be connected to stresses and problems outside work. When you’re aware of a hardship or adversity, you may decide to adjust the timing and content of your feedback. But like we mentioned above, don’t assume you know what’s going on; be prepared to handle the unexpected.

4. Individualize your delivery — keep in mind your employee’s strengths and weaknesses.

For example, you may think a shoddy production report indicates disinterest or laziness. The recipient may agree the report was shoddy, but they may be embarrassed to admit they don’t understand the new method of calculation. So give feedback about the report, but allow the other person to offer their own reasons and possible solutions. Be sure you actively listen to understand their response.

And remember, there’s no need to psychoanalyze or judge the person. Just have a conversation, and avoid common feedback mistakes that leaders often make when giving different types of feedback.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Equip your leaders to know how to give feedback that helps others succeed. Partner with us to create a customized learning journey for your leaders using our research-based modules, including Feedback That Works, Psychological Safety, Talent Conversations, and Listening to Understand.

The post How to Give Feedback Most Effectively appeared first on CCL.

A lot of effort, time, money, and attention go into developing leadership training programs, retreats, classes, webinars, and other formal learning opportunities.

Program designers usually focus on meeting the learning needs of participants and aligning content with corporate strategy and goals. And they should.

But what happens before and after those formal programs has a major impact on the return on training investment — and could be the key to ensuring success: boss support.

Our research on what makes leadership development programs successful has found that people who have support from their bosses get significantly more out of these types of training. In fact, it’s the primary predictor of a leadership development program’s success.

When bosses are more engaged and actively show clear support of their direct reports’ development, participants report they get more value from the training.

To better understand a supervisor’s impact on their participants’ success, we conducted a study. Our findings revealed that when bosses are involved and supportive of training, participants experience the following outcomes:

• Leaders’ self-awareness, leadership capability, and leadership effectiveness significantly improve.
• Leaders have a greater impact on the teams they lead.
• Leaders receive more favorable ratings on organizational effectiveness, management capabilities, and employee empowerment.

Boss Support for Development Drives Better Organizational Outcomes

We also found that greater boss support drives better organizational outcomes. The data show that bosses rated most leaders participating in our Leadership Development Program (LDP)® with high marks for organizational impact:

• 79% showed increased or significantly increased organizational effectiveness.
• 64% showed increased or significantly increased employee empowerment.
• 75% showed increased or significantly increased management capabilities.

Although the average impact of the program was high, leaders who exhibited the most change in key leadership parameters were more likely to have strong support from their bosses. Those who exhibited no change after their leadership course were more likely to lack boss support. For example, there was a 16% gap in boss support between leaders who made significant improvements in their organizational effectiveness and those who made no improvement. There were similar gaps of 8% and 13% in empowerment and management capabilities, respectively.

So bosses can literally make — or break — the effectiveness of an organization’s leadership development program.

How to Be a Supportive Boss Before & After Your Direct Reports’ Training

So, are your direct reports preparing to take part in an in-person or virtual leadership development program?

If so, plan to have a couple of conversations with them. Meeting with your employees both before and after they attend a leadership training program is a great way to maximize their success and communicate your buy-in. It needn’t require a large investment of your time, but it helps convey you’re a supportive boss and adds considerable accountability to the process.

These types of conversations can happen in person, of course, but can be just as effective if they happen remotely. (Just keep in mind how to craft your persona for effective virtual communication.)

Before the Training: How to Be a Supportive Boss

Ideally, participants would take a 360-degree feedback evaluation tool, like one of our Benchmarks® 360 assessments, that includes input from their boss, which provides further fuel for the leadership development experience. At this stage, a supportive boss will also help their direct reports choose a strategic challenge to work on during or after the program.

During your pre-meeting, plan to ask questions for 20% of the meeting and then listen to each direct report’s responses for the remaining 80% of the time. Don’t feel like you need to memorize these questions — we recommend that you have the questions and topics you plan to cover in front of you. It will keep the conversation flowing and can serve as a checklist.

5 Questions to Ask Employees Before Training

1. What do you hope to get out of the training? Have them articulate their goal, and follow up by asking, “What else?”
2. What developmental areas do you want to work on as you go through the program? This will allow them to admit what they think they aren’t great at. Ideally, participants also take a 360 evaluation that includes input from you. Encourage them to consider that feedback when choosing a strategic challenge to work on after the program.
3. What do you believe are your strengths, and how might you improve upon them? Our research shows that great leaders are known for their towering strengths rather than the absence of weaknesses, so improving strengths is still crucial. Most people over-focus on weaknesses.
4. What sort of support and help do you need in order to apply the learning back at work? You may be surprised what they actually need from you as a manager to keep it growing.
5. During training, what support do you need so that you can fully disconnect from your daily responsibilities? You want participants to soak up the learning in the program so they can implement real changes when they return. If you skip this step, expect them to be distracted during the training.

Before your conversation ends, schedule a follow-up meeting for after they complete their development program. This will help ensure that a follow-up discussion occurs, and it also lets your direct reports know that they have boss support, that you’re committed to their success, and that you’ll be checking in again after the training is complete.

After the Training: How to Be a Supportive Boss

Once your direct reports are done with leadership training, your goal is to help them turn their learning into action items. After all, the new insights and skills gained in a leadership development program are only valuable if they’re applied.

After the program, participants ideally would apply their new skills and insights to the strategic challenge they agreed to with their bosses during the preparation phase. In addition, organizations can provide resources to the bosses of program participants so they understand what the participant learned and how to support ongoing development.

The post-training meeting reinforces boss support for development and creates an opportunity for direct reports to publicly commit to personal goals and allows them to capitalize on their enthusiasm coming out of the training before too much time passes and their interest wanes.

Similar to the pre-meeting, we recommend that bosses spend 20% of the meeting talking — mostly asking questions — and 80% of the time in active listening and coaching mode. Again, some good questions to ask are outlined below.

5 Questions to Ask Employees After Training

1. How was the program? This general question will help the conversation start off on a casual note.
2. What did you learn? Move into discussing both the content and personal insights they came away with. How do they plan to apply their new skills and insights to the strategic challenge you discussed during the preparation phase?
3. How are you going to bring this back to work? Next, discuss implementation. How will they convey what they learned to their team, or talk about their identified strengths and weaknesses? Team members who didn’t attend the leadership development experience are often curious to hear about it and can benefit from your reports’ experience. Encourage them to share insights with colleagues.
4. How can we work together to expand your network? In many leadership development programs, participants have opportunities to build relationships with other people in their organization — often in other functions or “silos.” In open-enrollment programs, participants may meet other professionals from their industry or even different industries. This often develops into a formal or informal support network and sometimes includes peer coaching and accountability. Express your support for these relationships, which can help both employees and their teams.
5. How can I support you? Similar to the pre-meeting, it’s important to ask how you can support them in implementing changes. Not only does it illustrate your commitment, but you may learn something about how you can be more effective, too.

You’ll notice that there’s some overlap between these questions and the topics you covered in the pre-meeting, which is intentional. The first meeting sets the tone and helps prepare your direct reports, while the follow-up is designed to see it through and reiterate your support. You can even turn it into a coaching conversation, reinforcing lessons learned and helping your employees take responsibility for their actions and their development. This is sure to help them see you as a supportive boss.

If your post-training meeting comes fairly soon after the training, you’ll be able to help your direct reports focus on applying what they learned and execute a plan that will make their training — and your time — well worth it.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Be a supportive boss by showing your direct reports that you’re invested in their professional development. Explore our leadership programs, available for leaders at every level, and we can show you how to provide boss support at every stage of their learning journeys.

The post Why & How to Show Boss Support for Your Employees’ Development appeared first on CCL.

