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Leadership category“The most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”

Stress management for leaders

Stress Management for Leaders: The Prioritise and Execute Framework

Do you find yourself overwhelmed in high-pressure situations, struggling to make decisions amidst chaos? Stress management is a critical skill for leaders, especially in today’s world where unexpected challenges seem to be the norm. In this episode, we’ll delve into an effective framework called ‘Prioritize and Execute,’ a strategy borrowed from ex-military leaders turned business consultants, Jocko Willink and Laith Babin. This framework can help leaders like you stay calm, make well-informed decisions, and efficiently navigate complex and stressful situations. So, whether you’re managing a team or an entire organisation, read on to discover how ‘Prioritize and Execute’ can be your secret weapon in the world of stress management for leaders.

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Hippo effect and dichotomy of leadership

Hippo effect and dichotomy of leadership

In the realm of management, a pivotal moment arrived when I took the reins for the first time. With a significant project ahead, we initiated a kick-off meeting, setting the stage for what lay ahead.

As the meeting unfolded, schedules were discussed, decisions were reached, and responsibilities were delegated. The project manager led the proceedings, and I found myself responding to the majority of queries. It all seemed to flow smoothly—a testament to my leadership, or so I thought. Little did I know that I was about to encounter a transformative lesson.

In the aftermath, a one-on-one conversation with my superior unfolded. “What could you have done better in that kick-off meeting?” he inquired. A question that prompted me to reevaluate my approach.

Caught between wanting to support my team and unintentionally suppressing their growth, I began to unravel the concept of the HIPPO effect—an idea that was about to reshape my perspective on leadership.

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Team agreement | Good practice for high performing teams

Why high-performance teams need team agreements

We start the new team. We gathered a group of talented individuals and we want to grapple with the new challenge. How can we accelerate the team forming, storming and norming phase? We should start with team agreements. Once done, this exercise will boost team productivity. It will also help to create and maintain the team identity. It shouldn’t be the detailed documentation of the team proceedings in the wiki-style procedure. Instead, we should agree on things that are important for our team. Let’s take a look.

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The Right Way to Hold People Accountable

The right way to hold people accountable

It was a long time ago. At that time, I was not too fond of trekking. Yet, I was there, exhausted, but happy. I was at the top of the mountain. I was with my friend who convinced me to go for this journey with him. To our surprise, there was a place where we could buy hot food. My friend asked me did I want anything. I said something like “yes probably, just bring me something”. He disappeared, and a moment later, he was back with a juicy, beautifully smelling burger. He brought me … nothing. I was furious. I was blaming him. It was years after when I realised that it was me who was wrong, and there is the right way to hold people accountable.

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The Responsibility Process

The Responsibility Process: How to Overcome Challenges and Take Personal Responsibility

What do you think when you hear the word “responsibility”? The place where I come from (Poland) it usually has negative connotations, and it means you are in trouble. You broke the glass, you are responsible, and you need to pay for it. It comes hand in hand with the fact that our education systems teach us to avoid failures. All of that combined makes us think that responsibility is a bad thing, and we should avoid being responsible for things in our lives. Is this the full picture? What if we look at this from a different angle? If I am responsible, it means I am response-able – able to respond, able to think logically and move, fix and correct things around me. Let’s take a look at the Responsibility Process.

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How to mark an individual as having high potential

How to Hire for High Potential: 9 Core Characteristics to Look For

Hiring is hard. There are many frameworks that you can apply to find the right candidate. On the one side, it all depends on the organisation, the role you hire for, and the team culture you cultivate. Conversely, human beings have complicated psychology, the baggage of good and bad experiences, knowledge and dominating character traits. How do you find a suitable method to apply to the hiring process? What to do to find the right candidate to demonstrate strong points from experience and adapt to the new job? How to hire for high potential?

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The Power of the Retrospective Mindset

The Power of the Retrospective Mindset

It is easy to be busy. Every one of us has plenty to do. We start marching towards our goals, and after some time we can’t catch the breath because we are already running. When we run, it is not easy to stop. It is also easy to run too far in the wrong direction. That’s why retrospective mindset is so important. It goes far beyond the professional context of our lives. It should be the default mode for our endeavours.

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How to Baseline Remote Team Culture

How to Baseline Remote Team Culture

I was recently a guest in The Align Remotely podcast, where Luke Szyrmer, the host, focuses on leading distributed teams and everything associated with that subject, like leadership and operations to help achieve together. It is particularly relevant now when nearly everyone works from home. It was a broad-ranging conversation, but we mainly focused on the topic of how to baseline the remote team culture.

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Extreme Ownership | There are no bad teams, just bad leaders

There are no bad teams, just bad leaders

It was during the most difficult training. The task was simple; row the boat and compete with other teams. The challenge was to do it over and over again in cold weather. One team in one boat was consistently bad, coming as the last one. The instructor decided to implement risky manoeuvre – swap the leaders of the winning and losing boats. The result surprised everyone. However, the experienced instructor just said: “there are no bad teams, just bad leaders.“

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Is time management a myth?

Time management is a myth – it’s all about choices

Very first thing you will notice as a new manager will be that you run out of time in a day. If you search interwebs for a term “time management”, you will quickly find thousands of tips on how to help you to manage your time more effectively. They are all wrong. You can’t manage time. It’s all about you, your choices, and how you can manage you in time. Is time management is a myth? Let’s find out!

Being busy is a choice. I think that busy is a decision. We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is shorthand for “not important enough.”
Simply put: you don’t find the time to do something; you make the time to do things.

Debbie Millman
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