4 leadership strategies that make you a better coach

Leading change? Pull your team instead of pushing them | practice | 4 leadership strategies that make you a better coach Created for {EMAIL} | [{NAME}]( at [{NAME}]( [For more relevant content - Update Your Profile]( | [Web Version]( August 8, 2023 CONNECT WITH SMARTBRIEF  [LinkedIn]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [SmartBrief on Leadership]( Innovative Ideas. Ahead of the Curve. [SIGN UP]( ⋅ [SHARE](  [] Leading the Way [] [Leading change? Pull your team instead of pushing them]( [Leading change? Pull your team instead of pushing them]( (sarote pruksachat/Getty Images) Instead of pushing people into corporate changes through compliance and policies, the best leaders pull them into it by listening to their ideas, modeling the changes themselves and aligning teams with new goals, writes Al Comeaux, the former VP of Travelocity. "Think of our organizations as flocks of ducks: Before ducks can take flight, they have to learn how to paddle in line, walk in line. We can't have our people going in every direction and expect to lead them through a change," Comeaux writes. Full Story: [Washington Speakers Bureau]( (8/2) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Put it into practice: You can only get the outcomes you want from a change initiative by taking time in the beginning to get your inputs right, which means listening to your team, [Comeaux writes](. "Our people will be energized that we're using their ideas, and they're more likely to decide to change." [] SmartBrief on Leadership [] [4 leadership strategies that make you a better coach]( [4 leadership strategies that make you a better coach]( (Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images) Managers need to morph into coaches to get the best out of their teams, and savvy leaders coach a team member through a disagreement with clarity, narrative, listening and vision, writes consultant and author Marlene Chism. Any of these four skills will make it "much easier ... to build bridges, get collaboration, increase accountability and get things done," Chism explains. Full Story: [SmartBrief/Leadership]( (8/7) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Put it into practice: Asking if this issue is a fact or your interpretation and what else could be true is the way to wrangle the narrative, [Chism notes](. "Walk me through your thinking" is a great line to use for radical listening. [] [Read more]( from Marlene Chism on SmartBrief on Leadership [] Smarter Communication [] [How good communicators listen to win arguments]( Critical and empathetic listening are essential for good communicators, and these skills can help win arguments, MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan writes in "Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking." Critical listening lets you absorb and evaluate information on the spot, while empathetic listening helps you understand the other person's perspective, Hasan explains. Full Story: [CNBC]( (8/2) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Put it into practice: Clear your mind, keep an open mind and take notes to improve your critical listening skills, [Hassan advises](. Make eye contact, stay present and ask the right questions to be an empathetic listener. [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( Free eBooks and Resources Free eBooks and resources brought to you by our sponsors - [AI Terms Cheat Sheet]( - [Getting Started with Apache Hadoop]( - [12 Ways to Approach the Cybersecurity Skills Gap Challenge in 2023]( - [Data Center Acronyms Cheat Sheet]( - [6 Worthless Security Tactics That Won't Go Away]( [] Smarter Strategy [] - [Despite continued challenges, CEOs are upbeat on the economy]( Chief Executive (8/7) [] - [If you want to change your business, empower your team to make changes]( NOBL Academy (8/4) [] - [Think like a gardener to grow a thriving business ecosystem]( Digital Tonto blog (8/6) [] SmartPulse [] Which of the following best describes your organization's approach to promoting people: Promote them when they demonstrate 70-80% of the ability required at the next level 39.85% Promote them when they demonstrate 100% of what's required at the next level 10.16% Promote them once they've been serving as an "interim" at the next level for a while 13.29% Promise promotion but don't be clear on what it takes to achieve it 23.43% Promise promotion, set clear standards, and then move the standards when they get close 4.68% We never promote anyone 8.59% [] Take the risk or lose them. While a sizeable portion (40%) of you report that your organization promotes someone when they're almost ready for the role, 24% are more conservative and wait for the person to be in an interim role at the next level or fully-functioning at the next level. While this mitigates some risk, it also reduces motivation and increases frustration. You're basically telling the person, "We don't believe you can get to that level of performance so you have to prove to us that you can before we take the risk and promote you." Not a very motivating message or vote of confidence in their ability to grow. For those who promise promotion but aren't clear or who change the standards before the promotion is due, you're going to lose those people eventually. People have career goals and don't take kindly to being toyed with. Move the standard too often or never articulate what it takes to get promoted and you might find your people moving on and getting promoted somewhere else. The cost to replace someone is drastically higher than promoting from within. Take the risk and develop them. After all -- that's what being a leader is all about. -- Mike Figliuolo is managing director of [thoughtLEADERS](, which includes TITAN -- the firm's e-learning platform. Previously, he worked at McKinsey & Co., Capital One and Scotts Miracle-Gro. He is a West Point graduate and author of three leadership books: ["One Piece of Paper,"]( ["Lead Inside the Box"]( and ["The Elegant Pitch."]