• PODCAST

Lead With That: Leadership Lessons from “The Office”

In this episode of Lead With That, Ren and Allison discuss the leadership lessons we can learn from watching, “The Office.” Since it first aired in 2005, the series has become a favorite for its beloved characters and the way it masterfully depicts the everyday work lives of office employees and their manager. Though Dunder Mifflin is a fictional workplace, there are many lessons we can glean from the experiences and hijinks of the characters, as well as an appreciation for how these experiences transform their leadership styles. Listen in as Ren and Allison explore what their careers would be like if they worked in “The Office.”

This is the second episode in our special Lead With That series, “Manager Madness,” where we discuss public figures, real or fictional, who embody leadership through both their actions and ability to inspire others. Our listeners voted in a “Manager Madness” bracket on social media stories to rank which leaders they would want to work with the most. Over several months, Ren and Allison will be chatting about each of them one by one until we reveal the winner.

Listen to the Podcast

In this episode, Ren and Allison discuss the beloved television series “The Office.” Though the show is a fictional representation of the workplace, it still highlights many leadership lessons we can take from the experiences, hijinks, and development of the characters. Allison and Ren explore the possibilities of what it would be like to work with “The Office” crew, and lead with that.  

Learn More

Interview Transcript

INTRO:  

Welcome back to CCL’s podcast, Lead With That. We talk current events in pop culture to look at where leadership is happening and what’s happening with leadership. That’s right, Allison. It’s Manager Madness, where we, one by one, discuss public figures real and fictional, randomly pitted against one another to see who comes out on top. 

Ren:

This time: the leaders of “The Office.” Yep, today we navigate through the quirky corridors of Dunder Mifflin Scranton, and we encounter a variety of those characters whose contrasting styles shape the dynamics of the workplace and our hearts. At the forefront, Michael Scott, the well-intentioned, yet often misguided regional manager whose leadership is marked by a weird blend of charisma and incompetence. Michael’s desire though to be loved, and maybe less so respected, by his employees often leads him astray and he prioritizes popularity over productivity. But despite his flaws, I think we all grew to love Michael, and his occasional flashes of insight and genuine care for his team really showcased his potential.

Now, on the other opposite end of that spectrum, or somewhere on that continuum, Dwight Schrute, the eccentric assistant to the regional manager. Dwight, the fiercely loyal and his style rooted in rigid adherence to rules and tradition, Dwight was pretty unwavering in his commitment to the company and his own success, and that sometimes clashed with Michael, but always clashed with Jim and his presence in “The Office.” And that’s right. Jim Halpert, our favorite giant, the charming and laid-back salesman. His subtle and effective style stand in contrast to Michael and Dwight a little bit.

Jim’s ability to navigate the office politics, his knack for diffusing some tension with humor really made him a good informal leader, but when we saw him get some leadership, maybe we learned that sometimes Jim’s quirks didn’t always work, and so “The Office” was always good at reminding us that this was really a story about people in a complex work environment, in a complex world environment. Today, Allison and I get to dig into some of our favorite characters and our favorite moments on our favorite show. Welcome back, everyone. I’m Ren Washington, and as usual, I’m joined with Allison Barr. Allison, if you had to work in Dunder Mifflin Scranton, what would you be excited about? What would you be worried about?

Allison:

Well, I can tell you I would not be excited about working in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I grew up in Pennsylvania, so I know that town just doesn’t suit my values that well. I would be excited because … What would I be excited about? I think the environment mostly seemed low-stress. In terms of work though Michael sometimes brought some personal stresses to “The Office,” but in terms of the general environment there, it seemed a bit low-stress, and they had some events that seemed to be fun, and they had great camaraderie amongst most of that team there, with a few exceptions. And what would I be worried about? Well, you didn’t really see much strong leadership throughout that. I watched the whole thing, by the way, start to finish.

Ren:

You think so?

Allison:

Yeah, there were moments, and everybody got their job done, and they performed as a company. Even when they were not performing, they found ways to turn it around. But this is something we talk about sometimes. I don’t know that I would feel that inspired to be at that workplace. What about you?

Ren:

You and I agree. I’d probably be most excited about the low stakes nature of it all. There’s something functionally enjoyable about having finite projects. Now, and maybe not everyone does, because there were salespeople and they have ever-evolving tasks, but it seems that it’s pretty low stakes. I’d probably be worried about the org structure around Dunder Mifflin —

Allison:

Yes.

Ren:

— that led to its being sold to the various kooky characters, then eventually where it ended up with Sabre, but even then, it was kind of like this idea that the freedom “The Office” was given because they were succeeding in this tiny bubble was also the very thing that was going to necessitate its destruction. We sell paper in a really small city, and we’re luckily to be connected because our margins are good. We aren’t going to really focus on the business part of this sitcom. So, probably excited about the low stakes, probably worried that I wouldn’t have a job.

Allison:

That’s fair. I also think I would be excited about … they all seem … Again, I’m talking about a TV show, but they all seem to have oodles of discretional time, which I know a lot of people do not when it comes to their workload and such. So, I think I would be excited about that, too. It seems like there would be maybe an easier work-life integration happening in that kind of environment, which I think Jim ended up doing quite well, which we can come back to, but I would be excited about that.

Ren:

Well, let’s go there right now, and something that you said in the beginning was really interesting. You said that there weren’t really instances of good leadership throughout the show, and I thought, huh, I don’t know if I fully understand your take. Maybe then I might fully believe it or agree with it, but I don’t know, in the very least, we could debate it. So I don’t know, do you want to start to Jim and say a little bit more about what you just alluded to, or maybe you could give us a frame of reference, like what kind of good leadership would you be expecting?

Allison:

Well, I think the underlying theme for me as we start to talk about this is that there’s no perfect leader. So that’s the one thing, there’s no such thing. You cannot be the perfect leader for everybody, I do believe that. And I think also, this might be a little deep, but I’m going to go there anyway. Jim is a good example to me of, also, someone who makes some mistakes, but showcasing that not many people are inherently bad. There’s not really anybody who is inherently bad.

Let me give you an example. He’s fun-loving. Everybody loves Jim. And when I watched it, this was a long time ago when I watched it, and I was a devoted Office fan, I like many people loved Jim, and I probably still do, but he’s a curious one to me because he’s fun-loving, he gets his job done, sometimes he can bring the group together when needed, but some might argue he’s a bit of a bully. I will admit that April Fool’s Day is my favorite holiday and that I have played office pranks on … Dustin, if you’re listening, I’m sorry, the things that we did to each other’s office, but the thing is it was never impeded our work, and we had an understanding, a bit of a friendship. Dwight and Jim eventually did, but some of the things that he did to Dwight are questionable. If you’re an HR listener, you probably would not even say they were questionable, you’d say they’re outright bullying.

Ren:

Well, especially early days, and yeah, it’s funny when I think about Michael Scott, the pilot episode for the US Office, Michael Scott, Steve Carell, was wearing exactly what Ricky Gervais was, so not in his typical Michael Scott suit, but just like the white shirt with the tie, the sleeves rolled up, and Michael Scott, if any of you look back at the pilot, was a much more callous, rude version of the “nice rude” he turned into. And so, I think there’s probably something around when it was and the time it was filmed, because there’s probably a lot we could talk about around this kind of male-dominated, patriarchal environment where Jim and Dwight can engage in behavior that normally would be where you wouldn’t want to, but I guess you could kind of be like, well, those are boys being boys. I think there’s probably like, we have to suspend some disbelief because of the nature of the show, but also I think kind of the nature of the relationship.

I would agree, I think the best cold open ever in the whole show was when they were in Florida and Jim woke up early, because he just had the kids, and so he is on early time and he’s like, “Well, I want to mess with Dwight,” and so he sets up his room to make it look like Jim was “unalived” and then made it look like Dwight did it. And so, there’s this kind of interesting back-and-forth banter for them, but something about, you said he’s a good example of someone either demonstrating that people aren’t perfect or maybe learning from some of their mistakes. And is there a particular instance when you saw that show up, or a particular moment that you thought was really an interesting like, damn, that’s a good fave Jim leadership moment?

