At least, that’s what they say. But for many of us, the holiday season can feel more like the season of stress, long lines, and countdowns. Whether we’re worried about meeting deadlines or in-laws, many of us muddle through the holidays and return to work wondering where the time went.

While some of the events to come over the next few weeks are inevitable, there’s a helpful technique you can use to help maximize your joy this holiday season — it’s called savoring.

Savoring is the scientific term for deliberately enhancing and prolonging your positive moods, experiences, and emotions.

You’ve probably done it before. Perhaps you closed your eyes to help you appreciate a moving symphony performance or stared in awe at your infant’s smile, trying to make sure you remembered every aspect of that moment. It’s important to note that savoring is not a mood or emotion itself, but rather a way of approaching positive emotions. For instance, you could savor feeling awe, interest, delight, love, pride, amusement, or contentment.

Why Savoring Is Linked to Happiness

Consciously savoring the good things in life is important because neuroscience research suggests that our brains have a negativity bias. Negative things tend to stand out in our minds, while positive things tend to be easily dismissed or forgotten. This makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint, given that remembering mistakes and bad experiences (like eating a poisonous fruit or being attacked by a wildcat) was important for survival.

But now, constantly ruminating over what went wrong probably does more harm than good. According to our former board member and positivity expert Barbara Fredrickson, people who see more positive than negative things in their lives tend to be more happy and successful, as well as more resilient leaders.

Considering this, it’s perhaps not surprising that savoring — or being good at taking in good things — is linked to increased happiness, more life satisfaction, and lower levels of depression, and it even enables leaders to support employee wellbeing.

In fact, some research suggests that savoring may be the secret behind why money doesn’t often buy happiness: As people become wealthier, they stop savoring the little things, so while their wealth increases, their savoring doesn’t, and neither does their happiness.

Savoring is also uniquely tied to stress. People who are struggling with rumination, stress, and burnout tend to have a harder time savoring things. But when stress is lifted, savoring seems to automatically kick in. Think of how good it feels to enjoy a quiet morning after meeting a big deadline, or to arrive back in a quiet hotel room after a long, rough day of travel.

Neuroscience research shows that sustained activation of a region of your brain called the ventral striatum is related to both savoring and lower levels of cortisol (a stress hormone), suggesting the possibility that one might help suppress the other.

How Leaders Can Find Joy & Maximize Holidays

Ready to try this positivity booster yourself? Science suggests that these 4 savoring strategies can help you savor joy over the holidays and the last days of the year, or really, in any season:

4 Savoring Strategies

1. Bask in happy moments.

Be present in the moment. Unlike a mindfulness practice, which emphasizes detached observation, savoring involves actively seeking out and soaking in the positive emotions using your 5 senses.

This comes more easily when you set your intentions ahead of time regarding where, when, and what you’re going to savor. For instance, if you plan to savor your family holiday dinner, you might notice special smells of your favorite foods, the sound of laughter with your relatives, enabling you to feel more grateful for your time together and less perturbed by a snide comment or a dry turkey.

• Try it out: Try selecting a few specific moments or events over the next few weeks that you plan to savor. Maybe it’s watching loved ones unwrap gifts, savoring a tasty meal, or being fully present when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. Whatever the occasion, remember to take in the enjoyable sensory, emotional, and relational aspects of the experience and hold on to them for as long as you can.

2. Wear your joy on your sleeve.

Put a smile on your face. Really! Another way to elevate your positive experiences is through your non-verbal behaviors and expressions. We typically think of our physical reactions as simply the result of our emotions (for example, we smile because we feel happy). However, science suggests the chain reaction goes both ways — smiling actually makes us feel happier, while hunching our shoulders and crossing our arms can make us feel more upset.

• Try it out: This holiday season, try intentionally laughing, smiling, hugging, exchanging high fives, jumping for joy, and doing the happy dance to amplify your happy moments.

3. Engage in positive mental time travel.

Let your mind wander. Even if you aren’t experiencing something positive in the present moment, you can still practice savoring. We all have the ability to “time travel” within our minds to a more positive moment — whether it’s sometime in the past or in our anticipated future. Studies show that vividly reminiscing over positive experiences in the past and eagerly anticipating future joyful occasions can boost your happiness levels, both in the moment and over time.

• Try it out: Think about a time when you felt so happy, you thought you would burst. Remember how you felt in that moment (Giddy? Grateful? Excited?). Replay the event in your mind as if you were reliving it. Remember what you were thinking, seeing, doing. Recall who else was there and why that moment was so special.

Alternatively, you could take a moment to think about what aspect of the upcoming week you’re most excited about. Really immerse yourself in the vision of the positive things that could happen.

4. Share your gratitude with others.

Connect meaningfully. While the first 3 savoring strategies can be done solo, this last one requires connecting with other people. Research suggests that sharing positive events with others is a great way to further amplify and savor the good things in your life. This strategy works best when you share with someone you’re close to and when that someone is likely to mirror back your positive emotions.

This creates an upward spiral of positivity. In fact, some research suggests involving others in your savoring can not only increase the positive impact of events, but also boost your mental and physical resilience.

This is consistent with our findings about the importance of gratitude in the workplace, too.

• Try it out: Do some savoring with others this holiday season by taking the time to connect with people who are important to you. Get hot chocolate with a valued colleague, or put aside work to spend quality time with a family member you don’t get to see often. Use the opportunity to share what’s going well in your world, reminisce over a memory or experience you both shared, or let them know how grateful you are to have them in your life.

A Final Word on Finding Joy With Savoring Strategies

Of course, all new habits take some practice, so don’t let yourself get frustrated if you forget to use these savoring strategies or if you don’t find joy and feel positive results right away. Just keep them in mind and try them again later. With time and practice, savoring can help you be a happier person and more effective leader, bringing more joy to the world — and to yourself.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Let us help you be more intentional about cultivating positivity in your leadership through savoring strategies and other wellbeing tips. Stay updated on our latest insights by signing up for our newsletters.

The post How to Maximize Joy & Savor the Holidays appeared first on CCL.

You may be pretty familiar with the model of the external leadership coach. But what if you need to coach a subordinate or a peer within your organization?

One of the most powerful responsibilities of leadership is helping others grow. Yet many leaders hesitate when it comes to putting themselves in the role of a coach. It may feel like a challenging task to coach a colleague or direct report, and you may wonder: What do I ask? How do I guide without simply giving advice?

That’s where a proven coaching framework and knowing some key coaching principles for leaders can help.

At CCL, we know from experience that coaching doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right approach, leaders at any level can use coaching conversations to build trust, improve relationships, and strengthen performance. Our world-class executive leadership coaches use our proven coaching framework and principles to coach others.

By applying the same coaching model and tips in your own conversations, you’ll improve your skills, confidence, and impact. These are the essential coaching principles for leaders to master, and the foundational coaching model they’re built upon.

The Assessment – Challenge – Support Coaching Model: A Practical Tool

Assessment – Challenge – Support (ACS) is our simple, proven leadership coaching framework that provides a clear path for guiding coaching conversations. Instead of relying on a script or feeling pressured to have all the answers, ACS helps you spark self-awareness, stretch thinking, and encourage follow-through.

Here’s what using this coaching framework looks like in practice.

Step 1: Assess — Where Are They Now?

Every good coaching conversation begins with curiosity. The Assess phase is about understanding your coachee’s current reality and inviting them to reflect.

Rather than jumping in with solutions, you create space for them to surface their own insights. This step helps build trust and sets the stage for growth.

Sample questions you might ask:

• What’s working well for you in this situation?
• Where are you feeling stuck?
• How do you see your role in this challenge?

By encouraging them to slow down and assess, you help the other person feel heard and increase their self-awareness, and you gain a clearer picture of where to guide the coaching conversation.

Step 2: Challenge — What’s Possible?

Once you’ve listened, it’s time to stretch their thinking. A key principle of coaching is creating a safe, supportive, yet challenging environment. Challenge isn’t about criticism; it’s about encouraging people to reframe and explore new possibilities.

A well-placed challenge helps your coachee to recognize assumptions, uncover hidden biases, or consider bolder options. Often, this is where breakthrough insights happen.

You might ask:

• What assumptions might you be making here?
• What options haven’t you considered yet?
• If you weren’t afraid of failing, what would you try?

Challenge opens the door to growth and invites people to look beyond their comfort zones and step into new possibilities and different ways of thinking and acting.

Step 3: Support — What’s Next?

Coaching isn’t complete without encouragement and follow-through. The Support phase is about helping the person translate any insight into action.

Playing the role of coach, you provide accountability and reassurance, but the ownership stays with them. This is where momentum builds.

Questions to consider asking:

• What’s one action you can commit to this week?
• How can I support you as you move forward?
• Who else could help you succeed?

Support ensures the coaching conversation isn’t just talk. It becomes a catalyst for real change.

6 Core Principles of Effective Coaching for Leaders

While ACS gives you a practical model for everyday coaching conversations, effective leadership coaching is also grounded in broader foundational principles and strategies.

Whether you’re an external executive coach or a leader coaching others within your organization, what it takes to coach people is fairly similar, and these 6 coaching principles for leaders will help you succeed.

