Management Skills | Inner Compass

3 ways to be influential when you don’t have authority

Being influential is easy when you have power and a job title to match. What happens when you’ve got a great idea but you feel like just a cog in a machine?

You could quite easily just seethe and simper in a corner, bemoaning the powers that be for being too caught up in their ivory tower to listen to the likes of you. After all, it’s not your problem…

But hey that would be playing victim and adding to the problem, and I know you are too much of a natural rock star leader to let THAT happen, right?!

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by Inner Compass

3 secret strategies for magnetic rapport

To be a successful leader, you need sound rapport. But how do you get it when some folks just drive you bonkers?

It’s not easy when someone can make your toes curl just by the way they smile.

But trust me, you can develop good rapport with anyone using these three secret strategies.

We’re going to go one better than simply getting along with people, we’re going to share how to create magnetic rapport. Rapport that wraps people in a bubble of loveliness and lures the angels to strum their harps and cherubs to chirp.

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by Inner Compass

Conflict management techniques: What not to do

I’m never short of an opinion, so when my forthright comments in a recent board meeting elicited a response that equated to “Shut up, Buttercup, and respect your elders”, my blood boiled.

Luckily, being as outspoken as I am, I’ve had a few opportunities to learn conflict management techniques and what not to do in a situation like this. Try them next time you’re fuming.

Don’t let your emotions speak for you.

If I’d let rip with the words I was screaming in my head during that meeting, all anyone there would have heard would have been my feelings, red and raw. Plus, I would’ve had to watch them wipe spittle from their eyes. Yuck.

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by Inner Compass

How to make difficult decisions

When making difficult decisions, the options can feel like deciding between swimming a river full of crocodiles or staying to fight a pack of dingoes. So what should you do? Here are some tips to help you navigate through this challenging obstacle course.

The Logical Way of Making Difficult Decisions

The good old pros and cons list. This will clarify the issues and benefits associated with each choice. Sometimes the choice becomes clear at this point. The next step is just taking the plunge.

The Intuitive Way of Making Difficult Decisions

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by Inner Compass

The leader as crucible – a new magnetic way to lead

Leading can be difficult and painful – hence the notion of ‘crucible’ experiences: an event that was challenging or even harrowing acts as a transformational experience, much like a crucible provides a container for huge temperatures that initiate a re-structure of its contents.

Leaders too can act as crucibles – creating a stable steady environment to contain the fury within as change crackles and burns. Transformation occurs, but it’s an overwhelming, painful process.

Change need not be so punitive. Magnetic leadership principles offer a more gentle, compassionate process for growth. Trial by fire can be replaced with memorphosis within a gentler container.

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by Inner Compass

Fake it ’til you make it?

Here’s the scene: Thanks to the sudden resignation of one of your colleague, you’ve been promoted and you are now expected to lead a team. But you’ve never managed anyone before and are concerned about becoming “boss” of people who are used to dealing with you as a friend on their level.

“Crikey! Dropped in the deep end – the top 3 factors to consider when you’re suddenly the new ‘boss’”:

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by Inner Compass

Priority lists for leaders

Have you got a to-do list? Or maybe five of them? (one for work, one for home, one for projects, that pile of mail, all those emails…)

As leaders we can get very bogged down in crap that sucks our energy and time, before we ever do anything meaningful. So here is my quick list for you to create (and follow) priority lists.

Priority List #1. Things that make you feel very, very good.

You knew this was coming, right? Or do I have to berate you with all these reasons why YOU are priority numero uno?

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by Inner Compass

Top 3 leadership mistakes that screw up your credibility

When my client asked me what I see as mistakes that people make in leadership roles, one example jumped to the fore – ‘Sally’. Observing Sally is like watching a train smash in slow motion. She demonstrates the first two top leadership mistakes. The remaining one comes from examples closer to home.

Mistake 1: I’m right and you’re wrong.

‘Sally’ is an extremely passionate and driven leader with the singular purpose of advocating against injustice. There are two major problems with her focus: the first is that she is so single-minded that she becomes a cyclopse in any debate. No matter what alternative viewpoint is presented, if it doesn’t fit her version of the world it’s just wrong. She even told her team-mate, ‘if you don’t like it, join another group.’

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by Inner Compass

Got a Pink Elephant to deal with?

Every once in a while that Pink Elephant shows up. You know, the thing that is blooming obvious, but no one wants to talk about.

Like the fact that Uncle Fred drinks way too much and smells of urine. Or Susan spends more time socialising on Facebook than she does doing the accounts. Or the boss’s right hand man – the ‘Golden Boy’ – has tantrums that keep everyone cowering behind their desks and taking really, really long lunches – out.

What do you do? If you say something then what started as something uncomfortable may become a Major Issue. If you pipe up about smelly Uncle Fred, then the family is going to have deal with alcoholism. If you point out Susan is wasting company time, you may become the tattle-tale. If you complain to the boss about Golden Boy’s tantrums, then maybe you’ll get the sack.

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