Allison:

I think there are probably several. So, they had some interim managers. I’m not remembering what season that started, but they had some interim managers when, I think Will Ferrell was there for a minute. It was hilarious, and it was Jim usually who got people on the same page. It was Jim usually who was the voice of reason, “Look, we’re going through a lot of change. We’ll get through it together. I know this isn’t great right now.”

He was a truth teller, but also was able to listen to people and understand their concerns when it came down to it. He of course had a lot of fun, too, and some might argue, by if we only focus on what we saw on the show, that he didn’t actually get that much work done, but he did enroll people well. And when Michael Scott hit Meredith with his car, I don’t know if you remember that episode, it was Jim who really rallied everybody, him and Pam, to get “get well” cards for her, and to go visit her, and really be a support of somebody in the team who was hospitalized. So, I do think there are some good examples. He knew how to rally people, and bring people together, and speak the truth to what’s happening: I know this happening and we’ll get through it.

Ren:

I think Jim is probably how our anchor in the show is supposed to be, and that’s why we have a relationship with him. He looks at us more than any other character looks at us, in the flow of things, and he’s kind of like, “Whoa, is anyone else seeing this?” And so, it is something I think, that they’re kind of easy to like, and I think they’re built to be liked, but I think something you said about Jim, too, is they’re built to be human.

I thought an interesting arc that Jim went through was, he’d been our hero for so many reasons, and it’s almost like that ability where you’re not in formal leadership, you have this freedom to be liked. You’re like the uncle. You’re cool, but you don’t have to be disciplinarian. And we do work in systems thinking … power in systems. I know we’ve talked about it before on the podcast and this idea of systems thinking, the organization workshop, and discovery that we can put people into these roles, and they’re going to react the exact same way, no matter who they are.

And it has nothing to do with them, and it has everything to do with them in the role. And so, I like when they put Jim into the workspace, all of a sudden he became a manager, and then he was dealing with tensions that managers have to deal with, that his former friends and colleagues wouldn’t know. And there were a couple of instances where he tried to do something that he thought was easy, “Why wouldn’t we do this?” And it blew up in his face.

“We’ll just celebrate everybody’s birthday.” And then it doesn’t work, and he’s sitting there, and then Michael comes and he’s sitting next to him, and Jim’s like, “Damn, I thought I was doing something good here,” and Michael goes, “Yeah, first year I tried to do that, too.” And it’s just funny, too, even the leaders that we look at and we go, “Man, they’re not really working, or they’re not really doing it well,” they’ve got a lot of wisdom to share, and it’s funny, that moment, too, where you saw that Michael, as inept as he might be, that job’s not super easy, and I think Jim was learning that.

Allison:

Definitely. And I think too, what was interesting to me about Jim, and I don’t remember what season is, but he leaves Dunder Mifflin and works for, I think, it was a sports marketing agency or something like that.

Ren:

He and his friend, and they were building it together, and the guy from the warehouse. Damn, I forgot his name. I’ll remember it.

Allison:

Darryl?

Ren:

Yes.

Allison:

Darryl. I love Darryl. Well, regardless, so Jim leaves, he works for the sports marketing agency. At some point in time, he and Pam, they get married and they have a baby. And Pam is juggling a lot, she gets a promotion. And to simplify, what happens is that Jim becomes overwhelmed at his job, he sort of realizes how good he had it at Dunder Mifflin. There’s an episode where he really snaps at Pam, because Pam was supposed to record their daughter’s dance recital, and she forgot to hit record or something little happened, and Jim had to miss it, because he was at work.

Ren:

He was working.

Allison:

And he snaps at Pam, and that was one moment for me where I was like, “Ooh, Jim.” Like, “Oh, come on, Jim.” And then he realizes he’s really taken his relationship not only to his wife for granted, but the relationship that he had with his coworkers at Dunder Mifflin, the life that he had there, and what became important to him was no longer important to him. So, he goes back to Dunder Mifflin after he figures out what matters to him the most, and he really finds ways to integrate his work into his life, and that was his priority. That’s not everybody’s, right? His priority is his wife and kids, and he finds a way to better integrate that into his work, which is a great lesson. That’s a reality; that happens frequently.

Ren:

Well, and see, you’re getting to sort of … When I read that, I don’t know if he so much realized like, “Wow, I missed Dunder Mifflin,” though I think he did. The way I internalized that change for him was Pam.

Allison:

That’s what I mean.

Ren:

Pam and the kids.

Allison:

That’s what I think.

Ren:

You echoed that right there at the end, and I think he went through that value where he recognized to himself, “This is what’s important to me.” And then, too, I know we talk about this a lot, but if you’re listening, I can’t implore you enough that sometimes our values like, well, the “shoulds” and the “oughts,” I have to be an entrepreneur, I have to have my own company, they create this feeling of desire where maybe we should be cultivating contentment, that if you care about something, and that’s in your hands and you’ve got a family, you don’t have to feel badly about that.

Or if you’re not “building an empire” because it’s “grind nation” out there and you’re not a finance bro, well, maybe you don’t have to be. And so, I thought that was really interesting that he recognized his own needs, and identified what was important to him, and then made the transition. And I think that’s really interesting, too, and maybe it reminds me of something that Michael did in one of my favorite Michael moments, but I don’t want to move away from Jim if you’ve got more in this moment, though. I know we can always come back to him.

Allison:

Well, the only plane to land is alluding to what you mentioned, is understanding work means to you, what you value. It’s also okay if your top value is your career, that is okay. But understanding what you value most, and how your career and how your work can support those things that you value. Because he was able to have that discretionary time with his wife. He was able to be in the office with her, to connect with her, to have that time with her outside of work. Because his other job, the sports marketing job, while he thought it was glamorous, ate up a lot more of his time, gave him a lot of stress, and ultimately impacted his relationship in a negative way. So, finding ways that your work can work for you to support your values.

Ren:

To stay there a bit longer, it’s interesting, because I think, too, the added complexity for Jim was, that’s my dream. I get to work in sports marketing. I’m a sports guy. I get to be next to all these things. And I know all of us go through that wave, where it ebbs and flows all the time, where we either come up to our dream or we get our dream, and then we start to say, “Well, what am I if I let go of this dream? Or what if I don’t pursue that anymore? Aren’t I my failures? Aren’t I my successes?” And I think Jim really had to work through around that question we ask people all the time, what does success look like for you? And so, you’ve always got to be doing that work for yourself, and it seemed like, at least from Jim being the kind of perpetual character that we could get behind, he was doing that work.

Now, I don’t know if Michael Scott was always doing that work, but I think Michael was always pure in his intentions, what he valued. And one of my favorite Michael moments was when he bought Pam’s art of the building of Dunder Mifflin. Where Pam invited everyone to her showing at the art … What the hell is it called? Why am I not thinking of this? The art something, an art show, but what’s it?

Gallery. Geez, I’m fancy. And no one comes, and she’s super-duper discouraged, and Michael has that way of reminding you that it’s okay, man, you’re loved, you’re cared about, and that is a symbol of our community. I love that, and she thought he was messing with her, and so he buys it and it’s hanging up in their office, and he looks at it with such reverence. And I think he probably reveres … Michael might be a good example of best intentions, or assuming the best of someone, even when they’re clumsily crushing things around themselves.

Allison:

Yes, there are a couple standout moments for me too around Michael, and one is when Angela’s cat dies … Well, when Sprinkles dies. And I think Pam is consoling Angela or something, and Michael walks by and says, “What’s going on? What’s wrong?” And Pam says, “Angela’s cat died,” and he’s crushed, “Not Sprinkles. Sprinkles?” He’s so personally invested, and he’s so caring for Angela in a time where she’s absolutely devastated, where most people wouldn’t … You might give some condolences at the office, but most people wouldn’t respond the way he did. Whether or not it’s healthy, it’s up for debate, but he does show his care for his people. And another funny moment, he was always trying to be friends with Ryan. Well, he’s trying to be friends with all of them, but ultimately he just wanted Ryan’s buy-in so badly.