1. Create a safe and supportive, yet challenging environment.

Coaching is most effective when people feel both safe and stretched. Too much challenge without support erodes trust. Too much support without challenge leads to stagnation. Strive for balance. (ACS is built on this very foundation.)

You want to build trust and confidence, encourage honesty and candor, boost morale, and help your coachee feel psychologically safe at work. It’s up to you to create an environment where risk-taking feels rewarding, not risky, so keep your attitude as open and as nonjudgmental as possible, and let the coachee know you support and respect them, even as you test their knowledge and skills.

2. Work within the coachee’s agenda.

Coaching isn’t about your personal priorities. When holding a coaching conversation, let the coachee decide which goals to work on and even how to go about improving. If you need to address organizational needs, shift into a managerial role so that the coaching relationship remains collaborative. This is an important coaching principle that leaders should know to preserve trust and effectiveness.

3. Facilitate and collaborate.

The best coaches don’t give answers; they ask good questions. Focus on using active listening skills when coaching others. Really hear the coachee’s needs and avoid filling the lesson with your own life stories and theories. Active listening and collaboration ensure that the coachee owns their next steps. Action items rest with the coachee — with you acting as the facilitator and collaborator. Your role is to guide, not to lecture.

4. Advocate self-awareness.

You want your coachee to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses — a prerequisite skill for any good leader. In the same way, you should understand how your behaviors as a coach impact the people around you. Demonstrate a sense of awareness in yourself, and you’re more likely to foster a similar self-awareness in your coachee. You may also want to share some specific ways to boost self-awareness.

5. Promote learning from experience.

Most people can learn, grow, and change only if they have the right set of experiences and are open to learning from them. As a coach, you can help your coachee reflect on past events and analyze what went well (and what didn’t). Foster experiential learning and using experience to fuel development, and your coachee will continue to improve long after the end of your lessons.

6. Model what you coach.

Be a leader yourself.

This, the last of the 6 principles of coaching for leaders, may be the most difficult to embody — as it means putting into practice the leadership lessons you’ve been trying to communicate.

And remember, if you don’t feel you have the capacity to coach on a particular issue, refer your coachee to someone else who has experience in that area or a trusted executive coaching services provider.

Why Coaching Principles Matter

Coaching is no longer the domain of outside experts alone. Leaders at every level and in every industry are expected to support growth and development within their teams.

By combining our proven and practical ACS leadership coaching framework with these 6 coaching principles that leaders should know, you can transform everyday conversations into powerful opportunities for performance and growth.

The result? Your team feels safe, stretched, supported — and equipped to step into the future.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Improve your leadership and enhance your ability to coach others with our Better Conversations Every Day coaching & conversational skills training to gain practical coaching tips and strategies to be a more effective leader-coach.

The post The 6 Principles of Leadership Coaching, Based on Assessment – Challenge – Support appeared first on CCL.

No matter your background, industry, or where in the world you live, stepping into a leadership role brings challenges. The skills and knowledge that got you there may not be the same ones you need to thrive in your role.

Sometimes you simply want to perform better. Or your role requires a new mindset, skillset, or approach.

And sometimes, you’re facing a crisis or major transition and need support while preparing yourself for the future.

How Does Leadership Coaching for Performance Work?

Coaching for performance is a proven way to address these challenges and enhance skills that directly impact your effectiveness as a leader, elevating your performance and accelerating your growth.

It’s highly personalized, one-on-one professional development that gives you timely feedback on the issues most important to you.

Below, we’ll outline how coaching can improve your performance and how to get the most value from your relationship with a leadership coach.

How Coaching Improves Performance: 5 Indicators of Impact

Coaching for performance is often used to address specific performance gaps or to support the development of key skills needed for role success. A coach can provide clarity and help you work through current questions, decisions, or challenges you’re facing.

From our research with leaders who experienced coaching within a broader leadership development engagement, when evaluating the impact of coaching, particularly coaching for performance, look for these signs of improvement:

• Greater self-awareness: You see challenges in new ways and understand yourself better. You gain new insights into yourself as a leader within your organization.
• Increased perspective: You understand others more fully, including why they might think and act the way they do, as well as the larger context. You thoughtfully adjust your approach when necessary.
• Improved communication: You find ways to convey what’s important to you, to the business, and to others, and notice and leverage opportunities to have open, candid conversations with your team.
• Enhanced wellbeing: You feel able to grow from experiences and adversity and energized to persevere through challenges you’re facing.
• Action planning: You maximize value with your limited time and focus your efforts and energy where it matters most.

Tips for Getting Started With a Leadership Coach

What to Expect

A coaching engagement typically begins by pairing you with the right coach. Online platforms make connecting with a coach today more accessible than ever, so you can connect with someone who understands your industry, challenges, language, or focus area — no matter where you’re located.

You may gather feedback by taking assessments, like 360-degree assessments, conflict style inventories, or change-readiness profiles, to get insights into your strengths, tendencies, and blind spots. These tools can help guide your conversations with your coach and provide personalized direction.

Even without assessments, you’ll benefit from having a coach as a sounding board, helping you navigate current challenges while preparing for what’s next.

Together, you and your coach will define your goals, agree on how to measure success, and set expectations around confidentiality and communication. Then, over the course of several months, your coach will help you apply what you already know, discover new perspectives, and increase your self-awareness and resilience.

The goal: use coaching to improve your performance, help you face challenges more effectively, and grow your leadership effectiveness.

Common topics that come up in coaching for performance often include how to handle crises, resolve interpersonal conflicts, manage work-life balance and integration, and gain clarity on complex issues.

Your coach won’t hand you ready-made solutions. Instead, they’ll help you uncover assumptions, ask better questions, and reveal new leadership strategies through self-discovery.

Often, a coaching engagement wraps up with a reflection session where you and your coach review your progress, identify remaining challenges, and outline next steps to support your continued growth.

What to Consider

Finding the right coach isn’t just about credentials; it’s about fit. Coaching works best when there’s a strong match between you and your coach. A coach who was a great fit for someone else may not be the best choice for you.

Here’s what to keep in mind when starting a relationship with a coach to begin coaching to improve performance:

• Consider whether the coach has the experience and skills to support the goals and challenges you’re facing. Do they understand your industry or situation?
• Once you’re matched, you’ll likely begin with an in-person or virtual session to get to know one another and start building trust.
• From the beginning, work together to make your goals and expectations clear, so the partnership has a strong foundation.

4 Questions to Help You Get the Most From Your Coaching Engagement

A good coaching outcome requires a good coaching relationship. Asking the right questions in the beginning sets the tone for a strong coaching partnership.

To maximize the experience and set yourself up for success in coaching to improve performance, ask these 4 questions:

1. How will coaching sessions take place?

Consider whether you’d prefer in-person sessions, virtual coaching, or a combination of communication methods.

2. What kind of schedule will work best?

Think about session frequency, and whether your coach will be available between sessions to acknowledge progress or troubleshoot barriers.

3. How is confidentiality handled?

Coaching requires openness. It only works if you know confidentiality is protected.

4. How are fees and payments handled?

Clarify details like additional costs, cancellation policies, or what happens if you need to end the coaching relationship early.

Leverage Coaching to Enhance Your Performance

Remember, coaching is a 2-way relationship. While your coach will provide you with challenge and support, your role is to engage actively, be open to new perspectives, and try new approaches.

When you fully engage in the process, coaching helps you grow, both personally and professionally. It equips you to adapt, lead effectively, and contribute at your highest potential — no matter your role or context. It can help you prepare mentally, emotionally, and professionally to lead through challenges and navigate new opportunities. Leadership coaching improves performance and is a sound investment in yourself and your organization’s success.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Whether you want to continue your post-program coaching experience or start a new one, personalized coaching to improve performance can equip you to lead more effectively through your leadership challenges. Learn more about our high-impact leadership coaching services.

The post Coaching for Performance: Maximize Your Opportunity for Success appeared first on CCL.

Active listening is the ability to focus completely on a speaker, understand what they’re saying, respond and reflect on what’s being said, and retain the information for later. This involves paying attention to the speaker’s body language and tone, as well as the content of their words, keeping both the listener and speaker actively engaged in the conversation.

Active listening skills are crucial for leaders because they help build trust and rapport, resolve conflicts, ensure understanding, and foster a positive work environment. When leaders practice active listening, they’re better equipped to understand the needs and concerns of their team members, leading to more effective communication and collaboration.

The Benefits of Active Listening

Next, it’s important to take a step back and understand why active listening matters.

• It conveys the message that what others have to say is valuable. This is a way to make employees feel reassured and included, helping to build belonging at work, and can signal being interested, open-minded, and supportive, as well as valuing knowledge and expertise.
• It facilitates greater understanding between individuals or teams. Being a strong, attentive listener will encourage your coworkers and direct reports to share more information with you, giving you a better grasp of relevant issues and making you better equipped to take appropriate action.
• It fosters psychological safety. Being a thoughtful listener, asking questions, seeking clarification, and encouraging others to share their perspectives will reinforce your relationships, whether with a direct report, colleague, mentor, spouse, child, or friend, enabling them to feel more comfortable sharing again with you in the future.
• It enables you to provide feedback and coaching others. Active listening is a critical step in coaching people on your team as they work through issues.
• It provides an example of a listening-oriented climate. By consistently demonstrating how to actively listen, and the importance of listening, you help establish a shared expectation of how others should treat another at your organization, establishing a climate of respect.

