February 2023
A Note From Rene’
Happy February!
For those of you who know me well, you know that the topic of leadership is near and dear to me. However, it has to be more than a topic; it’s about the actionable steps that we take as leaders. Don’t just talk about it, do it!
I’ve seen many situations where leaders are too “proud” to ask for help. In my humble opinion, showing some vulnerability is a great strength. Whether it’s asking for someone’s opinion about your behavior or asking someone for help with a project, you should realize these are not weaknesses.
The two articles I’ve included this month go into more detail about how to be a better leader. I hope you find them helpful.
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Kind regards,
René
When Your Feelings Conflict with Your Leadership Role
There are unwritten rules about the emotions you’re expected to show at work. These implicit “feeling rules” are so embedded in an organization’s social fabric that we rarely notice them. However, there are times when there’s a conflict between how you feel and the emotions you’re expected to display. So how do you decide when to express your true feelings and be “authentic” and when to put on a game face and show the emotions expected of you?
Given their visibility and the requirements of their role, leaders encounter this dilemma often. Take Jon, a senior legal leader who strongly disagreed with his general counsel’s ways of working but was still expected to rally his team. Or Dara, who was expected to willingly transition her organization (one she had built and didn’t want to let go) to another leader as part of a re-org.
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When Leaders Struggle with Collaboration
A client of Luis’s, let’s call him Charlie, a senior executive reporting directly to the CEO, was recently given feedback that despite his outstanding performance, his colleagues struggled to work with him. Charlie’s drive to deliver results, his no-nonsense approach to offering his viewpoints, and the intensity with which he approached most everything made him appear unnecessarily competitive, despite that being the furthest thing from his intent. As a result, without realizing it, Charlie lost the trust of some of his most critical stakeholders: his peers.
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