Ren:

True.

Allison:

And there’s a scene where he’s sitting in his office with Ryan and he says, “I’m a friend first, and your boss second, and obviously third an entertainer.” It’s just so funny how he is so honest. And one thing that he does prove, I think though, is that strong relationships within an organization can make your organization stronger. And he does make some mistakes, but people assume best intentions to him, for him, and while he avoided many, many difficult conversations and put other people up to doing them for him, he ultimately has a bit of a professional maturity when he has a bit of a moment with Stanley. Do you remember that episode where Stanley’s doing his crossword puzzle in one of the meetings, and Michael keeps saying, “Stanley —”

Ren:

Did I stutter?

Allison:

Yes, and Michael’s face just kind of goes ghostly pale, and eventually he sits down with Stanley and says, “You cannot talk to me like that. I’m your boss.” And Stanley says, “Fair enough,” and that’s that. And there’s a moment of him where you see just a slight little maturity in his leadership, and he’s very proud, and he’s definitely a people-pleasing type of manager, but that was a moment for me where he grew.

Ren:

It’s interesting, when I start to explore, there’s a couple of things that pop up for me around, and you alluded to it at the top, were there good signs of leadership? And presumably Michael Scott, he’s the formal leader of the building, and we kind of know that he’s painted as such. He’s the head manager, whatever that means. But one of my favorite bits ever is when they all change the clocks in the office and he’s sleeping. Michael Scott, he didn’t have just 1 chicken pot pie, he had 2, and now he’s taking a nap. And they change all the clocks, and then 1, 2, 3, they make a big laugh and he wakes up, he walks out. He’s like, “What’s so funny?” And someone’s like, “Oh, you had to be there.” And he goes, “Oh, geography jokes. I love them,” but then he’s like, “Oh, look, at the time.” I think that’s the best fit ever, what a good response to you had to be there.

But then he looks at the clock, “Oh, it’s 5 o’clock.” And he’s like, “All right, everyone get out of here.” And you think, this is the environment that is also the only branch of Dunder Mifflin that is selling any paper, that’s doing any good work, but that’s part of the storyline. And so they bring them up to New York, “How are you doing it?” And I always tell leaders at the heights of their organization, but also anyone who’s listening a little bit lower, part of your job is to always articulate what you’re good at and why and how. And they’re asking Michael, “How do you do it?” He’s kind of like, “Well …” He doesn’t really know what the hell he’s doing that creates the positive environment. And so I wonder, you talk about there’s some high points where relationships make up for a lot, but maybe it’s just super high performers, or maybe we need to look at the sales people and their relationships, because they’re the ones keeping the doors open. And I  just wonder, did they succeed because of Michael, or in spite of Michael?

Allison:

Probably both, don’t you think?

Ren:

Probably both.

Allison:

They’re also given quite a bit of autonomy, it seems, in their jobs, and the way that Dwight goes about selling is quite different than your Jims or, was Phyllis was in sales? I can’t remember, but they go about it quite differently, which is normal in a sales type, I think, but I think you’re probably right, where it was a little bit in spite of him, but also he gives them a lot of freedom to do their job, because he’s maybe too hands-off, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about Dwight. What are your thoughts about Dwight?

Ren:

Well, you’re talking about how Dwight’s sales tactics are different. Oh my God, are his leadership tactics different.

Allison:

Yes.

Ren:

One of my favorite, again, bits from there is when Dwight’s getting ready to do some talk at a sales conference —

Allison:

Oh my gosh, this is one of mine, too, but you go first.

Ren:

And then Jim, he’s like, “Oh, read these prompts.” It’s like the way Mussolini gave speeches, and so he’s prepping it and it really works for him, but I think it’s so funny for Dwight’s character, because he sort of plays that hard angle. When he was the manager, or when he buys the building, there’s so many good bits. But maybe before we go doing on that, you said you really liked that kind of Mussolini moment, too?

Allison:

Yes, because well, everything that you said is hilarious, but also, this is actually a really great leadership lesson that I might share more often because … If you haven’t seen the episode, he goes to give a speech at some sort of conference, I presume it’s a paper convention or something like that, and he’s so dramatic and almost dictator-like in the way that he speaks to this group. And he’s also very, very passionate. And the audience is kind of slow to clap, and then they get going, and he gets more engaged and sort of filled with energy. And the more passionate he gets, the more engaged the group gets, and by the end, they’re cheering him on. And it’s a good lesson and something that we talk about at CCL, when we talk about presentation skills, that your enthusiasm for the content is what people will latch onto the most.

So people will say, “I need to have the best PowerPoint slides, need to be clear.” That’s important, too, if you have those slides or whatnot. The materials are less important. It’s how you present it and how authentically engaged you are with that content that you are sharing. So, I think that’s such a great lesson. But another thing with Dwight is, I don’t know if you’ll remember this, Michael couldn’t choose a healthcare plan at one point. He just couldn’t do it, because he realized that some people would be paying more, it wouldn’t impact people the same way. So, he puts Dwight up to it, and Dwight picks the absolute worst one that’s not cost-effective at all. And it wasn’t until he gets everybody into the room and they’re all sort of berating Michael, “Why did you pick this plan?” And Michael said, “Well, Dwight picked it,” and there’s a reaction that Dwight has on his face when he realizes the impact that he’s had on people’s lives. That’s a little bit telling. You see a bit softer side of Dwight.

Ren:

There’s something earnest about Dwight. Remember when Dwight has the concussion and he’s being super nice to Pam?

Allison:

Yes.

Ren:

And they’re like, “Something’s wrong with Pam,” because I think he bumped his head earlier in that episode or something, that morning on his car, I don’t know what happened, but there was something like … We talk about this idea of interpersonal dynamics in workspaces, like being authentic and being caring, and I have this debate with people all the time. I would rather you be authentically uncaring than unauthentically caring. And I think for Dwight, what you can always count on him to do is, he doesn’t deviate from his true north. Dwight is not a flip-flopper. If you know what Dwight cares about, you know it’s like, bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica, let’s do it. And I think he’s sort of a really straight shooter. And the more you work with him, and I think the more people befriended him …

And then you started to see how … I love when Dwight goes with Jim to sell, even though all their beef, they’re a really great team, because they empower each other, they make each other better. And so, it’s really interesting to think, some of that you’re alluding to, how earnest Dwight is, that he knows as a patriarch of a farm and a family himself, I think he recognizes implicitly that he’s got people to care for, and at his best, you can count on Dwight. You’ve always counted on him to be Dwight, but the best you can count on him to look out for you.

Allison:

Yes, I think he’s with Jim, and they’re trying to pitch to a new client, and it’s not going super well, and Dwight eventually steps in and says something like, “I will be at your beck and call. I’m never late. I never take sick days. I never get sick. I don’t celebrate any holidays, ever. I don’t celebrate birthdays.” He goes through this ridiculous list of qualities that you would never expect an employee to uphold, but that’s how he is. And on the flip side, he’s very competitive. He’s guilty of name-calling. He’s pretty irrational at times. He’s definitely driven by his emotions. He’s definitely power-hungry, but you see those softer sides of him, because he’s so wholly committed to Dunder Mifflin. He will do absolutely anything for that company, even if it means spending the day with Jim.

Ren:

Well, and it’s such a good example, too. I think we were just talking about it earlier. I think Dwight’s arc, he had to start to ask what’s important to him. And I think the manager role was important to him, but I think maybe his own success, he was wanting it for his own purpose in the beginning. He’s got an arc where he gets it for a moment, gets that big marble desk put in there, and then shoots the gun in the office, and then that’s summarily the end of it. And I remember, I love it at the end when David Wallace has the company again, and then Jim says, “You should make Dwight the manager.” And then Dwight’s like, “I’m sorry about shooting the gun inside.” And Wallace is like, “What?” But I think that’s an interesting arc for Dwight, because he shoots the gun, and he loses the job.