Once you begin to put the active listening skillset into practice, you’ll notice the positive impact it has in a number of areas, including in leader effectiveness, in personal and professional relationships, and in various social situations.

How to Be a Better Listener

Active listening and reflecting, responding, and giving feedback aren’t always easy. Here are some helpful active listening tips for leaders and managers:

• Pay close attention to the speaker’s behavior and body language to gain a better understanding of their message.
• Signal that you’re following along with visual cues like nodding and eye contact; ask clarifying questions to ensure your understanding.
• Avoid potential interruptions — from technology (e.g., phone or email notifications) and from humans (e.g., knocks on your door).
• Keep an open mind. Rather than evaluating the message and offering an opinion, simply make the speaker feel heard and validated.
• Confirm you’ve understood what the speaker has said by verifying your understanding.
• Be an attentive listener and have your toolkit of active listening techniques at the ready for whenever coaching conversations occur.

At CCL, we help leaders go beyond basic active listening skills so that they’re better equipped to truly listen to understand others — including the facts, feelings, and values that may be hidden behind the words actually being shared. At the organizational level, training people how to listen more effectively helps provide role models for the next generation of leaders and builds a workplace culture of truth and courage.

6 Active Listening Techniques

Enhancing your active listening skillset involves more than just hearing someone speak. When you’re putting active listening skills into practice, you should be using these 6 techniques:

1. Pay attention.
2. Withhold judgment.
3. Reflect.
4. Clarify.
5. Summarize.
6. Share.

1. Pay attention.

One goal of active listening and being an effective listener is to set a comfortable tone that gives the speaker an opportunity to think and talk. Allow “wait time” before responding. Don’t cut the person off, finish their sentences, or start formulating your answer before they’ve finished. Pay attention to your body language as well as your frame of mind when engaging in active listening. Be focused on the moment, make eye contact, and operate from a place of respect as the listener.

2. Withhold judgment.

Active listening requires an open mind. As a listener and a leader, be open to new ideas, new perspectives, and new possibilities when practicing active listening. Even when good listeners have strong views, they suspend judgment, hold any criticisms, and avoid interruptions like arguing or selling their point right away. This can be easier if you maintain an open body posture. For example, having your arms resting on the side, rather than crossed across the chest, can signal a greater degree of openness.

3. Reflect and validate.

When you’re the listener, don’t assume that you understand correctly — or that the speaker knows you’ve heard them. Mirror their emotions by periodically paraphrasing key points. Reflecting is an active listening technique that indicates that you and your counterpart are on the same page. This is key in showing emotional intelligence, which improves leadership effectiveness.

For example, the speaker might tell you, “Emma is so loyal and supportive of her people — they’d walk through fire for her. But no matter how much I push, her team keeps missing deadlines.”

To paraphrase, you could say, “So Emma’s people skills are great, but accountability is a problem.”

If you hear, “I don’t know what else to do!” or “I’m tired of bailing the team out at the last minute,” try helping the other person label their feelings: “Sounds like you’re feeling pretty frustrated and stuck.” This can be a way to make them feel validated.

4. Clarify.

Ask questions about any issue that’s ambiguous or unclear. As the listener, if you have doubt or confusion about what the other person has said, say something like, “Let me see if I’m understanding. Are you talking about …?” or “Wait a minute. I didn’t follow you.” Asking for clarification shows you are paying attention.

Open-ended, clarifying, and probing questions are important active listening tools that encourage the speaker to do the work of self-reflection and problem solving, rather than justifying or defending a position, or trying to guess the “right answer.”

Examples include: “What do you think about …?” or “Tell me about …?” and “Will you further explain / describe …?”

When engaging in active listening, the emphasis is on asking, rather than telling. It assumes the other person has valuable input, and maintains a spirit of collaboration.

You might say: “What are some of the specific things you’ve tried?” or “Have you asked the team what their main concerns are?” or “Does Emma agree that there are performance problems?” and “What’s going on? Is there any other information that might be helpful to find out?”

5. Summarize.

Restating key themes as the conversation proceeds confirms and solidifies your grasp of the other person’s point of view. It also helps both parties to be clear on mutual responsibilities and next steps. Briefly summarize what you’ve understood while practicing active listening, and ask the other person to do the same.

Giving a brief restatement of core themes raised by the speaker might sound like: “Let me summarize to check my understanding. Emma was promoted to manager, and her team loves her. But you don’t believe she holds them accountable, so mistakes are accepted and keep happening. You’ve tried everything you can think of, and there’s no apparent impact. Did I get that right?”

Restating key themes helps with understanding and promotes accountability.

6. Share.

Active listening is first about understanding the other person, then about being understood as the listener. As you gain a clearer understanding of the other person’s perspective, you can begin to introduce your own ideas, feelings, and suggestions. People are more receptive to new ideas and suggestions when they feel understood.

Once the situation has been talked through, both you and the other person have a good picture of where things stand. From this point, the conversation can shift into problem-solving: What assumptions are we making? What hasn’t been tried? What don’t we know? What new approaches could be taken?

As the listener-coach, continue to query, guide, and offer, but don’t dictate a solution. Your “coachee” will feel more confident and eager if they think through the options and own the solution.

Used in combination, these 6 active listening techniques are the keys in holding a coaching conversation.

Discover how to use active listening to become a more effective listener and leader to build solid working relationships based on trust, respect, and honesty.

Active Listening Skills Aren’t Enough: For People to Feel Heard, Actions Matter Too

Our Research on the Connection Between Leader Listening, Taking Action & Employee Voice

If you’re a leader of others, you should know that while active listening is very important, just listening alone is not enough to ensure that others feel heard.

Employees speak up because they want to make a positive difference in their organizations. But what their leaders do with the information employees share really matters.

Our research has found that employee perception of being listened to is 2x greater among those whose leader listened, and then took an action, than among those who shared with a leader who then did nothing. When leaders act on what they heard, this builds trust and greater psychological safety, and their employees are more likely to raise suggestions or share ideas again in the future.

Said another way, if you’re a fairly poor listener but you do take some action on what you hear, your employees may actually feel more listened to than if you were a great listener with strong active listening skills — but then did nothing based on what you heard.

Active listening combined with taking action fosters and encourages employee voice, which is important for organizations because it’s positively related to better decision-making and increased organizational innovation and creativity. Unfortunately, when an employee perceives that there are career, reputation, or relational concerns about speaking up, they tend not to voice their ideas and suggestions, opting to remain silent out of fear, which deprives their teams and organizations of critical information, insights, new ideas, and process improvements.

So, when your direct reports or colleagues share their suggestions or concerns, you should pay attention, of course — but know that your employees still won’t feel that they were listened to if you don’t also take action on what you learned, where appropriate. That’s why we say that active listening, combined with taking action, is an essential part of showing truly compassionate leadership.

So leaders, remember that the last and most important part of your active listening skillset is taking action on what you hear.

Assess Your Active Listening Effectiveness

Many people take their listening skills for granted. We often assume it’s obvious that we’re practicing active listening and that others know they’re being heard. But the reality is that research shows most of us vastly overrate our listening skills.

As leaders, we get distracted by technology, are overloaded with information, and often struggle with active listening. We may have difficulty hearing bad news, accepting criticism, and dealing with people’s feelings. Even with the best of intentions, you may be unconsciously sending signals that you aren’t listening at all. This increases the risk of misunderstanding, which can decrease psychological safety and leave others feeling alienated.

You may need to brush up on your active listening techniques if any of the following questions describe you. Do you sometimes:

• Have a hard time concentrating on what’s being said, especially when the person speaking is complaining, rambling, or gossiping?
• Find yourself planning what to say next, rather than thinking about what the speaker is saying?
• Dislike it when someone disagrees or questions your ideas or actions?
• Zone out when the speaker has a negative attitude?
• Give advice too soon and suggest solutions to problems before the other person has fully explained their perspective?
• Tell people not to feel the way they do?
• Talk significantly more than the other person talks?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re not alone.