( [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] What is your opinion of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts at your company? [Vote]( [They're great! Everyone needs to feel respected, fairly treated and included]( [Vote]( [They're okay. I get the principle but sometimes it doesn't work as intended]( [Vote]( [They're a distraction. We have more important issues to deal with]( [Vote]( [They detract from our work environment and aren't helpful]( [Vote]( [They're really bad and don't have a place in our work environment]( [] In Their Own Words [] [Improve customer service by focusing on your employees]( Leaders can implement a "good jobs system," that sees employees as assets instead of costs, by investing in their growth, standardizing processes and cross-training them across the organization, all in the name of better serving customers, says Zeynep Ton, president of the Good Jobs Institute. "Once companies make improving value for the customer a priority, then operating with employees who come and go, who are not capable and are not motivated, is unacceptable for them," Ton says. Full Story: [McKinsey]( (8/3) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Daily Diversion [] [Musk likes "X," but origins of use means solving for "x"]( [Musk likes "X," but origins of use means solving for "x"]( (X) Elon Musk has a thing for the letter "X" in his company names, but the history of how the letter came to be used for the unknown in math problems is murky with the best guess being that Descartes started it in the 17th century when he decided to use the first few letters of the alphabet for undesignated constants in analytic geometry and the last few letters for variables, writes Middlebury math professor Peter Schumer. "Although scholars may never know for sure, some theorize that Descartes may have chosen the letter x to appear often since the printer had a large cache of x's because of its scarcity in the French language," Shumer writes. Full Story: [Atlas Obscura]( (8/4) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] SmartBreak: Question of the Day [] Writer James {NAME}'s autobiographical essay on race relations, "[Letter from a Region in My Mind](," first appeared in The New Yorker magazine before its inclusion in a book with what title? [Vote]( ["Another Country"]( [Vote]( ["The Fire Next Time"]( [Vote]( ["Giovanni's Room"]( [Vote]( ["Notes of a Native Son"]( [] About The Editor [] Candace Chellew Candace Chellew Chellew I got into an argument on the phone with a former neighbor the other week. I have a tenant in the house now and she's been using the power of the city to complain about every little thing she believes is wrong. It upset me. When I called her, the last thing on my mind was to use empathetic listening, [as Medhi Hasan outlines](. I wanted her to hear my point of view, and I wasn't much interested in hers. You can imagine the reception that got! When I finally calmed down enough to truly listen to her, the problems she described turned out to be fairly easy to fix, and didn't involve anything my tenant was doing. We came to an agreement about how to handle things -- only because at some point I chose to try to understand her and her issues. Have you used emphathetic listening with your team members, or others in your life? [Tell me about it](mailto:candace.chellew@futurenet.com)! If this newsletter helps you, please tell your colleagues, friends or anyone who can benefit. Forward them this email, or [send this link](. What topics do you see in your daily work that I should know about? Do you have praise? Criticism? [Drop me a note](mailto:candace.chellew@futurenet.com). And don't forget to send me photos of your pets, your office and where you spend your time off. [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( Sharing SmartBrief on Leadership with your network keeps the quality of content high and these newsletters free. Help Spread the Word [SHARE]( Or copy and share your personalized link: smartbrief.com/leadership/?referrerId=japnABMSAp [] [] Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. [John Green](, writer [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email](   SmartBrief publishes more than 200 free industry newsletters - [Browse our portfolio]( [Sign Up]( | [Update Profile]( | [Advertise with SmartBrief]( [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy policy]( CONTACT US: [FEEDBACK](mailto:leadership@smartbrief.com) | [ADVERTISE](mailto:lengel@smartbrief.com) SmartBrief, a division of Future US LLC © Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10036