And we weren’t seeing the part of Dwight that cared about his friends, his job, his colleagues, that was a steward for the work. We were seeing a Dwight who was a steward for himself. And a lot of you might experience someone who’s solely driven by their own success, or you might be solely driven by your own success, and I don’t think that’s bad. Well, I think that if we’re solely driven by any one thing, there is a watch out for you. And I think what we started to see with Dwight is that Dunder Mifflin’s success started to become his success. The people around him started to become his success.

When Jim and Pam left at the very end and they were going to quit, and then Dwight said, “No, you’re fired.” And Jim was really disturbed, because, “I thought we were friends, man.” He’s like, “Oh, don’t leave it like this.” And he goes, “No, no, if I fire you, I can give you X, Y, and Z. I can give you a better [separation] package. If you quit, you’re not going to get any of this stuff.” And they’re like, “Oh, cool.” What a cool bow to his kind of human arc.

Allison:

And then of course, this will be a spoiler, so if you don’t want the show spoiled, maybe don’t listen to this next part.

Ren:

For a 14-year-old show, just keep it together, everybody.

Allison:

At the very end when, what is happening, Dwight and Angela are getting married, and Jim is tasked with trying to get Michael to the wedding. And it’s a really emotional moment between the 2 of them. It’s so good, oh my gosh.

Ren:

It’s so good.

Allison:

And the jokes that I won’t repeat, because I don’t want to be a soundbite, and I don’t want to be crass like Michael, but he has a standard joke that he says, and if you know the show, you probably know it. And so Jim says, “I don’t know if I could get Michael to come, I’m sorry,” or something like that, and he steps aside and Michael’s there, and Dwight was like, “Michael, you came,” and then Michael says the joke, and it’s just a really touching moment where you see the 3 of them as really caring for one another, despite how much they butt heads.

Ren:

Very, very lovely moment. It made me think about Michael at Jim and Pam’s wedding, the bit where he’s like, “I feel like my kids are getting married.” That’s super funny. “The kids are getting married to each other.” I think that what “The Office” does really good is talk about the human part of it, and I think that’s something that we can all be reminded of. I think that’s sort of the pitch of the show is to talk about the mundanity of the office life.

And these days, I don’t know how mundane, with the pandemic and how much of a share that kind of office is or those experiences, but I think we can all kind of vibe with these people who are representative of not just people we know and work with, but really representative of ourselves. I’ll speak for myself. I definitely have some Jim and Dwight and Michael in me, some of their best qualities, some of their worst qualities. I can see shades of it, and I think that’s why we spoke about them today, because we could so easily draw on the impact they had on us. And so, I wonder what you’re doing, folks, to impact the people you’re around.

Allison:

Definitely, and there’s a certain level of acceptance that they have for one another, too. I think about when Andy came along. Andy, sometimes I think to myself, “Oh my gosh, am I like Andy?” Because Andy’s always singing, and I’m usually singing to myself in my office. And it’s probably quite annoying, and they do get irritated by him, but there’s certain levels of acceptance that they have for one another, and they really do bring out the best in one another. And I think about some of the characters we haven’t talked about too, like the Ryans of the world.

Ryan basically hated his job. He hated every minute that he had to be there, but he wanted a paycheck, and eventually gets his MBA, gets a promotion at the corporate office, and he turns into a very self-important type of leader. And then he falls. He’s unethical, he does some unethical things, he gets fired. And then Michael rehires him, which is a curious move there, but it is a good reminder to be grateful for what you have and aware that leadership does not necessarily mean “likership.” It doesn’t mean that you’re trying to get everybody to like you. However, there is a people element to it, and you’ve got to find ways to nourish that side of it, or else you end up like the worst side of the Dwights, you end up like the worst side of the Ryans. So there’s a balance there, but you also don’t want to be the people-pleasing, people-only side of Michael, because then you hire somebody who basically stole from your company, and you just bring them right back and make decisions that probably aren’t great for your company.

Ren:

That’s an interesting … because wondering, does this Ryan, in real life, does he actually pay for his issues in more of a real kind of criminal or other way?

Allison:

Probably not.

Ren:

I think you said it. They were trying to tell a story of acceptance. It’s like he was the worst, most disagreeable, obnoxious … I came from a temp and now all of a sudden I’m a wunderkind, because I’m promising something I can’t deliver and I’m being the worst about it, and then I come back. And I think it demonstrated that everyone’s going to mess up, and “The Office” was a place where people could find acceptance. But you made me think of someone that we didn’t talk about, and I don’t know how much we can explore, but Andy.

Allison:

Andy.

Ren:

Andy himself had a momentary job as the manager for a bit. He was chosen, he was picked, by California. What was his name?

Allison:

David?

Ren:

James Spader’s character.

Allison:

What was his name? David or Daniel or something? I can’t remember.

Ren:

Something. Well, it wasn’t even that, it was just the nickname that he had, but he got chosen, and it was interesting, because when you think about … So many lessons of these people that are representative of us, and Andy’s story was he finally got the job. He’s dealing with whatever kind of romantic or really life issues that he’s going through, and then he proceeds to just run away and sail around, and the office just runs without him. And he’s the manager. And then he comes back, and it’s — Robert California —

Allison:

Robert, that’s right.

Ren:

And he’s got his beard, and he’s in his sailing clothes, and he wants the office to lie for him, and he’s just been gone. And what made it worse is, too, he was dating Erin at the time, and she’s kind of like, “What the hell, man? Where’d you go?” And it’s just interesting, a reminder that there’s a lot of necessary “face your problems” and stuff, “deal with the things that you’re going through, you can’t run away from your issues, because either you come back to them or they follow you,” and it’s just really a lot of human stories in this show that I really enjoyed.

Allison:

Oh yeah, I agree, and Andy, now I think it’s before he gets that promotion, do you remember when he punches a hole in the wall?

Ren:

Yeah, that’s early with his anger management?

Allison:

Yes.

Ren:

That’s when Jim is messing with him?

Allison:

It’s a caricature. You would think that would pretty rarely happen at the office, and I don’t hear stories of people punching holes in their walls, but I do hear stories quite a bit of people losing their tempers and acting in ways that you wouldn’t expect from professional adults at the workplace. But these things happen. So, they send him to anger management and he resolves it somehow, some way. I think he has an episode where he practices his counting to 10 before he speaks or something like that, and it’s an exaggerated caricature, but these things happen. And you’re right, there are hints of everybody on that show, hints of those people at a lot of offices, and Nellie is one person we didn’t talk about. Her character is short-lived, and what I found to be sort of hilarious about her is that she just also declares herself the boss at one point.

Ren:

During that vacuum.

Allison:

Yes, “Well, I’m going to take …” She says, I think if this —

Ren:

This is my office now.

Allison:

If the seat’s open, then the job is open. Somebody says, “Well, that’s Andy’s office.” And she said, “Well, that doesn’t look like his office to me. It’s mine now,” and then she just is in charge. And like you said, that office was running itself without him or her, so she didn’t really do anything, but this type of thing happens at the workplace too, when, if leadership roles and responsibilities aren’t clear, egos can take over and somebody will try to be that stand-in leader and assume the role if that kind of thing is not kept in check. And of course, it’s fine at “The Office.” Nothing really happens. I don’t remember what happens with her. I think she just leaves. Do you remember?

Ren:

Well, I think she actually stays. She becomes a character on the show, but eventually she moves out of the leadership, because she’s not the boss. She doesn’t formally have it. But I think something that I found charming about her was that she didn’t really know what she was doing, but she just … A lot of you, if you put yourself into positions, you find yourself getting those positions. I don’t know if you’ve seen a video of … I saw this clip of this young woman talking about, “I’m trying to get rejected.” I don’t know, is this a thing, seeking rejection? And so she’s like, “I just started to get rejected from all these places.” And she’s like, “I tried to get rejected from my favorite school, got accepted. I tried to get to get rejected from modeling, and they told me my look was too ethereal.”