How to Improve Your Active Listening Skills

To boost your active listening skills, try putting these techniques into practice:

• Cultivate your own peace and wellbeing. Listening actively takes intentional effort. It’s easier to actively listen throughout the day if you’re well-rested, fully nourished, and able to focus and be mindful of what’s unfolding in the moment.
• Limit distractions and interruptions. Find a quiet place, silence your phone, and put away any technology so that you can give the other person your full attention.
• Adopt a listening stance. Keeping an open body position sends the message that you are open to what is being said. Face the person speaking, lean in, maintain good eye contact (although this can be culture-dependent), and be as relaxed as possible. This signals that it is a safe space to share.
• Get a sense of what the other person wants from the conversation. Sometimes someone needs counsel, but often listening satisfies other needs. For instance, you can try asking, “Would you like me to be a sounding board, do you want advice, or do you want a collaborator on problem solving?” Following up with, “And if you aren’t sure what you need, I can just listen and we’ll figure it out together” is also helpful.
• Pay attention to what’s being said, not what you want to say. It’s natural to try and anticipate when you can join the conversation. But try to contain this urge by setting a goal of being able to repeat the last sentence the other person says. This keeps your attention on each statement.
• Notice nonverbal cues and facial expressions. Take note of the person’s tone of voice and body language for clues as to what they are feeling (but may not be saying).
• Get comfortable with silence. A break in dialogue can give you a chance to collect your thoughts — and allow the other person to do the same. Aim to do 80% of the listening and 20% of the talking.
• Cultivate curiosity. Being curious is a naturally nonjudgmental state of mind. If you assume you will hear something new, you probably will.
• Encourage the other person to offer ideas and solutions before you give yours. Often, people have already thought through potential courses of action.
• Restate key points and ask whether you have full understanding. “Let me see whether you think I understand …” is an easy way to clarify any confusion and shows you are open to being corrected.
• Consider revisiting the topic. You can listen without comment and not agree with complaints. If it’s something you want to pursue, ask the person to write it down along with a possible solution, then schedule another time to discuss.

Build Stronger Active Listening Skills

It’s critical to hone leaders’ active listening skills and build new capabilities that strengthen conversations across the entire organization. Partner with us to ensure that everyone at your organization is able to hold better conversations every day with our conversational skills training.

Become a better listener and communicator, both at work and at home, by practicing your active listening skills. Take our Active Listening Challenge to discover 7 specific active listening techniques to try in your conversations next week. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Active Listening for Leaders

The post Active Listening Techniques: Best Practices for Leaders appeared first on CCL.

What’s your current relationship status with burnout? Do you wish you could break up for good? You’re not alone.

Across the globe, individuals, organizations, and communities are experiencing increased stress and uncertainty — and as a result, employees are dealing with burnout at unprecedented levels.

The impact is staggering. A recent study from Mental Health America reports that 75% of workers are struggling with overcoming burnout, leaders at all types of organizations are being pulled in multiple directions in the face of physical, mental, social, and economic upheaval. With long hours and less funding, many nonprofit and health leaders, especially, are dealing with burnout themselves, and so may not feel equipped to offer their teams strategies to become more resilient and effective.

Leaders approaching or experiencing burnout may feel physical symptoms, cynicism about work, emotional exhaustion, and reduced performance.

Sound familiar? Remember, it’s not you. It’s burnout.

In the face of perpetual crisis, leaders must adapt, not just react. Explore our guide to Leadership in Disruption to learn how leading with culture, vision, and collective agility helps organizations thrive through complexity.

Get the Guide

How Organizations Can Support Their People in Overcoming Burnout

What can organizational leaders do to support their workers in dealing with burnout, and in tandem, address turnover rates? Senior leaders can bring intention and attention to creating the conditions for everyone to bring their best selves to work and foster an environment that supports their people and the communities they serve.

For the nonprofit and public health sectors in particular, philanthropic organizations and foundations can play several essential roles. First, grantmakers, executive directors, and senior leaders can consider their own personal and professional practices and how those are contributing to how they show up for their constituents. Second, they can stop doing anything that doesn’t support creating and cultivating the conditions for nonprofit teams and organizations to flourish.

Whatever your industry, if you’re a leader, you can build your own resilience by stopping and starting these 6 things to help create the conditions for colleagues to overcome burnout and “burn bright” instead.

Advice for Dealing With Burnout

6 Tips for Leaders: What to Stop & Start Doing

1. Stop repeating the same things. Start trying something new.

Do you feel like you’re living the same day over and over, like your own personal Groundhog Day movie? In addition to fostering boredom, unexamined routines can also diminish energy and focus. Consider how much you might be mindlessly defaulting to behaviors reinforced by burnout, and what you might do differently today to shake things up.

Our brains actually thrive, and we feel happier, when we have novel experiences. Brain research has found that a rush of dopamine comes with any new experience. And it doesn’t have to be big to be effective — even small changes can help to create an immediate shift in energy and focus.

Make a commitment to trying new things as a way of helping you and your colleagues with overcoming burnout. It could be as simple as trying a new route on a morning walk. How might you encourage others to try something novel? Perhaps add “sharing new things tried” to your one-on-one check-ins or an upcoming team meeting and start creating space for colleagues dealing with burnout to share ideas with one another.

2. Stop holding your breath. Start an intentional breathing practice.

You might not even notice that you hold your breath or take very shallow breaths during the day, especially when you feel pressure. The moment we get anxious or stressed, we can assume some control and agency by breathing properly. Even less than a minute of intentional breathing can make a big difference. The research is clear: if we breathe shallow and fast, it causes our nervous system to up-regulate, and we feel even more tense and anxious. But if we breathe slowly, taking a deep breath with a focus on our exhale, it turns on our body’s anti-stress response. Breathing is convenient, free, and a fast way to ground into a state of calm.

One simple practice for dealing with burnout is to anchor intentional deep breathing to something you do every day — maybe just before joining another online meeting, or as you transition from work to home tasks. You might experiment with expanding this practice to include everyone participating in a meeting you’re leading. Simply invite team members to breathe fully for one minute at the start, or take a pause for a “breathing break” in the middle.

3. Stop sending generic messages of thanks. Start personalizing gratitude.

Have you ever received a generic, “reply-all” thank you message that fell a little flat? You’re not alone. While the intent is positive and it’s better than no gratitude, it can lack sincerity and reduce the overall impact. Giving thanks will actually make you a better leader and personal notes that include specific details about the value of an individual’s contribution are far more effective than mass communications, research finds. Just 5–12 formal, individualized, sincere gestures of thanks per year can significantly cut an employee’s propensity to leave and help with overcoming burnout.

Take a couple of minutes and write a brief note (even just 2–3 sentences) to a person you’ve been meaning to thank at work. By doing so, you’ll not only share gratitude with the individual you’re sending the note to, but you’ll also be modeling this behavior for other leaders in your organization. Make it your practice to send your team members a brief but personalized thank-you note on a consistent basis.

4. Stop holding meetings by default. Start building an intentional meeting culture.

Meetings are a constant presence in our lives, and with the rise of the remote and hybrid workforce, they’re more prevalent than ever. Yet, meetings can be draining, feel like a waste of time, and force after-hours work. They can even feel isolating when there’s not an opportunity to connect. Meetings are critical to getting our work done, however, so take some time to really examine and update your organization’s meeting culture.

The next time you’re about to schedule a meeting, ask yourself the question, Is this meeting really necessary, or are we simply defaulting to a meeting because that’s how we’ve always done it? Consider whether you can handle the agenda via email or in a real-time messaging app, or explore shortening the allotted time. This allows people to avoid attending back-to-back meetings all day.

Lighten “Zoom fatigue” by making some virtual meetings audio-only when being on camera isn’t really necessary. Or, if it’s an option, suggest team members take the call while walking outdoors to incorporate some movement and fresh air. Bonus points if a walk-and-talk meeting can be done together in person. Meetings are a prime opportunity for connection, so make them count and use them to improve your organization’s virtual collaboration and communication practices.

5. Stop perpetuating a 24/7 work week. Start encouraging boundaries.

How have your boundaries around work and home shifted over the last few years? For many of us operating in a hybrid workplace context, we no longer “work from home” as much as we “live at work.” A boundaryless experience like this can take a serious toll on our health and contribute to burnout. Because of this shift, you may want to consider how you might be unintentionally creating expectations of working longer hours, including evenings and late nights, when your employees typically have been untethered from work.

If you or your colleagues are dealing with burnout, notice the communication patterns that have emerged for yourself and your team recently. If you find yourself often catching up on emails after hours or on weekends, reflect on this habit. How might you create or influence new expectations that support recharging and disconnecting from work? How can you actively support both a work ethic and a “rest ethic”? And what rituals can you start that signal to yourself that you’re “clocking out”?

Consider closing the laptop and leaving it in a designated workspace, collecting virtual or physical files and putting them away, or sending your team a friendly “I’m out and you should be, too” email at the end of the day or week, or when leaving on vacation. This will help your employees manage their work-life conflicts and increase their ability to unplug from work when the day is over or when they’re taking some much-needed time to rest and recharge.

6. Stop the early morning phone scroll and caffeine hit. Start your morning with intentional, mindful movement.

Do you check your phone before your feet hit the floor in the morning? Is making coffee or tea your next step after that? These behaviors, while very common, may be eroding your energy before your day even begins. Checking your email, social media, and texts as soon as your eyelids open quickly hijacks your attention and emotions, often triggering anxiety before you’ve even gotten out of bed. You’ve probably already heard the advice not to keep your smartphone in your bedroom — but turning off notifications, curbing social media use, and removing as many apps off your phone as possible are all helpful, too.

As for your unexamined caffeine routine, simply delay it a bit. When you wake up, the energizing hormone cortisol is at its peak — adding caffeine on top of that is like throwing a match on a fire that’s already crackling. You’ll experience a greater caffeine boost by waiting an hour or 2 if you can.

