Resonance ATL

This week we are continuing our series on authentic leadership by asking: Do you have the courage to share your perspective and listen to others with an open mind?  SPEAKING candidly and listening with an open mind are courageous acts when done sincerely, openly, and honestly. After you speak, ask yourself: How accurate was what I shared? Was it complete or did I hold back information? Did I agree with something I don’t believe or resist something before considering its merits? We often approach discussions as win/lose debates, so it takes guts to shift our mindset to focus on the goal of finding the “best” answer, not “your” answer. Authentic leadership also involves LISTENING with an open mind which requires the courage to accept other perspectives and intention to focus on what the speaker is saying while managing your thoughts and reactions to it. It calls for mentally making room for different perspectives by being curious enough to ask questions. Frequently, when we hear divergent opinions, our knee jerk (and often unconscious) response is to stop listening and shift to creating our response instead. I worked with a coaching client who learned to listen deeply by “taking a beat” before responding. In that pause, he was able to calm his nervous system with a deep breath or two, consider what he’d heard, and consciously let go of his “auto-responses.” The space created allowed him to speak candidly and choose his response rather than react in the moment. Pausing made him a better listener as he shifted his focus back to the speaker and away from the thoughts in his head. Another added benefit – his decisions were more impactful because they incorporated diverse voices and opinions.  Listening with an open mind and speaking candidly can spur rich dialogue that never has the chance to materialize if people are squared off in their corners of the conversational “ring.” When we speak or listen to understand or be understood instead of defending, correcting, or fixing, people trust us – that nonnegotiable glue necessary to bind and build a strong team through authentic leadership. #leadership #AuthenticLeadership #Courage #Listening #Teambuilding

In the workplace, how honestly do you assess and see your impact on others? Research demonstrates the benefits of being accountable for your decisions and behavior, yet many of us still struggle to do it.  In our third post on Authentic Leadership, we tackle paying attention to your impact on others in the workplace. Taking responsibility for how your actions affect others is a building block for authentic leadership. Importantly, it creates trust, the nonnegotiable glue that binds and builds a strong team. Owning your impact is a key ingredient of authentic leadership and requires growing “muscles” like courage, confidence, open mindedness, and honesty (see our previous post). As an example, making a significant decision and taking full responsibility for the outcome takes courage. In any leadership role, there’s added pressure because, ultimately the “buck” stops with you. Having the courage and honesty to be deeply transparent with your team about not only the benefits, but also the risks, of any major decision facilitates team cohesion. So does being confident enough to admit when you’re wrong and adjust accordingly. Making a conscious effort to allow others to see your “humanness” can be a powerful model for them to express theirs too – it’s MiracleGro for trust building. To own your impact on others, you first must know what it is. And how do you do that? Do what one of my coaching clients did - go to the source and ask the people you work with. Then really LISTEN to what they say. Difficult but so fruitful. He learned that he was often indecisive, which made the entire team’s work more difficult. This feedback shook him because the decisions he was making had significant impacts on their clients’ lives. It was the catalyst for him to begin making more timely decisions EVEN if he felt some uncertainty or didn’t have 100% of the information he would have wanted. We spent time in coaching talking about how to address the anxiety that made it hard for him to land on a decision. We devised ways to prevent and overcome hesitation with strategies for first pausing and calming himself, then weighing the risks of being wrong with the potential reward of being right and how to address both. He also determined his threshold of "acceptable doubt". For example, “if I’m at least 65% sure and the risks are small, I’ll act without further investigation.” Taking ownership of his impact wasn’t easy, but yielded important results: more timely decision making, greater confidence, and setting a great example for his team. Despite a mildly bruised ego, being open-minded with his team and honest with himself, made him a more effective and trusted leader. Taking ownership of our impact is the gift that keeps on giving if we let it.  #AuthenticLeader #authenticleadership #coaching #leader #leadership #ownership

In our second post on Authentic Leadership, we're focusing on the importance of Honesty and how it can benefit you and your team. To see an infographic with all of the qualities we’re discussing outlined, see Part 1. In the coming weeks we will talk about the other qualities too. It’s not always easy to be honest with both yourself and your team, but it is essential you are transparent with your team if you want their trust and collaboration. Honesty requires vulnerability, courage, and compassion, all attributes of effective leaders. Easier said than done. A recent Resonance ATL coaching client and organizational leader, “AB,” told me she was angry and irritated every week when a high-performing member of her team repeatedly showed up late for meetings. The employee always had a "legitimate" excuse for why he was late. AB debated whether to call him on it but didn’t want to risk losing a valued team member. She grew increasingly resentful as time went on. Being consistently direct was something AB was working on, and after several of our coaching conversations, she decided to tell the employee honestly how she felt.    My discussion with AB focused on how being honest can involve letting go of being “right” and a willingness to be candid in a way that is “hearable” - a statement of fact or a belief you own as your individual opinion. It’s not a judgment, personal indictment, or an attempt to prove your case, i.e. “Here’s why I’m right and you’re wrong.” Telling the truth requires vulnerability and a willingness to practice more than "selective candor." We also talked about the need for AB to first get honest with herself – what’s kept her from talking to the employee about his lateness so far? Is this team member’s being on time the REAL issue? Maybe AB was having an outsized reaction because she conflated tardiness with disrespect. Or she thinks that others should value timeliness and prioritize these meetings in the same way she does. Digging down and discovering the true cause of your reaction helps you shape your response more honestly. AB could decide that timeliness is a non-negotiable value of the team. Or she could conclude that the team member is an important asset who does great work, and that weighs more than insisting on his punctuality for every meeting. Ultimately, AB scheduled a meeting with the employee to discuss his late arrivals. She asked him to take responsibility for his tardiness and be accountable for anything that he missed. This meant that AB started and ended meetings on time, which lowered her irritation level. Their honest exchange helped deepen their connection, and the employee was on time more often (but not 100% of the time!).  We’d love to hear from you about what you think it takes to model honesty as a leader.   #AuthenticLeader #autheticleadership #leader #leadership #honesty #teamwork

Authenticity is today's buzzword in leadership. Join us to look more deeply into what that actually looks like in practice. Come back each week to learn more.

Make your bylaws work for your #Nonprofit. Don't just find a template and use cookie-cutter bylaws. It's worth your time to customize them to work for your mission, organization and #board. #governance #bestpractices

Being a good #board member of any organization can be demanding. Serving on a #nonprofit board can be even more complex. See the difference in this infographic. #governance #nonprofitboard

I'm excited to be speaking about nonprofit governance next Thursday at the Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia's Nonprofit and Leadership Academy. They are addressing a number of important topics facing nonprofits and I'm looking forward to learning a lot! Check it out at  cfneg.org/nonprofitacademy. #nonprofits #nonprofitleadership #governance

We're excited to begin 2024 by joining the Philanthropic Advice Program at Fidelity Charitable® as part of its philanthropic advisor network. We look forward to working with even more clients with funds at Fidelity and Fidelity Charitable to help them give more intentionally and confidently! #philanthropy #philanthropist #donor #fundraising

Find out how you can do more to help others and your community.

Keep your New Year’s resolution in 2024. We can help you find your purpose and make more of a difference this year. #philanthropy #nonprofit #purpose #mission #generosity