And it was all these stories of, in her effort to get rejection and deal with the feeling of rejection, she was actually showing that putting herself out there was, like, she was getting opportunities because she was putting yourself into those positions. And so if you’re out there, and you’re thinking about what you should do or how you should do it, put yourself in those positions. And it makes me think, too, of your Dwight story where he’s embodying that weird Mussolini style.

Allison:

Yes.

Ren:

I was watching another clip on YouTube and this guy, he pulled out a cigarette on stage and everyone was like, “Whoa.” And then he goes, “Why? What is this? Did you know that diabetes kills 4 more times Americans every year than cigarettes? And if I pulled out a Snickers bar, you wouldn’t say that.” And then he later says, “And what’s interesting about this is that I’ve made up all of these facts.” And so it’s amazing what people will believe if you say it with authority and this awareness.

Allison:

Yes.

Ren:

Maybe believe in yourself a little bit, and if there’s an empty seat, maybe don’t fully be like Nellie and just steal it, but be like, “Yo, why can’t I sit in that seat?”

Allison:

Absolutely, why can’t you? And maybe not something to get into today, but that trust thing, trust and confidence together can do wonders if you are a leader. And if you’re not, right? The more people trust you, the more willing they are to go along with whatever goals or objectives you have. And the more confident you are, of course, the more confident they will feel. That’s also been proven in research, too. So, there’s some interesting tell in that equation of trust and confidence, that perhaps we can get into another time, but important for leaders for sure.

Ren:

Maybe one more, just before we go, if you had to pick a favorite person to be your favorite boss, and let’s not debate, what are we doing there? I don’t know, let’s pretend that we sell paper. Of anyone we mentioned or anyone we didn’t mention, who would you want to work for?

Allison:

Do you mean I’m working for Dunder Mifflin?

Ren:

Yeah, sure. You’re in Scranton.

Allison:

I’m at the paper company. It’s the same sort of setup?

Ren:

You’re unfortunately in Scranton.

Allison:

I might go with the Jim, the Jim of the later episodes, the later seasons. And I’m going to say this, and I might take it back after I give some thought. So, allow me to, in our next recording if I choose to, but Michael Scott is not the worst type of boss that I’ve seen. I’ve seen a lot worse, and so —

Ren:

Oh no, goodness.

Allison:

Michael wouldn’t be that bad, I don’t think. What about you?

Ren:

I probably choose him. I think that I could do plenty of social engineering, to and with Michael, I think he’s fine if someone’s a go-getter. I like to have fun, too. We would be fine. So, he would never have to worry about me, and I would never have to worry about him. And so I think that he might be mine. I was wondering, too, maybe I’d work for Gabe.

Allison:

Oh, Gabe, I forgot about Gabe.

Ren:

Just because Gabe is a little skeleton. I love it. It’s like Erin says.

Allison:

Poor Gabe.

Ren:

I know, poor Gabe, but I feel like also Gabe is so desperate to be accepted, that if I could help him get that acceptance, then he would just leave me alone. I don’t know if you’re tracking, everyone, but I just want to be left alone, but I think that’s fine.

Allison:

No, but it’s a good exercise in thinking about what your values are. Autonomy is very, very important to me, and I would probably get a lot of that working for Michael. And I like to not take myself too seriously either, and I think that would be a benefit of working for him as well. I also think that if there was some hardship or something happening in my life, I could tell Michael Scott, “Things are really hard right now, and I don’t know how to manage my workload,” and he would be so accepting of that. So, you just have to know what you value. There’s no such thing as a perfect boss or a perfect leader, and it depends on your organization, depends on your team, depends on so much. So, there are so many characters we didn’t talk about too, Ren, but that’s okay. I think we touched on —

Ren:

I know, maybe part 2 of this episode.

Allison:

Perhaps, so any main takeaways that you would leave with our listeners with regard to “The Office”?

Ren:

Just reminding myself that you work with people. Almost all of you at some point have to engage with people. And every once in a while in “The Office,” we see a glimpse behind the curtain into their lives and are reminded that they’re going through their own things, and so too are the people that you’re with. So everyone’s got different styles, different places. You find your niche, you make it work. Be honest with yourself and the people that you’re around.

Allison:

That’s great. And I would add, if you’re someone right now who’s unsure of your career, or thinking about making a switch and you’re not sure, think about what you value the most and maybe your top 2 or 3 absolute non-negotiables that you have at a workplace, and find ways that your workplace can work for you. And you can identify that by knowing what your values are first.

So, we’ll leave it at that. This was a fun episode, and we are doing Manager Madness. So find us on LinkedIn, find us on Instagram. We’re doing some polling on Instagram, too, so you can help us identify perhaps who the best leader is of all of these managers that we will be discussing. And as always, Ren, thanks for the conversation. This was a fun one. A big thank you to our CCL team behind the scenes who makes this podcast happen, and we’ll look forward to tuning in next time. Thanks, everyone.

Ren:

And if “The Office” won, and … You’re time traveling, and you’ve been listening to this management thing the whole time, so congratulations.

Allison:

You win.

Ren:

You win. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Allison. Find Allison on TikTok.

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The post Lead With That: Leadership Lessons from “The Office” appeared first on CCL.

This onslaught of information — coming from all directions — has an impact on our health. We have been dealing with a lot of uncertainty and anxiety, and for some of us, that anxiety comes in waves. For others, it’s more like a steady drip into our sanity bucket — and we know it’s just a matter of time before that bucket overflows.

Employee enthusiasm, cooperation, morale, and creativity are all jeopardized in times of stress, making it all the more difficult to run the business or organization. It’s more difficult than ever to make time for wellness.

Wellness Can Help You Achieve Success (And Attain Your Full Leadership Potential)

For years, many positive psychology experts have issued the warning: “If you don’t make time for wellness, you will never be successful.”

It’s a serious message — and it’s as true now as ever.

As leaders, we are called to be strategic. We’re responsible for setting direction, getting alignment, and inspiring commitment from our people.

That’s a tall order, and it requires more than just our physical presence — whether we’re working from home or from the office. As we rise to the challenge of living and leading in an uncertain world, we must take care of our mental health and make time for wellness so that we are able to attain our full potential, both personally and professionally. This is a key part of living with intention, at work and at home.

By whatever measure we choose — career trajectory, paycheck size, a happy family — we often gauge our own success. And while you may be successful by most accounts — including your own — you may still be falling short of reaching your full leadership potential, because “success” doesn’t necessarily correlate with achieving your true potential.

By not addressing that, we run the risk of leaving a whole lot of potential on the table.

So, how do you access your full leadership potential?

It’s easier than you might think: “Making even small changes in your daily habits can have a significant impact on your wellness, which will directly contribute to your success, regardless of how you measure it,” notes Jessica Glazer, one of our senior leadership solutions partners.

These changes needn’t be major life overhauls. At CCL, we teach that making even small adjustments helps you make time for wellness, which will pay off in all areas of your life, helping you to come closer to reaching your true potential as a leader.

How to Make Time for Wellness: 4 Proven Positive Psychology Techniques

Wellness Tips to Help You Achieve Your Full Leadership Potential

Here are 4 wellness techniques that have been scientifically proven to decrease your stress and increase your resilience, wellbeing, and leadership:

• Increase your sleep, both in terms of quality and quantity.
• Increase your movement with exercise throughout the day.
• Develop your mindfulness skills (via various meditation techniques).
• Foster a culture of gratitude both at work, and at home.

Making headway in any of these 4 areas requires no more than 20 minutes a day — and often, as few as 3 minutes will do the trick. These small steps will improve your resilience and therefore help move you closer to accessing your untapped leadership potential.

By increasing in each of these 4 areas — sleep, movement, mindfulness, and gratitude — even if only minutes per day, you will make time for wellness, when time is at a premium.