Replace that immediate screen time and caffeine jolt with a little movement — a quick walk, some yoga, or even just stretching — and then something mindful like journaling, reading, or listening to music for a few minutes. Then, hydrate with water before you caffeinate. Give it a try for a few days and see if your energy improves and if these practices help with overcoming burnout.

When you assess personal habits and default organizational practices that may be aggravating stress and burnout, you can start building a culture that values resilience and gives employees permission to take care of themselves. Be mindful about recharging and modeling those behaviors for your team, and say goodbye to dealing with burnout for good.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

As a nonprofit ourselves, we’re guided by purpose and fueled by passion, and we understand the need for strong, resilient leaders who are able to support themselves and their teams in dealing with burnout. Create the conditions for employees to bring their best selves to work with our resilience-building solutions, or partner with our nonprofit leadership experts to help build a more resilient organization for your people, your mission, and the communities you serve.

The post It’s Time to Break Up With Burnout. Here’s How. appeared first on CCL.

A lot of effort, time, money, and attention go into developing leadership training programs, retreats, classes, webinars, and other formal learning opportunities.

Program designers usually focus on meeting the learning needs of participants and aligning content with corporate strategy and goals. And they should.

But what happens before and after those formal programs has a major impact on the return on training investment — and could be the key to ensuring success: boss support.

Our research on what makes leadership development programs successful has found that people who have support from their bosses get significantly more out of these types of training. In fact, it’s the primary predictor of a leadership development program’s success.

When bosses are more engaged and actively show clear support of their direct reports’ development, participants report they get more value from the training.

To better understand a supervisor’s impact on their participants’ success, we conducted a research study. Our findings revealed that when bosses are involved and supportive of training, participants experience the following outcomes:

• Leaders’ self-awareness, leadership capability, and leadership effectiveness significantly improve.
• Leaders have a greater impact on the teams they lead.
• Leaders receive more favorable ratings on organizational effectiveness, management capabilities, and employee empowerment.

Boss Support for Development Drives Better Organizational Outcomes

We also found that greater boss support drives better organizational outcomes. The data show that bosses rated most leaders participating in our Leadership Development Program (LDP)® with high marks for organizational impact:

• 79% showed increased or significantly increased organizational effectiveness.
• 64% showed increased or significantly increased employee empowerment.
• 75% showed increased or significantly increased management capabilities.

Although the average impact of the program was high, leaders who exhibited the most change in key leadership parameters were more likely to have strong support from their bosses. Those who exhibited no change after their leadership course were more likely to lack boss support. For example, there was a 16% gap in boss support between leaders who made significant improvements in their organizational effectiveness and those who made no improvement. There were similar gaps of 8% and 13% in empowerment and management capabilities, respectively.

So bosses can literally make — or break — the effectiveness of an organization’s leadership development program.

How to Be a Supportive Boss Before & After Your Direct Reports’ Training

So, are your direct reports preparing to take part in an in-person or virtual leadership development program?

If so, plan to have a couple of conversations with them. Meeting with your employees both before and after they attend a leadership training program is a great way to maximize their success and communicate your buy-in. It needn’t require a large investment of your time, but it helps convey you’re a supportive boss and adds considerable accountability to the process.

These types of conversations can happen in person, of course, but can be just as effective if they happen remotely. (Just keep in mind how to craft your persona for effective virtual communication.)

Before the Training: How to Be a Supportive Boss

Ideally, participants would take a 360-degree feedback evaluation tool, like one of our Benchmarks® 360 assessments, that includes input from their boss, which provides further fuel for the leadership development experience. At this stage, a supportive boss will also help their direct reports choose a strategic challenge to work on during or after the program.

During your pre-meeting, plan to ask questions for 20% of the meeting and then listen to each direct report’s responses for the remaining 80% of the time. Don’t feel like you need to memorize these questions — we recommend that you have the questions and topics you plan to cover in front of you. It will keep the conversation flowing and can serve as a checklist.

5 Questions to Ask Employees Before Training

1. What do you hope to get out of the training? Have them articulate their goal, and follow up by asking, “What else?”
2. What developmental areas do you want to work on as you go through the program? This will allow them to admit what they think they aren’t great at. Ideally, participants also take a 360 evaluation that includes input from you. Encourage them to consider that feedback when choosing a strategic challenge to work on after the program.
3. What do you believe are your strengths, and how might you improve upon them? Our research shows that great leaders are known for their towering strengths rather than the absence of weaknesses, so improving strengths is still crucial. Most people over-focus on weaknesses.
4. What sort of support and help do you need in order to apply the learning back at work? You may be surprised what they actually need from you as a manager to keep it growing.
5. During training, what support do you need so that you can fully disconnect from your daily responsibilities? You want participants to soak up the learning in the program so they can implement real changes when they return. If you skip this step, expect them to be distracted during the training.

Before your conversation ends, schedule a follow-up meeting for after they complete their development program. This will help ensure that a follow-up discussion occurs, and it also lets your direct reports know that they have boss support, that you’re committed to their success, and that you’ll be checking in again after the training is complete.

After the Training: How to Be a Supportive Boss

Once your direct reports are done with leadership training, your goal is to help them turn their learning into action items. After all, the new insights and skills gained in a leadership development program are only valuable if they’re applied.

After the program, participants ideally would apply their new skills and insights to the strategic challenge they agreed to with their bosses during the preparation phase. In addition, organizations can provide resources to the bosses of program participants so they understand what the participant learned and how to support ongoing development.

The post-training meeting reinforces boss support for development and creates an opportunity for direct reports to publicly commit to personal goals and allows them to capitalize on their enthusiasm coming out of the training before too much time passes and their interest wanes.

Similar to the pre-meeting, we recommend that bosses spend 20% of the meeting talking — mostly asking questions — and 80% of the time in active listening and coaching mode. Again, some good questions to ask are outlined below.

5 Questions to Ask Employees After Training

1. How was the program? This general question will help the conversation start off on a casual note.
2. What did you learn? Move into discussing both the content and personal insights they came away with. How do they plan to apply their new skills and insights to the strategic challenge you discussed during the preparation phase?
3. How are you going to bring this back to work? Next, discuss implementation. How will they convey what they learned to their team, or talk about their identified strengths and weaknesses? Team members who didn’t attend the leadership development experience are often curious to hear about it and can benefit from your reports’ experience. Encourage them to share insights with colleagues.
4. How can we work together to expand your network? In many leadership development programs, participants have opportunities to build relationships with other people in their organization — often in other functions or “silos.” In open-enrollment programs, participants may meet other professionals from their industry or even different industries. This often develops into a formal or informal support network and sometimes includes peer coaching and accountability. Express your support for these relationships, which can help both employees and their teams.
5. How can I support you? Similar to the pre-meeting, it’s important to ask how you can support them in implementing changes. Not only does it illustrate your commitment, but you may learn something about how you can be more effective, too.

You’ll notice that there’s some overlap between these questions and the topics you covered in the pre-meeting, which is intentional. The first meeting sets the tone and helps prepare your direct reports, while the follow-up is designed to see it through and reiterate your support. You can even turn it into a coaching conversation, reinforcing lessons learned and helping your employees take responsibility for their actions and their development. This is sure to help them see you as a supportive boss.

If your post-training meeting comes fairly soon after the training, you’ll be able to help your direct reports focus on applying what they learned and execute a plan that will make their training — and your time — well worth it.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Be a supportive boss by showing your direct reports that you’re invested in their professional development. Explore our leadership programs, available for leaders at every level, and we can show you how to provide boss support at every stage of their learning journeys.

The post How to Show Boss Support for Your Employees’ Development (& Why Boss Support Matters) appeared first on CCL.

We need good leaders to help guide us and make the essential decisions, big and small, that keep things moving forward.

Our society is usually quick to identify a bad leader, but how can you identify a good one? What would most people say are the qualities of a good leader?

What Good Leadership Looks Like

Based upon our decades of research and experience working with leaders at thousands of organizations around the world, we’ve found that the best leaders consistently possess certain fundamental qualities and skills. Here are 12 essential leadership traits.

1. Self-Awareness
2. Respect
3. Compassion
4. Vision
5. Communication
6. Learning Agility
7. Collaboration
8. Influence
9. Integrity
10. Courage
11. Gratitude
12. Resilience

1. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is the understanding of yourself, including personality traits, behaviors, anxieties, and emotions. While this is a more inwardly focused trait, self-awareness and humility are paramount qualities of leadership. The better you understand yourself and recognize your own strengths and weaknesses, the more effective you can be as a leader. Do you know how other people view you, and do you understand how you show up at work and at home? Take the time to learn about the 4 aspects of self-awareness and how to strengthen each component.

2. Respect

Respect, when demonstrated consistently, is one of the most important things a leader can do. It helps ease tensions and conflict, fosters trust, and improves your effectiveness. Creating a culture of respect is about more than just the absence of disrespect. Respectfulness can be shown in many different ways, but it often starts with showing you truly value others’ perspectives and making an effort to build belonging in the workplace — both critical components of healthy workplace cultures.

3. Compassion

Compassion is more than simply showing empathy or even listening and seeking to understand. Compassion requires leaders to act on what they learn. After someone shares a concern or speaks up about something, they won’t feel truly heard if their leader doesn’t then take some type of meaningful action on the information, our researchers have found. This is the core of compassionate leadership, and it helps to build trust, increase collaboration, and decrease turnover across organizations.

4. Vision

Vision is your aspiration for the future. Motivating others and garnering commitment toward that vision are essential parts of leadership. Purpose-driven leaders ensure they connect their team’s daily tasks and the values of individual team members to the overall direction of the organization. This can help employees find meaning in their work — which increases engagement, inspires trust, and drives priorities forward. You’ll want to communicate the vision in ways that help others understand it, remember it, and go on to share it themselves.

5. Communication

Communication shows up in many ways, from transmitting information and storytelling to soliciting input and using active listening techniques. The best leaders are skilled communicators who can communicate in a variety of ways, both orally and in writing, and with a wide range of people from different backgrounds, roles, levels, geographies, and more, because leadership and communication are intertwined. The quality and effectiveness of communication among leaders at your organization will directly affect the success of your business strategy, too.

6. Learning Agility

Learning agility is the ability to know what to do when you don’t know what to do. If you’re a “quick study” or are able to excel in unfamiliar circumstances, you might already be learning agile. But anybody can foster and increase learning agility through intentional practice and effort. After all, great leaders are really great learners.

7. Collaboration

Collaboration is a characteristic shown when leaders work effectively with a variety of colleagues of different social identities, locations, roles, and experiences. As the world has become more complex and interconnected, good leaders find themselves spanning boundaries and learning to work across various types of divides and organizational silos. When leaders value and embrace collaboration, whether within their teams or cross-functionally, several benefits arise — including increased innovation, higher-performing teams, and a more engaged and empowered workforce.

8. Influence

Influence, or being able to persuade people through thoughtful use of appropriate influencing tactics, is an important trait of inspiring, effective leaders. For some people, “influence” may sound unseemly. But as a leader, you must be able to influence others to get the work done — you cannot do it all alone. Influence is quite different from manipulation, and it needs to be done authentically and transparently. It requires high levels of emotional intelligence and trust.

9. Integrity

Integrity is being consistent, honest, moral, and trustworthy, and it’s an essential leadership trait for the individual and the organization. It’s especially important for top-level executives who are charting the organization’s course and making countless other significant decisions. Our research has found that leader integrity is a potential blind spot for organizations, so make sure you reinforce the importance of honesty and integrity to managers at all levels.

10. Courage

Courage enables both team members and leaders to take bold actions that move things in the right direction. It can be hard to speak up at work, whether you want to voice a new idea, provide feedback to a direct report, or flag a concern for someone above you. That’s part of the reason courage is a key leadership trait — it takes courage to do what’s right! Leaders who promote high levels of psychological safety in the workplace enable their teams to speak up freely and share candid concerns without fear of repercussions. This fosters a coaching culture that supports courage and truth-telling.

11. Gratitude

Gratitude is the uplifting emotion experienced after receiving something of value. Being thankful can lead to higher self-esteem, reduced depression and anxiety, and better sleep. Sincere gratitude can even make you a better leader. Yet few people regularly say “thank you” in work settings, even though most people say they’d be willing to work harder for an appreciative boss. The best leaders know how to show frequent gratitude in the workplace.

12. Resilience

Resilience is more than the ability to bounce back from obstacles and setbacks — it’s the ability to respond adaptively to challenges. Practicing resilient leadership means you’ll project a positive outlook that will help others maintain the emotional strength they need to commit to a shared vision, and the courage to move forward and overcome setbacks. A good leader focuses on resilience, both taking care of themselves and also prioritizing leading employee wellbeing, too — thereby enabling better performance for themselves and their teams.

3 Core Truths About the Traits of Good Leaders

At the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)®, we’ve been researching the traits of a good leader and the role of leadership for nearly 6 decades. Here are 3 of our core tenets about good leaders and effective leadership.

Good leaders are made, not born.

First, we believe that leaders are made, not born. Put another way, leadership is a skill that can be developed. Good leaders are molded through experience, continued study, intentional effort, and adaptation. So you can strengthen any of these 12 characteristics of a good leader, if you’re open to growth, use your experiences to fuel development, and put in the time and effort toward self-improvement.

Similarly, organizations can help their people hone these top leadership qualities by providing ample opportunities for training, offering support for learning from challenges, and providing access to coaching and mentoring programs.

Leadership is a social process.

It’s also essential to recognize that leadership is less about one strong or charismatic individual, and more about a group of people working collectively to achieve results together. If you demonstrate several of the characteristics of a good leader, but fail to grasp this key point, chances are you won’t get very far on your own. You may be well-liked and respected, but it will be challenging to accomplish team or organizational goals. At CCL, we like to say that the outcomes of leadership are about creating direction, alignment, and commitment, or DAC, within a group.

Good leadership never stops.

Also, we believe that leadership isn’t a destination, it’s a journey — it’s something that you’ll have to work at regularly throughout your career, regardless of what level you reach in your organization or what industry you work in. Different teams, projects, and situations will provide different challenges and require different leadership qualities and competencies to succeed. So you will need to be able to continue to apply these leadership characteristics in different ways throughout your career. Just continually keep learning and growing, and you’ll be an agile learner with a long career.

How to Develop and Nurture the Qualities of a Good Leader

Organizations can strengthen leadership qualities and foster deeper levels of engagement at work through providing a variety of on-the-job learning experiences, mentoring, and formal development opportunities. At CCL, we have many award-winning leadership solutions with clients around the world, and we’d be honored to work with you and your organization as well.

But individuals don’t have to wait to begin strengthening these leadership characteristics within themselves. If you decide you want to work proactively on developing your leadership qualities and skills, download our action guide & visual summary of this content. And get our tips on how to convince your boss to make an investment in you and your future. We’re here to support you every step of the way on your journey to becoming a better leader!

Ready to Take the Next Step?

After you download the 12 Characteristics of a Good Leader, keep on learning and growing: never miss our exclusive leadership insights and tips — subscribe to our newsletters to get our research-based articles, webinars, resources, and guides delivered straight to your inbox. 

The post 12 Essential Qualities of Effective Leadership appeared first on CCL.

Feedback is sort of a necessary evil. No one particularly likes to listen to what they’re doing wrong, and often the words are difficult or confusing to hear. And giving feedback isn’t especially easy, either. But as a leader or coach, it’s your job to know how to give feedback, as constructive suggestions can help your direct reports and colleagues succeed. So make sure you understand what it takes to coach people.

Whatever your style or your company’s system, chances are that performance reviews are less-than-satisfying events for you and your direct reports. But learning how to give effective feedback and avoiding common feedback mistakes can make the difference between a meaningless (or disastrous) review and a constructive coaching conversation.

Feedback is one of the most important elements of successful performance reviews because it engages the employee in the conversation and puts the spotlight on key issues. In fact, we believe giving effective feedback is the key to improving your talent development.

If you understand the 4 types of feedback, and which one is most effective to start with, giving feedback will feel easier, and your reviews will improve.

What Is Effective Feedback?

The 4 Types of Feedback 

Which Seems Most Effective to You? 

Virtually all feedback can be classified as one of these 4 types:

1. Directive
2. Contingency
3. Attribution
4. Impact

1. Directive feedback tells someone what to do, even if you’re phrasing it “nicely.” For example, “I suggest that you make priorities clearer to your team.”
2. Contingency feedback gives a future consequence: “If you keep interrupting people in meetings, they’ll stop cooperating with you.”
3. Attribution feedback describes someone or their actions in terms of a quality or label, as in “You’re a good communicator” or “You’re undisciplined.”
4. Impact feedback informs the receiver about the effect their actions have had on other people or on the organization. Impact feedback is important in performance reviews because it can shed light on something your direct report never knew or thought about. It gets at why their behaviors are either working or not working. An example of impact feedback is: “Team members were confused, and I felt frustrated.”

You’ll be better at giving effective feedback if you’re skilled at using all 4 types of feedback for the right times and for the right reasons. You’ll be even better with lots of practice.

Why Impact Feedback Is the Most Effective Type of Feedback

It’s important to remember that you can’t control how someone feels about or reacts to feedback. Different people will perceive the same situation in different ways. You can’t “make” someone like or agree with what you’re saying, but you can increase the chances that your feedback will be well received and not rejected by learning how to give feedback effectively.

The recipient of feedback is more likely to take feedback well if it isn’t authoritative. If the feedback giver is perceived as leveraging positional power or as commanding, dominating, arrogant, or self-centered, the message will be lost. The recipient of the feedback is likely to be defensive or argumentative — or passively accept what you say, but resent the feedback and act in counterproductive ways later.

Among the 4 types of feedback, impact feedback is the most effective to start with because it informs a person about the results of their behavior without dissecting the details, assuming motivation, or placing blame. Try using our widely recognized Situation – Behavior – Impact model to give feedback and explore intentions, making the feedback a two-way discussion.

