SkillInside

Congratulations on your new leadership position! I am sure you’ve worked hard and persevered along the way to get to this point. Everything you’ve done so far in your career has led you to this position. But the experiences and skills that landed you this new job will not be what allows you to succeed. In fact, you’ll need a new set of skills to continue being successful. You need to adapt the traits and develop the skills that make leaders into great leaders. There are no quick fixes; it takes hard work and the refusal to give up. As a leadership coach for over three decades, I have groomed some of the top leaders across all industries. I’ve learned there is no real secret to succeeding—it’s just a matter of learning the habits and skills you need. Here are some powerful things you can do. Use this as a blueprint and revisit it every few weeks to make sure your leadership is moving toward where it needs to be. Create with style.  Identify your own leadership style ...

Directing attention toward where it needs to go is a primal task of leadership. Leadership is ultimately about holding yourself responsible for the people you lead--not just their productivity but their teamwork and imagination and commitment. And the more responsibility you have for others, the more important your emotional intelligence becomes. We're learning more every day about the importance of emotional IQ, or EQ, across the board. Drs. Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves find a direct link between EQ and earnings and say that EQ accounts for up to 58 percent of performance in all types of jobs. Leadership, in particular, is a "people business," and emotional intelligence is the missing link. So what how does one fill in the missing link? They must become leaders who lead with emotional intelligence. Here are six ways proven ways to spot and become an emotional intelligence leader: 1. They have self- awareness.   Emotionally intelligent leaders unde...

Recently I gave a keynote at a company, and while I was there I overheard one of the senior leadership team members say he didn’t believe in coaching and that nurturing emerging leaders isn’t important to leadership development. My first reaction was to ask myself, “What am I doing here?” The second, which followed closely, was that it’s no wonder the company has trouble meeting targets and pleasing stakeholders, or that they rely outside consultants to tell them what is wrong. (Which, by the way, is not the same thing as coaching—it’s the difference between someone telling you something’s wrong and having them help you get it right.) I believe, coaching emerging leaders makes the development process smoother, quicker and more thorough . Here are some of the areas where coaching is critical to leadership development: Self-identification of leadership.  Emerging leaders need to develop and identify their own leadership framework. Leadership is a difficult role, and unle...

The root of the word  manifesto  is the Latin  manifestum , which means “to be clear or to made public.” Every leader needs a personal manifesto—something that lets everyone know their views, their thoughts, and their beliefs and intentions. When you create your manifesto, you instill a sense of transparency that makes it easy for others to respect, emulate and trust you. To create your manifesto, start with what you value. Let it be the guide that steers you to embrace your greatness. Here are the statements I recommend to my coaching clients who want to create their own leadership manifesto: I will commit to being an authentic person. When you commit to being genuine as a leader, you embrace all parts of who you are—the good, the bad, the weak, the strong, the gaps and the greatness. You’re committed to acknowledging and leveraging the sum of all your parts. If you can be genuine, you will win hearts and minds. I will take responsibility for my li...

A new study finds that if you love what you do, working long hours doesn’t put you at risk. The word  workaholic   generally has a negative implication--and with good cause. Working too much is associated with high blood pressure and other stress-related diseases. As the physical and mental effects of overwork take hold, your focus may suffer and your productivity may decrease, throwing work-life balance even further out of sync. Surprisingly, though, a recent study finds that working even very long hours may not pose the same kind of danger--at least not under some circumstances. The research, as reported in the current issue of  Academy of Management Discoveries , finds no evidence that long hours alone give rise to those risk factors. As the article explains, "While the majority of workaholics work long hours . . . compulsive work mentality poses a more serious health risk than the act of working long hours." But even compuls...

Work on things that matter. What are the biggest lessons you have learned in the corporate world? originally appeared on  Quora :  the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world . Answer by  Chris Cocks , President at Wizards of the Coast, on  Quora : Here are ten pieces of advice from twenty years of experience working on projects that range from the cool (Xbox, Magic: The Gathering), to the big (Windows 10), to the little known (FLY Pentop Computer, Ziac anti-hypertension medication): Think big but work small.  The teams that I've worked around that changed the world inevitably have been small and focused... or, in larger companies, were a collection of smaller strike teams working in concert together. Amazon has a "2 pizza" team rule which is a good rule of thumb: keep teams to around 6-7 people (about what 2 pizzas could feed), give them tight goals and set them loose. It'...