The art of responsiveness isn’t based on how quickly we can reply. There are plenty of people I respect deeply who don’t provide an immediate answer when I reach out. However, those folks have intentionally invested into our relationship - just like I have - in a way that’s built grace. When our sch...
The art of responsiveness will never be based on a cookie-cutter approach. If we start with listening, especially when we’re able to apply the DISC Model of Human Behavior to what we hear, we’ll be able to recognize what each individual needs and tailor a response that best serves that need. The art...
Practicing the art of responsiveness requires discipline, especially for a leader working to juggle all that demands their time and attention. Messages can and do come at us from every direction and some of the most critical, the ones that determine how the individual who sent it will feel valued at...
How often have you experienced someone listening to respond (read: recognize when they get to respond) rather than listening to genuinely understand what’s being shared with them? While they do indeed respond immediately, that has nothing to do with The Art of Responsiveness that we’re working throu...
Near the beginning of chapter six of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, titled “Time Hacker’s Handbook,” Daniel Pink challenges readers to “Reply quickly email” and shares this:
“Email response time is the single best predictor of whether employees are satisfied with their boss, acco...
If you think back to one of the first things I called your attention to in this process of addressing these profitability killers, one of the things we covered as we looked at how it all starts at the top - or at least the best returns can be captured when that’s the case - was the importance of cha...
We can certainly stick with the way it’s always been in our recruiting approach if we want, but I’ve only seen that kill more and more profitability over time. With such a drastic increase in minimum wage in a relatively short time, the “skilled trades shortage” that’s been brewing since at least th...
I believe making responsiveness a priority is considerably easier when we understand just how much impact it has. Think about it, would you even consider not responding to a customer or client who represents tens of thousands in profit for your company? I’d guess most of us would put our spouse on h...
As I emphasized before, I’ve never met someone with any real level of leadership responsibility who didn’t have far more things on their to-do list than they had time for in a given day. That seems to be a given if we’re going to wear a leadership hat - or maybe it should be a cape… The secret sauce...
With a clear picture in your mind of someone you know who always says “I’ll get back to you on that” but rarely does, and a firm understanding for the importance of being responsive as a leader, let’s consider one of the biggest challenges I hear from folks with leadership responsibility when presse...
I’ll say it again, we don’t necessarily need to have every answer but we do need to respond! If we’re not willing to at least acknowledge the questions, issues, or even outreach of the folks on our teams, should we really expect them to consider us as their leaders? This is where I believe proactive...
One of the most valuable things Cindy and I have been able to do through our Emerging Leader Development program has been reading the immediate action steps that participants detail following each lesson. Seeing how individuals with varying levels of leadership responsibility absorb then apply what ...