Impact feedback isn’t authoritative — you aren’t telling a person what to do, setting forth consequences, or judging. Instead, impact feedback informs the receiver, empowers them, and increases the chance they’ll decide to accept the message.

Impact feedback is a great way to start a conversation and set the stage for more authoritative feedback if it’s needed. Once the feedback receiver realizes the impact of their behavior, they’re more receptive to prescriptive aspects of authoritative forms of feedback.

Giving feedback to others about their performance is a key developmental experience. Learn how to make the feedback you give even more effective so that others are more likely to hear and benefit from your message.

How to Give Feedback: 10 Do’s & Don’ts

1. Discuss actions without judgment.

Do: Provide feedback that helps and supports employees. Feedback is about addressing specific actions — it’s not about fixing employees.

Don’t: Judge individuals. This can make people feel defensive by sending the message that only you know what’s right or wrong. 

2. Make sure the feedback is clear.

Do: Present clear and honest feedback, whether it’s negative or positive. If you want to encourage someone to repeat productive behaviors, also tell them what’s going well so they can keep doing it.

Don’t: Offer generalized, clichéd catchphrases that are vague.

3. Speak for yourself, not others.

Do: Deliver feedback based on the information that you know — and be clear that it’s coming from you.

Don’t: Drag a third party’s name into the mix. This can confuse the recipient, who then wonders why others are talking about them behind their back.

4. Embrace the value of negative feedback.

Do: Know that negative feedback can be a positive experience for employees. Our research (see below) suggests that most people actually prefer receiving more negative feedback than they’re getting.

Don’t: Sandwich negative feedback between positive messages. When you sandwich the feedback, employees will learn to ignore the first (positive) part because they know the bad news is coming next. And they won’t hear the last (positive) part because they will be focusing on the bad news. (See below for more advice on delivering negative feedback.)

5. Be intentional with the words you use.

Do: Think about what you’ll say before you say it. Like any skill, giving effective feedback requires practice — so plan time to rehearse the conversation if you need to.

Don’t: Use exaggerations such as “always” and “never.” Words like these can make people feel defensive because there’s usually that one time that was an exception.

6. Stick to feedback about behavior.

Do: Be specific about the behavior you observed.

Don’t: Psychoanalyze the motives behind behavior. It could be a divorce, resentment over a co-worker’s advancement, or burnout, but whatever you think you know about someone’s intents and motives is probably wrong.

7. Know the limits.

Do: Be concise and limit the number of examples and key points. People need time to process the information they’ve received.

Don’t: Go on too long or pile on with too many similar examples.

8. Deliver feedback with care.

Do: Show empathy. By showing that you genuinely care about their welfare, you’ll increase feedback recipients’ interest and enthusiasm for accepting and using the feedback.

Don’t: Imply a threat. Telling someone their job is in jeopardy doesn’t reinforce good behavior or illustrate bad behavior. It only creates animosity.

9. Keep snide comments to yourself.

Do: Deliver feedback with the tone appropriate for your team and culture.

Don’t: Use inappropriate humor and don’t substitute sarcasm for feedback.

10. Make declarative statements.

Do: Be direct, so the feedback conversation can be more effective.

Don’t: Phrase feedback as a question. It’s too indirect to be effective, and it may even be interpreted as sarcastic: Really?

How to Give Feedback That’s Negative

Based on Our Research to Help Employees Improve

Most of us like to give and receive positive feedback — it feels good, and it can be helpful to know what’s working. But negative feedback is just as important to help people improve what isn’t working. And, if done well, both kinds of feedback are motivating.

In fact, the employees we surveyed in past research reported that they’d actually prefer to get less positive feedback (65% as compared to the 77% they were getting) and more negative feedback (35% as compared to the 23% they were getting).

With careful thought and planning, negative feedback can be a valuable tool. In addition to the tips listed above, consider these best practices when offering negative feedback.

1. Aim to give feedback that’s 75% positive and 25% negative overall. When giving negative feedback, get straight to the point. It may seem like a good idea to lessen the blow of negative comments with positive ones, but the recipient is smart enough to read between the lines.
2. Give negative feedback as soon as possible after a key event, so the employee can accurately recall the event and avoid repeating the same behavior.
3. Create a favorable feedback environment. Within your team, and even your organization, valuing truth, courage, and a coaching culture along with psychological safety can pay off when employees are comfortable receiving, seeking out, and using feedback to improve their performance.

Trying to balance feedback — positive and negative — can feel uncomfortable. But with the right technique and plenty of practice, it can go more smoothly.

How to Customize Feedback to Avoid Resistance

Lastly, it’s natural that people will react differently to information about their behavior and performance. Although you can’t force someone to agree with the feedback you give, it may help to consider changing the way you deliver the message to maximize understanding and acceptance. When you’re considering how to give feedback, particularly negative feedback, keeping these things in mind can reduce resistance. 

1. Consider the specific situation.

Giving feedback to a new employee who’s anxious about their first presentation is different from giving feedback to a confident, long-term employee who’s eager for more visibility.

2. Remember that people process information differently.

Some people understand your message quickly, while others need time to absorb it. Some will want to focus on decisions, actions, and implications. Others will want to ponder and work out possible solutions on their own. Consider the different ways to influence people and choose the most effective tactic for your situation.

3. Factor in the recipient’s health, personal, and family problems.

Resistance to feedback or unexpected reactions may be connected to stresses and problems outside work. When you’re aware of a hardship or adversity, you may decide to adjust the timing and content of your feedback. But like we mentioned above, don’t assume you know what’s going on; be prepared to handle the unexpected.

4. Individualize your delivery — keep in mind your employee’s strengths and weaknesses.

For example, you may think a shoddy production report indicates disinterest or laziness. The recipient may agree the report was shoddy, but they may be embarrassed to admit they don’t understand the new method of calculation. So give feedback about the report, but allow the other person to offer their own reasons and possible solutions. Be sure you actively listen to understand their response.

And remember, there’s no need to psychoanalyze or judge the person. Just have a conversation, and avoid common feedback mistakes that leaders often make when giving different types of feedback.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Equip your leaders to know how to give feedback that helps others succeed. Partner with us to create a customized learning journey for your leaders using our research-based modules, including Feedback That Works, Psychological Safety, Talent Conversations, and Listening to Understand.

The post How to Give Feedback Most Effectively appeared first on CCL.

Good communication is a fundamental leadership skill and a key characteristic of a good leader. Leaders must be skilled at communicating with others in countless settings and relationships — with individuals and at the organizational level, in communities and groups, and sometimes even on a global scale — in order to achieve results through others.

What Is Leadership Communication?

Leadership communication is how leaders inform and inspire others, and it encompasses verbal, nonverbal, and written messages. From giving instructions and feedback to direct reports, to sharing the vision with employees, to mediating conflict with teams, to providing updates to stakeholders — effective communication in leadership is critical.

Why Is Communication Important for Leaders?

At CCL, we see communication as one of the “fundamental 4” core leadership skills — those timeless skills needed by leaders in any organization, regardless of role, industry, or location.

Leaders must be able to think with clarity, express ideas, and share information with a multitude of audiences. They must also handle the rapid flows of information within the organization and among colleagues, customers, partners, vendors, and others.

Effective leadership communication allows managers to deepen connections, build trust, and drive creativity and innovation through their daily interactions with others. It also helps during change or disruption, as communication is one of 3 critical competencies that our research has found are essential for successful change leadership.

The Connection Between Communication, Conversations & Culture

In organizations, conversations are the foundation upon which the majority of communication happens, as people communicate every day through the formal and informal discussions they have with colleagues and leaders. And the more effective these conversations are, the stronger their organizations become — because better conversations drive better culture.

Core Traits of Successful Leadership Communication

Authenticity

Be honest and sincere. Find your own voice; avoid using corporate-speak or sounding like someone you’re not. Let who you are, where you come from, and what you value come through in your communication. People want, respect, and will follow authentic leadership. Forget about eloquence — worry about being real. Don’t disguise who you are. People will never willingly follow someone they feel is inauthentic.

Accessibility

Visibility is a form of communication. If you want to communicate well, be accessible. Emails and official missives aren’t enough. Be present, visible, and available. Getting “out there” — consistently and predictably — lets others know what kind of leader you are. People need to see and feel who you are to feel connected to the work you want them to do. Find ways to interact with all of your stakeholder groups, even (and especially) if communicating in a crisis.

Clarity & Confidence

Being clear and confident when communicating with your team helps avoid ambiguity, misinterpretation, and confusion. Speak in specifics, use nonverbal communication to augment your words, and speak not just with facts but also with feelings and values. Being able to speak clearly and confidently builds trust and commitment with your team.

Empathy & Respect

Empathy is critical for leadership success, and that extends to communication. Employees want empathy from their leaders and appreciate compassionate leadership. Acknowledge their feelings and pain points when you speak to them, and that will help them feel valued and heard, creating a strong culture of psychological safety.

Trust

Trust isn’t something you can mandate — it grows from consistently demonstrating your commitment to better communication with those you work with. By modeling the values you hope to foster in your team and in your organization, you can build trust. And by building trust, you also encourage those around you to communicate more authentically, contributing to a culture of psychological safety at work. When people feel safe with their team and organization, they’re more open to sharing ideas and taking risks, which can lead to more creativity and more innovation.

