How to work with unhappy clients

All people can and at times will become unhappy. Unfortunately, this unhappiness can frequently manifest itself across work and be left for you to deal with. Here’s what to do. Listen to what happened and what matters to them Manage the situation, contain, analyse and own any mistakes made by you or your teams Follow up with the client in …

Leadership is not a popularity contest

Leadership is not a popularity contest. Privileges of leadership come with responsibilities to make decisions that positively impact the lives of the majority and the firm as a whole. It is very rare that you will be able to make decisions that will be well received by everyone, by 100% of the people impacted by that decision. With that in …

Leaders are authentic and consistent

Leaders must not only be honest, truthful and knowledgeable, but the very best of them are authentic and consistent as well. If you make a decision, stand behind it across all challenges (both internal and external) and communicate authentically across the enterprise. People you work with must know why you made the choices you have made and they need to …

Don’t jump to conclusions

Our vantage points and perspectives differ and they matter when making decisions which is why it is important to do your best to understand as much of the environment as possible. Understand what and who influences decisions. As you progress in your career, your priorities and responsibilities will change and so will your decisions. It is important to do your …

How to plan your day, week, month, year (no more “to do” lists)

Planning our future and our goals is something we all do across both our personal and professional lives. Planning is good, but it is utterly useless without accompanying action. Lack of commitment to continuously making progress is the single largest cause of why most of us don’t reach majority of our major goals and keep postponing them year after year …

You are only as good as your team

Your team matters a lot, even more than some of you might think. They matter as much as you do (if not more in some instances) as their actions, values and contributions speak volumes about you, their leader. Your job is to select (attract and retain) the best people you can, provide them needed resources then get out of their …

Passionate people are indicators of your progress

Passion makes the world go round. Without passion, we won’t be as committed, as focused, or as determined to see our projects and responsibilities all the way through. We won’t care to put in 100% of our efforts and skills, but will rather only contribute as much as it is necessary to get a passing grade. As leaders, we must …

Proactively recruit the best people

As I like to say, focus on people first, they matter the most. This is essential when leading your current teams and it is also of great importance when recruiting new employees. Don’t rely on the traditional way of hiring and finding talent. Posting a position on your HR website (in addition to few other websites) is no longer enough …