Organizations are biased towards continuing whatever action they are doing. Leaders want to inject moments of thinking and decision into this continuous stream of action. This makes it safe to change the course if needed. Organizations are biased towards continuing whatever action that they’re doing. The reason for this is because we’ve made the decision...
Leadership Nudge® 335 – The Ladder of Leadership: Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward
December 16, 2020by Sandy Wilmer
An easy way to think about how to use the Ladder of Leadership is to imagine the steps as a way to Pause, Rewind and Fast Forward. Watch David explain in this week’s Nudge. The Ladder of Leadership with the seven steps is sometimes complicated and hard to remember. “Oh, is this step three or...
Studies show that when we try to control things that we really cannot control, our blood pressure increases and our bodies release of the stress hormone cortisol. For more happiness and less stress make a conscious choice to give up control. A key part of Intent-Based Leadership is about giving up control. We understand the...
Leadership Nudge® 332 – Make Your Intentions Visible
November 18, 2020by Sandy Wilmer
When giving up control, aim for level 5 on the Ladder of Leadership. This allows for robust discussions and maintains a safe environment for decisions. We’re careful to represent level five as the sweet spot on the Ladder of Leadership. But there’s this notion that well, six is greater than five. So six must be...
Leadership Nudge® 331 – Chunk Bigger for Purpose, Smaller for Progress
November 11, 2020by Sandy Wilmer
Break large and overwhelming projects into smaller chunks to keep moving forward. But, when struggling to see your work’s purpose, try bigger chunks. Chunk big for purpose. Chunk small for progress. One of the things that’s really cool about humans is that because of language, we can coordinate the activities of thousands of people to...
Get better at making observations. Avoid statements that can be seen as blaming or shaming. Instead of “You never sent me the email” try “I missed the email.” Instead of “You’re not making sense” try “I’m having trouble understanding.” Learn more by reading this blog post: The Power of Observation Get better at making observations. For example,...
Leadership Nudge® 329 – Words for Level 6
October 28, 2020by Sandy Wilmer
At Level 6 on the Ladder of Leadership decisions are made by the people doing the work without your involvement. Leaders put into place the structure that pushes authority for decisions to those with the information. Let the people doing the work make the decisions about the work. Learn more by reading this blog post: Use...
Use the Ladder of Leadership to become a “Know, Don’t Tell” leader. watch this Nudge for more information Leadership Nudge® 327 – Be a “Know, Don’t Tell” Leader One of our frameworks is focused on this idea of knowing and telling. And the idea is, you want as much as possible to be a “Don’t Tell”...
Create a strong team and an environment that develops leaders by resisting the urge to tell your team what to do. Instead, be a “Know, Don’t Tell” leader whenever possible. One way to think about your behaviors as a leader is to think about this two dimensional axis, which I call the Know/Tell axis. So...
Use the Ladder of Leadership to move from a permission-based team to an action-based team that takes ownership and gets things done. It’s a magic tool. I don’t want to over complicate this idea of Intent-Based Leadership. It’s really very, very simple. Every time someone comes to you and says, tell me what to do,...