Learn how to communicate better, connect more deeply, build trust, and be more satisfied — inside and outside of work — with our book, Better Conversations Every Day.

15 Tips for Effective Leadership Communication

1. Communicate relentlessly.

Get vocal and get involved. Communicate information, thoughts, and ideas clearly — and frequently — in different media. Keep processes open and transparent, and find ways to help smooth the path of communication for your team, employees, or organization. Shed all traces of detachment and arrogance, and take the time to talk to your people.

2. Set clear expectations.

Set the tone. In every relationship, our behavior is guided by a set of rules or social norms — and in a professional setting, these norms tend to go unspoken. Be intentional about establishing team norms at your organization, whether you’re leading a group discussion, mediating a conflict between employees, sending an email to your colleagues, or having a one-on-one conversation with a direct report.

3. Simplify and be direct.

Say what you mean. Be direct. Don’t hide behind complexity or pile on a ton of information. Direct, clear communication can be the most important type of communication. This is even more important when communicating in a virtual setting.

4. Illustrate through stories.

Use stories to bring your ideas to life. When you tell a good story, you help clarify a vision, goal, or objective. Telling good stories creates trust, captures hearts and minds, and serves as a memorable reminder of the message. This is key when communicating the vision. Plus, people find it easier to repeat a story or refer to an image or quote than to talk about a mission statement, strategy document, or project plan. Your ability to create and communicate a compelling, authentic, and bold story will also help you bolster your leadership brand.

5. Be prepared.

Do your homework. Poor communication in the past might mean your audience resists what you have to say today. So start familiarizing yourself with the context around an issue, and any alternative viewpoints and perspectives about it, so you’re ready to handle any concerns or objections before you initiate communication. If you’re met with resistance or presented with a different position, solid preparation will make addressing and overcoming objections much easier and communicate your ideas more effectively.

6. Know your audience.

Communication isn’t just about what you say — it’s also about who is listening. Different stakeholders may have different concerns. The way you approach influencing others will vary from one group to the next, depending on their needs. Tailor your influencing strategy for the particular person and consider their personality, goals, and objectives, as well as their roles and responsibilities. For example, someone who is highly rational may be more easily swayed by a logical appeal than an emotional one.

7. Reinforce intent with body language.

Don’t rely just on words. Showing positive body language like eye contact, nodding your head, and other relaxed nonverbal communication can inspire team members and make them feel more comfortable communicating with you. A simple head nod or smile can go a long way to show you’re paying attention and that you care, and little gestures like this can add up, slowly helping you to build rapport and collaboration and transform your organizational culture, too.

8. Read the room.

Good leadership communication means being flexible. Watch your audience closely for nonverbal signs of engagement or disengagement, confusion or understanding, etc. and adjust your message and style accordingly. You can do this quite literally during in-person meetings, but you can also “read the room” in virtual settings by looking closely at others’ faces on the screen and by explicitly soliciting feedback.

If people are understanding your communication and aligned with your message, you may get lots of eye contact, see nodding heads, observe audience members leaning forward or demonstrating other body language that suggests alignment with your message. If you see listeners leaning back, with arms crossed, and bored or confused expressions on their faces, then you may need to adjust your message or delivery style.

It’s helpful to pause occasionally to let people ask questions and check for understanding, giving your listeners a chance to respond or seek clarification, etc. Stay flexible so you can continually notice how your communications are landing with your audience, and do ongoing adjustments based on the signals they send.

9. Ask good questions.

Leaders ask powerful questions. Ask powerful questions that open the door to learning what others really think and feel. The best leadership questions get right to the heart of things, cut through complicated situations, and identify levers that will really make a difference. Asking non-directive inquiries can also unlock insights — especially key in coaching people, such as direct reports.

10. Listen and encourage input.

Good leaders listen more than they speak. Leadership communication isn’t just about the messages you send, but also the messages you receive. The most effective communicators are also good listeners with strong active listening skills. When you listen well, you gain a clear understanding of another’s perspective and knowledge. So seek out, and then listen to, individuals from all levels of the organization — from the key stakeholders who have a lot of opinions you need to consider, to the new employees who may be reluctant to voice concerns. Allow people to air their concerns. Let team members know their input is valuable, so people feel comfortable speaking up. Pay close, respectful attention to what’s said — and what’s left unsaid. It will show those you lead that you care about both them and the organization.

Also, be okay with silence. Encourage others to offer their ideas and solutions before sharing yours. Do 80% of the listening and 20% of the talking. Demonstrate an interest in — and respect for — your colleagues, as this builds trust and makes the emotional connection that’s so important for effective leadership.

11. Take feedback seriously.

Feedback is a gift. Asking for candid feedback from your team or employees can foster a positive stream of communication, and it helps build trust overall. This tactic can also make your team feel more respected, giving them a chance to have their voices heard. If you take their feedback seriously, you will grow as a leader and enhance your skillset. However, if you ask for and then don’t incorporate their feedback, the opposite is true — it could lead to a loss of trust and alignment. In fact, our research has found that following through with action is critical for leaders to convey they really were listening, as it shows that they truly heard and understood the other person’s concerns.

12. Affirm with actions.

Leaders don’t just talk — they act. Again, if people hear one thing from you but see another, your credibility is damaged. If employees speak up and you seem to be listening, but then do nothing based on what you learned, they won’t feel heard. People need to trust you. Your behavior and actions communicate a world of information — so focus on following up where appropriate and be clear on the messages you are sending with your actions.

13. Initiate the tough, but needed, conversations.

Don’t shy away from conflict. Holding difficult conversations, whether with a customer or direct report, are an inevitable part of any workplace. It’s tempting to ignore conflicts, but effective leaders must be able to address concerns as they arise. Be sure to approach any difficult conversation from a neutral perspective and explore both sides before coming to a conclusion. Work to problem-solve by inventing options that meet each side’s important concerns, and do your best to resolve conflicts through open communication.

14. Involve others before developing a plan of action.

Leadership doesn’t stop when the communication ends. Take whatever you’ve learned in the exchange, synthesize it, and present your plan to the appropriate stakeholders. Generating buy-in and making sure that everyone is on the same page before executing on strategy will be key to achieving organizational goals.

15. Remember your reputation.

Good communicators never compromise their reputations. At times, you may feel you are walking a fine line between being too aggressive and being too relaxed, and as a leader, you need to make sure you find and balance and avoid leaning too heavily in one direction.

To navigate these challenges and bolster your leadership image, consider asking yourself thought-provoking questions like, “When do I stay out of an issue, and when do I get involved?” or “How do I respond when errors are identified?” Make a list of communication concerns you have, and ask a colleague to describe the behaviors they would consider too aggressive or too relaxed — their responses will help gauge how to move forward.

How Poor Leadership Communication Can Cost Your Organization

Workplace communication is a moving target. Leaders must continue to find new ways to make their communications more effective, purposeful, and trustworthy. But, what if communication becomes stagnant, unorganized, and messy?

Leaders may unintentionally derail their own efforts to enhance their communication. They may not communicate enough because of a fear of oversharing, they may think out loud at the wrong moment, or they may have been too honest with a colleague.

These challenges typically arise in high-stress situations, when expectations or deadlines aren’t met, when an opportunity is lost, or when innovation is lacking. It can be frustrating, but it’s worth putting in the extra effort to tackle these conflicts head-on with candid conversations and productive debate, because when a conflict is mismanaged, costs will continue to mount — whether they result in tangible out-of-pocket costs like turnover, or intangible costs like poor morale, decision-making, or broken trust. Learn more about the impact of poor leadership communication in such situations and the costs of conflict incompetence.

How to Evaluate Your Leadership Communication Skills

Strong communication is one of the quickest ways leaders can build trust. Here are some actions that you can take while communicating. As you’re reading them, rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5 — with a 1 signifying it’s an area that you need to work on, and 5 meaning that you have excelled:

• Avoid mixed messages: ensure that your words and actions are consistent.
• Act in ways that support the values of your organization.
• Go directly to the relevant individual to discuss the situation if having difficulty with another coworker or team member.
• Serve as a sounding board on sensitive issues for others.
• Share your opinions and perspectives, even when they’re different from the majority view.
• Avoid being a “yes” person.
• Keep your focus on the big picture and the shared goals of the organization.
• Accept accountability for your actions and the results of those actions.
• Promote respectful dialogue and productive debate.

Now that you’ve assessed your skills, how high is your score? How well did you do? If you identified any areas that need improvement, begin today by marking the one that you will start with immediately to improve your skills in leadership communication.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Effective communication for leaders is essential. Partner with us to craft a customized learning journey for your team using our research-based modules. Available leadership topics include Authenticity, Communication & Leadership Training, Feedback That Works, Emotional Intelligence, Influence, Listening to Understand, Psychological Safety, and more.

Or, build conversational skills across your team to scale a culture of open communication and feedback across your entire organization.

The post Essential Communication Skills for Leaders appeared first on CCL.