Dive deeper into 8 evidence-based practices that keep you healthy, focused, and functioning with our book, Resilience That Works: Eight Practices for Leadership and Life, “a practical guide for gaining and maintaining strength through the trials and tribulations of leading and living.”
-Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author

1. Increase your sleep.

Time commitment: As little as 20 minutes a day

Research shows that you lose one IQ point for every lost hour of sleep. Go to bed just 20 minutes earlier. Or, catch up by taking a quick nap during the day, and reap the added benefit of increasing both your alertness and productivity levels for the afternoon. Consider a short nap after lunch or before dinnertime with your family. Your partner, friends, or children deserve your attention, and it can be hard to focus if you’re nodding off.

If naps won’t work, set your alarm to wake you at the time you’ll actually need to get up. Hitting the snooze button may make you feel like you’re sneaking in a few extra minutes of rest, but you’d be better off letting your alarm go off 20 minutes later and getting up after an extra bit of restorative sleep. Being tired at work is a roadblock for leaders.

2. Increase your movement.

Time commitment: 5 minutes a day

If you’re not currently able to fit exercise into your busy schedule, don’t feel you must jump headfirst into a CrossFit membership. Because exercise and leadership are closely linked, any movement is better than none. Just taking a 5-minute break to stretch or take a super-quick walk can have immediate positive effects on your stress levels, creativity, and productivity.

These effects are even greater if you get that walk in outdoors, around some trees or greenery. Aim to make time for wellness by increasing your movement just a little each day, and don’t forget to notice the exercise that you’re actually getting, but may be ignoring.

3. Increase your mindfulness.

Time commitment: 1 minute a day

Put a meditation app like Calm or Headspace in the spot on your smartphone where your most commonly used social media app usually sits. You’ll be surprised, both by how mindlessly you open up the app without a thought, and by how easily you can fill the few minutes you might’ve spent scrolling with a grounding meditation instead.

You may like a short, guided recording, or you may prefer the timed sessions that just play background music — try a few and figure out what works best for you. A recent favorite of ours is Calm’s breathing meditation, which rings a chime as an indication to inhale, a chime to hold your breath for a count of 2, and a chime to exhale. It’s simple and effective, and best of all: You can use it for a little as 60 seconds to help re-center yourself whenever you need to hit reset.

Mindfulness practices can boost your leadership skills, so getting into the practice of centering yourself — and becoming more mindful of your emotions and environment — will benefit you in a multitude of ways. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself more aware of the needs of your colleagues and family, or if you’re less rattled by the constant change we all confront each day. Being mindful helps us to notice more things, both internally and externally, and thus navigate through our days more effectively.

4. Increase your gratitude.

Time commitment: 3 minutes a day

Keep a gratitude journal. Use a book, use your phone, or use one of the many apps that offer this service, but don’t miss the opportunity to reframe your long-term mindset. Writing down even 3 good things every day will quickly train your brain to look for positives throughout your day. This will pay off both personally and professionally, as your happiness boost will be noticed in and out of the office.

If you want to spread the benefits and encourage gratitude in the workplace, you may wish to extend your thanks to others at work to help your team members feel appreciated, engaged, and supported.

Want to make this a daily practice? Once a week — perhaps first thing on Monday or last thing on Friday — spend no more than 3 minutes writing a quick gratitude letter to someone in your life. This can be handwritten or sent via email, but try following our widely recognized SBI feedback model to make it quick, easy, specific, and impactful:

• Share the Situation. (This morning, just before our weekly call …)
• Describe the Behavior you observed. (… when you agreed to accommodate my last-minute request to reschedule …)
• Depict the Impact on you. (… I felt supported and grateful. I’m so glad to get to work with you.)

Sign it, send it off, and you’ve not only benefited from gratitude, but you’ve made someone else’s day better, too.

A Closing Word On Reaching Your Leadership Potential

So, remember these 4 tips from positive psychology to carve out time for wellness and help you boost your resilience levels. When you make time for wellness, you’re equipped to seize all the possibilities that await, and truly achieve your maximum potential as a leader — and as a person.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Help your team make time for wellness and develop habits that support their own resilience, increasing their ability to reach their full leadership potential. Our evidence-based resilience training will help your leaders avoid burnout — and burn bright instead.

The post Make Time for Wellness to Reach Your Full Leadership Potential appeared first on CCL.

Psychological safety is the belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. Psychological safety at work is a shared expectation held by members of a team that teammates will not embarrass, reject, or punish them for sharing ideas, taking risks, or soliciting feedback.

Psychological safety in the workplace doesn’t mean that everybody is nice to each other all the time. Rather, it means that people feel free to “brainstorm out loud,” voice half-finished thoughts, openly challenge the status quo, share feedback, and work through disagreements together — knowing that leaders value honesty, candor, and truth-telling, and that team members will have one another’s backs.

When workplace psychological safety is present, people feel comfortable bringing their full, authentic selves to work and are okay with “laying themselves on the line” in front of others. And organizations with psychologically safe work environments — where employees feel free to ask bold questions, share concerns, ask for help, and take calculated risks — are all the better for it.

In fact, in a research study we conducted of nearly 300 leaders over 2.5 years, we found that teams with high degrees of psychological safety reported higher levels of performance and lower levels of interpersonal conflict.

It’s important to note that not all team members hold the same perceptions, though. The stakes are particularly high for senior leadership teams, where our research found members reported the greatest differences in their perceived levels of psychological safety at work — 62% of senior teams in our sample demonstrated significant variability around their team’s psychological safety. This has real business repercussions; when innovative ideas go unsaid, creative problem solving is squashed, and teams fail to collaborate and innovate together to their full potential.

The Importance of Psychological Safety in the Workplace

Psychological safety at work is not just a “nice to have;” it impacts the organization’s bottom line. Having a higher level of consistent psychological safety helps to unlock the contributions of all talent in the enterprise and ensures the organization is better equipped to prevent failure.

Research has repeatedly found that organizations benefit from diversity of thought, and groups of people with different life experiences are better able to recognize problems and offer up creative solutions than groups with similar life experiences.

But what if some team members don’t feel comfortable speaking up? What if they’re afraid to share their perspective, raise concerns, or asking challenging questions? What if they avoid suggesting new and innovative ideas because they’re worried about the repercussions?

Unfortunately, many people feel this way about their workplace. According to a 2019 Gallup poll, just 3 out of 10 employees strongly agreed that their opinions count at work.

It can be especially challenging for members of social identity groups that are often marginalized by society to feel high levels of psychological safety in the workplace. For example, a recent survey from Catalyst found that nearly half of female business leaders face difficulties speaking up in virtual meetings, and 1 in 5 reported feeling overlooked or ignored during video calls. Those who are members of historically underrepresented groups may feel this reality even more keenly.

Colleagues who feel their work environment is psychologically safe are more willing to engage in interpersonal risk-taking behaviors that contribute to greater organizational innovation — like speaking up, asking questions, sharing unspoken reservations, and respectfully disagreeing. This ultimately yields a more robust, dynamic, innovative, and inclusive organizational culture.

In contrast, when psychological safety at work is low and people are uncomfortable raising concerns, initiatives that aren’t working move forward anyway, the organization isn’t equipped to prevent failure, and talent begins to disengage. When employees aren’t fully committed to shared organizational success, ideas aren’t stress-tested, processes aren’t optimized, solutions aren’t vetted, and the enterprise has lost an opportunity to leverage the contributions of all its talent.

Why Psychological Safety in the Workplace Matters Now More Than Ever

The rise of the hybrid workplace and virtual work arrangements since the pandemic have made psychological safety at work more complex for leaders today. It can be harder to build a psychologically safe “workplace” when employees are not all co-located, and many are working remotely.

After all, how do you establish trust when interpersonal conversations have to be scheduled in advance, and many are conducted through a screen? Yet leading remote teams may give leaders a unique opportunity to forge connections and increase psychological safety — if they’re paying attention.

