Strong leadership skills can improve many facets of your work experience as well as your organization’s—and your own—potential for long-term success. Whether you aspire to head a Fortune 500 company or to work for higher-ups, it’s good to take advantage of opportunities to improve and expand these skills. Let’s bore down into some WIFMs (what’s
Why Playing Favorites Makes for Poor Leadership
We’re all human. And as we know, humans are not perfect and can make errors at times. Therefore, being a leader naturally means you may make mistakes of your own. The key here is to avoid falling into certain leadership traps. I’m referring to the type of missteps that can cause heightened workplace turmoil and
The Value and Benefit of Setting Work Benchmarks
As I write this, I’m thinking about a friend who received a poor job review six months into her very first “real” job at 23. This happened after earning an accelerated master’s degree at a top college. My friend is an extremely smart woman, but she was young and never had worked full time. So,
The Best Leaders Temper Their Touch
Being a leader is tough, and many times you have to be tough—in a good way—to make sure the job gets done properly. Circumstances, however, should dictate how tough you should be. It’s not a great thing to be hard all of the time. Sometimes you have to take a light approach to achieve your
Is Your Work Leader A Bully? What You Should Do
Wouldn’t it be a great professional world if all managers respected the employees they supervise? Let’s face it though: Some bosses do not understand what the word “respect” means. It’s unfortunate for them that they have so much to learn about being a leader and challenging for you if that person is who you report
Great Leaders See Their Employees as “Teachers”
In next month’s blog post, I will focus on the all-too-common leadership pitfall of playing favorites. Here, we’ll address another common leadership trap: the notion that you’re responsible for absolute knowledge and, therefore, have nothing to learn from your direct reports. There are many benefits of looking to your employees as “teachers” who positively inform
Look For Leadership at Every Organizational Level
Surprisingly, most employees on the job look to management as the sole “owners” of leadership qualities and behavior. However, the truth is that your job title should never reflect your leadership effort and leadership can and does exist at every organizational level. Simply put, every employee, no matter where they stand on the ladder of
To Move Up in Your Career, Avoid These Leadership Traps Like the Plague
Versions of this article, entitled “To Move Up in Your Career, Avoid These Leadership Traps Like the Plague, Says Leadership Coach Tamara Raymond,” appeared this week across 100+ US and global media outlets consisting of online business and trade publications, broadcast media, and local affiliate TV stations for NBC, CBS, and Fox. They include Yahoo!
If You’re a Good Leader, You’re Not “Doing It All”
The best functioning teams are led by managers who encourage employees to oversee their own work. Managers look to their employees to act as “leaders” of their own projects. What I mean is this: A good supervisor not only delegates tasks but also: assigns employees who possess skills for the job; puts them in charge
Creating Boundaries That Stick for Your Work-At-Home Life
Whether you’re someone new to telework or perhaps need a refresher, here are a few tips I would suggest to help you smooth out common trouble spots of having your office at home: Choose times to turn off your phone and computer. Are you getting calls and emails from colleagues and your manager outside your
