Empowerment is about becoming stronger and more confident in yourself and your work. As a manager, it's really a two-way street with you and your employee to get them empowered. In other words, you're responsible for it just as much as they are. It's something that will build over time and that you need to continually invest in the relationship for it to continue to bloom.

Strategic thinking is a very important and useful skill for leaders at any organization since it directly impacts your organization's long term goals. It can also be the thing that sets you apart as an emerging leader, since most individual contributors aren't leveraging their strategic skills. I've found strategic thinking to be one of the leadership skills that can have the biggest impact on an individual and their organization, yet it is rarely taught or discussed.

Delegating can be hard for a lot of leaders when it's one of those skills we're rarely taught how to do but need to be able to do consistently and effectively for it to be effective. A privilege of being in a leadership role is that you get to (and need to) do less of the day-to-day execution of the team's tasks so you can be focused on the long-term projects and strategic planning for the team. Continue reading for simple tips on how to navigate this effectively.

Most people managers or supervisors have been promoted to a leadership position without any leadership training (or guidance even) about how to manage people. Just because they were good at producing the output at an individual level, does not mean they have the tools to lead others to achieve similar outcomes. Continue reading for ten common signs that leadership training would help improve your own performance and that of your team.

Just like a company's mission statement, having your own personal leader mission statement is a helpful tool to think more strategically about your 'why' with a specific statement you can refer back to. A leader mission statement is a declaration of your purpose, or the 'why' behind your leadership. You can use it as guidance for your decisions, inspiration for your work, and a bridge to connect with your team.

Being authentic as a leader is what will help you stand out, leverage your natural strengths to be your best, and connect with your teams more easily. It's helpful to have role models and mentors to look up to, especially in leadership, however, we're all so unique that what works for one person isn't going to work for everyone. So, we can get the best results for ourselves and our teams when we look inward at our own strengths and qualities and develop a vision and plan for how to be our most authentic self as a leader.

A strategic plan helps the leaders and teams break their long-term goals into smaller milestones. It creates an action plan to help the teams get started on these goals and helps them know if they are on track toward their goals throughout the year. It can help empower employees at all levels to better understand how their day-to-day work impacts and contributes to the organization's greater mission and annual goals.

Feeling scattered? These 15 simple, actionable tips will help you prioritize what matters, protect your schedule, and stay focused without burning out.

A practical guide to navigating performance review feedback - how to deliver it clearly and receive it without getting defensive, from a leadership coach.

Holding other people accountable is a key piece of being a manager or leader in an organization. It can be difficult to hold others accountable because each person has different motivations and communication styles that will impact their accountability needs. Continue reading to learn how to get started and what to do when people don't meet your expectations.

Most people tend to put off difficult conversations because they know it will be uncomfortable. I always say, it's better to have the 10 minute uncomfortable conversation now than to simmer in your worry, anxiousness, and uncertainty for weeks, months, or even years for some people. There are a few key skills that you can keep in mind to help navigate these conversations with ease and rip the band-aid off sooner.

Do you ever think about how your language could be holding you back as a leader? What about how it holds back your team members? All of this could be causing disconnects and miscommunications, and honestly making work harder for you and them. One way to enhance your communication style as a leader is to make it more empowering, for yourself and others.

These tips have helped me immensely while navigating difficult times personally and professionally from unexpected company restructurings to navigating the pandemic to handling the losses of loved ones. We will continue to need to navigate challenging situations full of uncertainty in the future. And the more intentional you are, the better off you will be to confidently navigate it when the time inevitably comes around again.

Communicating like a leader can be one of the hardest leadership skills for both new and seasoned leaders to develop. What makes communication skills so difficult to learn and adjust is that a lot of our current communication skills are our personal habits that we've had most of our lives. When you can hone in on these skills, you'll find your effectiveness increase substantially.

Most of the time new managers are promoted into a management role with little to no training on how to manage people. So let's get you set up with three leadership development skills you can start growing today with this mini training. These skills has been chosen purposefully because they have such an impact on the leader, the team, and the organization.

One of the most surprising new responsibilities for professionals transitioning from an individual contributor role into leadership is the new need for strategic thinking. It's less about your own day-to-day tasks or work, and more about bringing other people together to achieve a common vision. Or put simply, you need to be more proactive instead of reactive.

Starting your first leadership role can be exciting yet intimidating. Setting yourself up in your first 90 days as a new manager can help you build the habits, discipline, and support that you (and your team) need to be successful over the long-term. Part 1 we will cover setting expectations for yourself.

A lot of leaders I work with pay out of pocket for their coaching, without considering if their team or department has a budget for these services. If money is something that's been holding you back individually from working with a coach, continue reading for simple steps on how to navigate the investment request conversation with your manager.

Being productive is improving your performance or results with the same or less effort. The best way we can do that is to find our flow, zone of genius, or what I like to call peak performance, more often. I've found it's based on factors that are in your control entirely and internally. Not only that, but you can learn to help other people using these methods too.

When people first talk about wanting to be more productive, they usually say they need more motivation. Working with dozens of individuals on their goals, I’ve never actually seen this being true. Motivation is simply the reason you have for acting or behaving in a particular way. It’s not the ‘how’ you’ll do something, it’s the ‘why.’