In an on-camera virtual meeting, you can look intently at people, perhaps more so than you could in person. (In many cultures, it can be awkward to stare at someone for 30 seconds or minutes at a time.) But on videoconferences, no one knows who you’re looking at, so you can watch the speaker closely — absorbing not just their words, but also their emotions and values. Leaders can seize this opportunity to explore authentic communication in virtual settings through the power of listening.

Plus, many people feel more comfortable typing vulnerable statements through a screen (for example, into a meeting chat) than they would speaking in person. In those settings, they may appreciate a chance to spend a little more time thinking through how they want to convey information to maximize impact. Leaders can show respect for those courageous enough to share their honest thoughts — again, recognizing the vulnerability required to do so, and responding with appreciation.

8 Steps Toward Creating More Psychological Safety at Work

Our Tips for Leaders

Here’s how leaders can help create a more psychologically safe workplace.

1. Make psychological safety an explicit priority.

Talk with your team about the importance of creating psychological safety at work. Connect it to a higher purpose of greater organizational innovation, team engagement, and inclusion. Ask for help when you need it, and freely give help when asked. Model the behaviors you want to see, and set the stage by using inclusive leadership practices.

2. Facilitate everyone speaking up.

Show genuine curiosity, and honor frankness and truth-telling. Be an open-minded, compassionate leader, and willing to listen when someone is brave enough to say something challenging the status quo. Organizations with a coaching culture will more likely have team members with the courage to speak the truth.

3. Establish norms for how failure is handled.

Don’t punish experimentation and (reasonable) risk-taking. Show recognition that mistakes are an opportunity for growth. Encourage learning from failure and disappointment, and openly share your hard-won lessons learned from mistakes. This will help encourage innovation, instead of sabotaging it. Use candor when expressing disappointment (and appreciation).

4. Create space for new ideas (even wild ones).

Provide any challenge within the larger context of support. Consider whether you only want ideas that have been thoroughly tested, or whether you’re willing to accept highly creative, out-of-the-box ideas that are not yet well-formulated. It’s fine to ask the tough questions; but do so while always being supportive at the same time. Learn more about how to foster more innovative mindsets on your team.

5. Embrace productive conflict.

Promote sincere dialogue and constructive debate, and work to resolve conflicts productively. Set the stage for incremental change by establishing team expectations for factors that contribute to psychological safety. With your team, discuss the following questions:

• How will team members communicate their concerns about a process that isn’t working?
• How can reservations be shared with colleagues in a respectful manner?
• What are our norms for managing conflicting perspectives?

6. Pay close attention and look for patterns.

Focus on team members’ perceived patterns of psychological safety, not just the overall level. Do some members experience significantly more or less psychological safety than others, or is the level fairly even across the team?

• Advocate for consistent psychological safety for everyone, and not just as a “nice to have” — it matters for the bottom line.
• Consider the team’s current beliefs when developing strategies to enhance team psychological safety, because one size does not fit all.

7. Make an intentional effort to promote dialogue.

Promote skill at giving and receiving feedback, and create space for people to raise concerns. Ask colleagues powerful, open-ended questions, and then listen actively and intently to understand their feelings and values, as well as facts. Provide opportunities to learn how to share constructive feedback to one another and what respectful responses look like.

You may want to consider investments in strengthening the quality of conversations across the organization, because quite literally, better conversations will lead to a better culture. Improved skill at feedback conversations, combined with a psychologically safe work environment, will yield colleagues who are more willing to share unspoken reservations with one another and propose solutions that are more rigorously stress-tested before implementation.

8. Celebrate wins.

Notice and acknowledge what’s going well. Positive interactions and conversations between individuals are built on trust and mutual respect. So share credit and embrace expertise among many, and the success of the collective, versus a single “hero” mentality.

Celebrate what’s going well, however small, and appreciate people’s efforts. Encouraging and expressing gratitude reinforces your team members’ sense of self. Give your team members the benefit of the doubt when they take a risk, ask for help, or admit a mistake. In turn, trust that they will do the same for you.

The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

Has Your Organization Moved Through Each Phase?

As organizations build greater psychological safety, 4 recognizable stages emerge.

A psychologically safe workplace begins with a feeling of belonging. Like Maslow’s hierarchy of basic needs, employees must feel accepted before they’re able to contribute fully in ways that improve their organizations.

According to Dr. Timothy Clark, author of The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation, employees have to progress through the following 4 stages before they feel free to make valuable contributions and challenge the status quo.

Stage 1 — Inclusion Safety

Inclusion safety satisfies the basic human need to connect and belong. In this stage, you feel safe to be yourself and are accepted for who you are, including your unique attributes and defining characteristics.

Stage 2 — Learner Safety

Learner safety satisfies the need to learn and grow. In this stage, you feel safe to exchange in the learning process by asking questions, giving and receiving feedback, experimenting, and making mistakes.

Stage 3 — Contributor Safety

Contributor safety satisfies the need to make a difference. You feel safe to use your skills and abilities to make a meaningful contribution.

Stage 4 — Challenger Safety

Challenger safety satisfies the need to make things better. You feel safe to speak up and challenge the status quo when you think there’s an opportunity to change or improve.

To help employees move through the 4 stages and ultimately land in a place where they feel comfortable with interpersonal risk-taking and speaking up, leaders should nurture and promote their team’s sense of psychological safety in the workplace.

When a team or organizational climate is characterized by interpersonal trust, respect, and a sense of belonging at work, members feel free to collaborate and they feel safe taking risks, which ultimately enables them to drive innovation more effectively.

Psychological Safety Reveals Your Work Culture

The levels of psychological safety in your workplace represent your organization’s climate and culture. A culture is simplistically defined by “the way we do things around here,” and everyone has a role to play in how work gets done. Leaders are especially key in shaping organizational culture — both on our teams and in our organizations.

Changing a culture is never fast or easy, but transforming your organization to build psychological safety for everyone is definitely worthwhile.

If it feels like a tall order, remember that transformation comes in the form of small steps, so think about changing your culture in terms of making incremental changes that yield incremental wins. Ask colleagues if they’re willing to sign up for improving 1% each day. By the end of a year, your organization will be exponentially stronger.

Remember, the goal is to create psychological safety at work where team members aren’t worried about feeling rejected for speaking up. When that’s the case, not only does interpersonal risk-taking become the norm, but teams are also more adaptable in the face of change.

In other words, they understand the challenges and opportunities that exist throughout the organization — and they see their role in making it a better place.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Start building a psychologically safe workplace today: Take our Psychological Safety Challenge to discover 7 specific practices to try in your conversations next week.

The post How Leaders Can Build Psychological Safety at Work appeared first on CCL.

For many, the word “leadership” conjures an image of a single person at the helm, steering the ship. But it’s a misleading image. At CCL, we look at leadership as a social process, one that helps each person to discover the potential within themselves and — in turn — everyone around them.

To jumpstart that potential, your organization needs to be intentional by ensuring that clear Direction, Alignment, and Commitment (or DAC) are present from the start, as these are really the keys to how leadership works.

This introduction to our leadership philosophy dives into the Direction – Alignment – Commitment (DAC) framework, outlining how its key components can transform the way you approach leadership:

• Direction — Learn how setting a clear objective makes it easier to avoid the detours and distractions that pull us away from reaching our goals.
• Alignment — See how embracing cross-department networking and creating space for open and inclusive conversations can minimize confusion and maximize output.
• Commitment — Discover how making the success of the collective a personal priority can inspire team members to shift from compliance to motivated commitment.

How can you boost DAC within your organization? We cover that too, with tips for engaging with your teams to identify areas of opportunity with the most potential for impact.

In addition to downloading our white paper, reserve your seat for our free virtual event that will address how to activate your team’s collective potential through DAC.

Download How Leadership Works, Our Leadership Philosophy

The post How Leadership Works appeared first on CCL.