Mindful Mondays – What Are Your Triggers?

• By Scott Eblin
• March 18, 2013
• comments

A big part of being a mindful leader is knowing your triggers. As emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman and others remind us, one of the biggest differences between human beings and other animals is our capacity to manage the gap between stimulus and response. A trigger is one form of stimulus. Quite often when we’re triggered, we react instead of respond.

A reaction is usually pretty mindless, a response can be more mindful. We can train ourselves to be more responsive than reactive. They key is knowing and recognizing our triggers.

For example, one executive I worked with had a whole bunch of triggers around peers not performing to his level of expectations. When they didn’t follow through in the way he thought they should or did something that he didn’t agree with, he’d fire off a flaming email or take somebody apart in a room full of people. This exec was really good at his subject matter expertise and did a nice job of leading his own team. His relationship with his peers, though, was going to derail his career if he didn’t learn to handle things differently when he was triggered.

For him ...

Mindful Mondays: Take a Break

• By Scott Eblin
• March 11, 2013
• comments

Welcome back to the new Mindful Mondays feature on the Next Level Blog. As I explain in this brief video, my goal with this series is to offer some simple, practical ideas that you can apply immediately to be a more mindful leader.

This week, I’m sharing a simple but powerful idea for gaining the perspective that will help you be more productive and effective. Take a look and let me know what you think.

5 Rules for Leading Through Uncertainty

• By Scott Eblin
• March 7, 2013
• comments

A lot of my clients work in Washington, DC. They’re either executives in Federal agencies or executives in companies that do a lot of business with Federal agencies. Right now, they’re all talking about sequestration – that wonderful process in which Congress mandates across the board budget cuts without any guidance about how to implement those cuts.

You may not be paying a lot of attention to sequestration if you live and work in LA, for example, but to the folks in DC, it’s a big freaking deal. Just about everyone in and around Washington is trying to figure out what to do next. It’s a classic case of leaders having to lead through uncertainty. Even if you’re not dealing with the impact of sequestration, leading through uncertainty is worth thinking about. You may think that everything is crystal clear right now but chances are that’s going to change sooner or later. Probably sooner.

So, since leading through uncertainty is eventually a universal opportunity for leaders, I thought I’d offer five rules for how to do it more effectively. These rules are based on talking with a lot of clients over the past week ...

Giving a Team Presentation? 3 Things Co-Presenters Need to Do

• By Scott Eblin
• February 27, 2013
• comments

So, the awards season has officially ended now that we know who won Best Actor and Actress, Best Picture and all of the rest of the Oscars handed out at the Academy Awards. Apart from being a fan of the movies, I enjoy watching the show to see how professionals handle themselves when they have to present in front of a worldwide audience of millions.

One of the things that I’ve noticed year after year is that there are always co-presenters who step on each other’s lines. If you’ve watched the ceremony, you know what I mean. Two actors are on stage to present an award. They run through their banter and then announce the nominees. One of them says, “And the Oscar goes to…” as the envelope is opened. Then there’s a pregnant pause as they try to determine who’s actually going to say the name of the winner. It’s then that one of them will take the lead while the other one kind of mumbles the winner’s name or they both say it at once in an out of sync way. It’s not that big a deal, but it is ...

3 Ways to (Finally) Get Recognized

• By Scott Eblin
• February 20, 2013
• comments

So, my first blog post of last week would likely have been something that caught my eyes and ears during the Grammy Awards but then the Pope decided to break with 600 years of tradition and retired. That seemed like a bigger story than the Grammy Awards so I went with the Pope.

Still, there was a particular moment from the Grammys that has stuck with me that, I think, provides a lesson for leaders who aren’t feeling particularly appreciated.

The best new artist of the year at the Grammys was a band called Fun. When they stepped up to the mic to accept their award, the lead singer expressed their appreciation and then talked about how they had been together for twelve years and, after all that time, it was nice to be recognized for their work.

Yeah, that’s right. Fun has been performing together for twelve years and they just won the Grammy for best new artist of the year.

Ever feel like you’ve been bringing it night after night after night and nobody’s noticed? That’s probably how Fun felt. And now, they’re the best new artist of the year.

What does ...