Management Archives

Accountability Meetings: Tips for Leaders

Do you hold accountability meetings with your employees? How often do you meet, and what do you discuss? In The 4 Disciplines of Execution, Chris McChesney, Jim Huling, and Sean Covey recommend holding a weekly accountability meeting—what they call a WIG (Wildly Important Goal) session. At each WIG session, team members will report what they’ve accomplished last week and what they plan to accomplish in the coming week. Keep reading to learn about the 4DX accountability meeting.

How to Set WIG Goals (The 4 Disciplines of Execution)

What are “WIGs” or “Wildly Important Goals”? What are some things you should consider when deciding on your WIGs? Wildly Important Goals form the crux of the first discipline of the 4DX. These are the goals that should be your primary focus. Once you choose your WIGs, the next step is to choose your team goals that will support the WIGs. Keep reading to learn about the concept of WIG goals.

Bill Campbell: Trillion Dollar Coach

What’s the story of Bill Campbell—Trillion Dollar Coach? What was his leadership philosophy? Bill Campbell helped to build some of Silicon Valley’s greatest companies, including Google, Apple, and Intuit. In Trillion Dollar Coach, Google executives Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle have compiled Campbell’s principles for business and life. According to Schmidt, the book’s title is an understatement—if you add up the market capitalization of all the companies he coached, Campbell’s value was worth much more than one trillion dollars. We’ll cover the key themes of Bill Campbell’s philosophy: operational leadership, building workplace trust, building stronger teams, and leading

How to Stop Wasting Time on Unnecessary Meetings

Do you attend too many meetings? How can you keep meetings from being a drain on productivity? Whether you’re leading meetings or attending them, you can keep them from becoming distractions. Productivity expert Chris Bailey discusses meetings in the context of productivity, offering two key strategies that are simple to implement. Keep reading for insights on dealing with unnecessary meetings.

The Fine Line Between Micromanagement & Leadership

Have you been accused of micromanaging? How does micromanaging and overseeing every little detail of your team’s workflow hinder performance? There is a fine line between leadership and micromanagement. Micromanagers are too nervous to give up control because they don’t trust their team’s judgment or capabilities. However, micromanagement actually hinders, not helps, performance. Here’s how micromanagement hurts both your team and their performance.

The Dichotomy of Leadership: Quotes & Passages

Are you looking for The Dichotomy of Leadership quotes by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin? What are some of the most noteworthy passages worth revisiting? Leadership requires a delicate balance of various dichotomies: You must be compassionate yet pragmatic, humble yet confident, bold yet cautious. In The Dichotomy of Leadership, former Navy SEAL commanders and corporate leadership consultants Jocko Willink and Leif Babin will teach you to reconcile common dichotomies or conflicts in leadership. Below is a selection of quotes with explanations to help you put them into context.

What Makes a Good Team Leader?

What makes a good team leader? How do you, as a leader, ensure that all of your team members perform up to standard? As a leader, you must accept your team’s successes and failures: It’s your responsibility to ensure every team member is performing at a high standard. But if you push your team too hard, you’ll destroy your team’s morale and hinder their performance. According to Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, the authors of The Dichotomy of Leadership, there are two instances in which leaders ask too much of their teams: 1) imposing too many rules and 2) making

Leadership and Delegation: How to Strike a Balance

Are you nervous about giving your subordinates too much autonomy? Why is delegation important in leadership? Because a leader can’t do everything herself, the best way to take responsibility for your team’s success is to endow other people with responsibility. However, if you delegate all your responsibilities and assume that someone else is solving every problem, you could be unknowingly steering your team toward disaster. That’s why it’s important to strike a balance between hands-on leadership and delegation. Here’s how to find the sweet spot between the two.

Humility in Leadership: Know When to Let Others Lead

What is the importance of humility in leadership? How do you strike a balance between trust in others and self-reliance? Being a leader doesn’t always mean telling people what to do—often, other team members are better equipped than you to make the right decisions. However, if you’re too reliant on others and lack confidence in your leadership, you may end up following others’ lead in situations where you know better. Here’s how to strike a balance between trust in others and confidence in your ideas.

The Cornerstone of Good Leadership Is Sacrifice

Have you ever had to sacrifice something (or someone) for the sake of the greater, common goal? Why is sacrifice important in leadership? A leader must inevitably make decisions that put individual team members in harm’s way for the sake of the mission. According to Willink and Babin, the authors of The Dichotomy of Leadership, sacrifice is integral to the idea of what it means to be a leader. It’s why many people see leadership as a burden—many leaders struggle with a guilty conscience over the decisions they have to make. We’ll describe two specific instances of sacrifice in leadership: