SigmaU Blog

An ally will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear! A great friend listens, is empathetic, compassionate, and soothing. This is great under some circumstances like experiencing a loss. If, however, you want to be challenged to grow, you want an ally.

I was going through a difficult period in my life and one of my “big brothers” on my executive board said, you want an ally, not a friend, so I’m going to tell it to you straight. This gave me tremendous perspective. To change and grow, I needed the hard truth.

An ally may show up as a devil’s advocate. I have an amazing right hand person on my leadership team.  She plays the devil’s advocate; she will challenge an idea or present her so-called “crazy idea” that is often genius. Having someone challenge an opportunity or decision, especially if you are a trigger-happy person and they are more measured, like in my colleague’s case, can save a lot of heart and...

When I’m afraid or feeling stressed my ego takes over! Bold statement, I know, but it’s true. I show up rude, sarcastic and I can be short with people.  When I’m leading as my best self and I’m intentional about how I want to show up as a leader, it’s a totally different story.

I’d venture to guess that as a leader, you may be able to relate. When you’re under pressure you just want things done and done properly with minimal questions and minimal interruptions so you can work on what’s most important.  This happens to most of us when we’re in reactive mode vs. being proactive and intentional.

Here are some telltale signs that I’m under pressure and my ego has taken over…

I assume the worst intentions. I have moments where I doubt the intentions of those around me and question if my team did all that they could in a situation vs. assuming the best in others.

When I’m operating from my ego, my ideas are...

Most leaders I meet hate firing people. Even if there was absolutely no way the relationship could continue and it was the wrong fit, firing still feels awful. 

I did this poorly for so many years and wish I had done a lot differently, but we live and learn. As entrepreneurs we don't have the luxury of a corporate HR team guiding our steps or doing the dirty deed on our behalf. 

One thing that I wish I did differently was address the issue with the entire team right away. Having said that, I'm grateful to say that it's been a very long time since I've had to terminate someone but these are the steps I would take again.

Rally the Troops 

Bring your entire team together, preferably in person or at least virtually if you're reading this during a lockdown. Without disclosing anything confidential and while respecting the terminated team member, explain that the team member has been asked to leave the premises and their employment has come to an end. It may be nice to...

Our leadership team had a terrific coaching session with our mentor Rob recently. We talked about the negative impact of leaders ignoring their people. He mentioned that when a relationship gets so broken down, the leader may actually give team members the silent treatment and start avoiding them altogether. What a terrible feeling for the team member trying to navigate their job!

This made me pause and really think about how our actions communicate to our employees that they’re not worth our time. See if any of these ring true for you as a leader or if you’ve experienced this yourself.

1. Constant Rescheduling

Nothing says “you’re not important to me” like consistently bailing on meetings. Obviously, there are some situations in which you’ll need to reschedule. Recently I signed up for a six-week training course. The team was gracious enough to reschedule my coaching with them only to have the course get cancelled. It was a bit of a palaver to...

When I wrote my first book Relationship ROI I focused on the importance of cultivating deep relationships with clients. That transitioned in to keynotes on building great professional relationships and generating repeat and referral business by being a magnetic person to be around. The core of it all was what I call The EVA Principle! Regardless of age, gender, status, it does not matter, people are desperate to feel Engaged, Valued and Appreciated!

While I walked the talk and took The EVA Principle seriously when it came to clients, I ignored it when it came to my team!  I was always so careful to be fully present and to make my clients feel special but had zero relationship with my team members! Thank goodness things have changed and I’ve recognized the importance of having equally if not stronger relationships with your people than your clients.

Here’s how we can display The EVA Principle with our teams:

Be Fully Present

In a world of distractions, this is by far...

The word sacrifice isn’t sexy or exciting for most people but it’s evidence of a highly engaged team! Check out what I mean…

Sacrifice Ego

Team members who are full engaged in the company’s mission and the role they play don’t care who gets the credit for success. They will easily put aside their own time “on the stage” to put someone else in the spotlight. They will also readily correct you if you praise them for something that their team member in fact was responsible for achieving and be quick to give kudos and heartfelt congratulations to other team members. Where there’s engagement there’s low ego-driven behaviours1

Sacrifice Time

Highly engaged team members are willing to put in more time without recognition to make a project come together or to keep a client happy. It means that they’ll jump in the car and personally deliver an order to make sure that the client is happy! It means that if they’re working on...

As a leader, you’re most likely confident speaking your mind and sharing your vision. You are able to make snap decisions and you feel like your voice is valued and heard. Chances are that many people on your team don’t feel the same way that you do. A part of effective and transformational leadership, I believe, is building up other empowered and confident leaders on your team.

Here are a few ways you can do just that!

1. Have Team Members Lead Meetings

When you create a safe space for team members to take charge and lead a meeting you slowly build their self-confidence muscle. I used to think that as leaders we should set the tone, lead the meeting and wrap up in an efficient way.

During our many Zoom calls during COVID I decided it would be a perfect time to enable each team member to have their turn to lead. We’re a tight knit team and I figured that this was a psychologically safe space for each person to “try it out”. I was astounded by the...