Skip to main content

How To Lead Your Boss


The Courage Solution, a book by Mindy Mackenzie, is all about the simple truth that the only thing you can reliably change or control is yourself. So, that is why Mackenzie wrote her book -- to teach you how to take actions that ultimately will improve your impact on the job and increase your happiness and fulfillment in your career.

Mackenzie's quick-read strategies focus on these four key areas:
  • Part 1: You First offers techniques to take ownership and accountability for creating a career and life you love.
  • Part 2: Lead Your Boss describes proven techniques to transform your relationship with your boss.
  • Part 3: Lead Your Peers provides methods for accelerating positive peer relationships to improve business results.
  • Part 4: Lead Your Team gives approaches for generating and creating the most effective teams and having more fun while doing it.


Mindy Mackenzie

A preview of Mackenzie's advice on Leading Your Boss includes:
  • Intensely study your boss to get to know the human being behind the mask.
  • Understand the company you work for, the business you are in, how the company makes money, who the end customer is, and how what you do every day fits into the strategy of the company.
  • Get the boss-employee relationship basics right.
  • Make a concerted effort to elevate your thinking to an enterprise-wide perspective.
  • Get in tune with your boss by knowing exactly what they are wrestling with on a weekly basis.
  • Provide, honest, positive praise and affirmation to your boss--to them directly, and to their superiors and others.
  • Be smart preparing your boss for your pushback, challenges, and disagreements.
Mackenzie emphasizes that this advice is not about giving your boss a pass. Rather, by leading your boss in the manner outlined above, you will have the best chance of creating a positive engagement with your boss. And, when that happens, everything around you at work will also change for the better.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Leading With GRIT

Feelings of being stuck, overwhelmed and frustrated plague too many of our workplaces says Laurie Sudbrink , author of the new book, Leading With GRIT . So, drawing on her over 20 years of coaching a wide range of organizations, colleges and Fortune 500 companies, Sudbrink provides in her book a road map to improve individual and organizational health . That road map includes teaching readers the principles of GRIT : Generosity Respect Integrity Truth Laurie Sudbrink "It is not only the concepts of GRIT, but how they are combined, that make them so effective," shares Sudbrink. Divided into three parts, Part I of the book is geared toward the individual, and is foundational to your success as a leader. Part II focuses on communicating with GRIT -- making communication easier, more enjoyable and more productive. Part III is how, in our role as leaders, we apply and sustain GRIT in the workplace, creating systems that help keep everyone on track....

Nelson Mandela Leadership Quotes

Here are my favorite  Nelson Mandela  leadership quotes: "Lead from the back--and let others believe they are in front." "The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall." "It always seems impossible until it's done." "I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles." "I've learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.  The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." "Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again."

Use TIPS When Providing Feedback

Eric Harvey and Al Lucia wrote a booklet called,  144 Ways To Walk The Talk . They provide the following great advice about giving feedback: 1. Make it  timely  -- give your feedback as soon as possible to the performance. 2. Make it  individualized  -- tailor your feedback to the feedback receiver. 3. Make it  productive  -- focus your feedback on the performance and not the  performer . 4.  Make  is  specific  -- pinpoint for the receiver observable actions and behaviors.

The 6 Questions Marshall Goldsmith Recommends You Ask Your Emplolyees

As explained in John Baldoni's, book, Lead With Purpose , Marshall Goldsmith suggests all leaders make it a habit to regularly ask their employees these six questions : Where do you think we should be going? Where do you think you and your part of the business should be going? What do you think you're doing well? If you were the leader, what ideas would you have for you? How can I help? What suggestions or ideas do you have for me?

How To Lead With Deep Purpose

Having conducted extensive field research, Ranjay Gulati , author of the book, Deep Purpose , The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies , reveals the fatal mistakes leaders unwittingly make when attempting to implement a reason for being.   “My interviews with well over 200 executives across 18 firms revealed the secrets of these companies—not the usual facile frameworks, but new ways of thinking about business that allow leaders and companies to operate with heightened passion, urgency, and clarity,” shares Gulati. “I call this, deep purpose .”   Furthermore, Gulati explains that most leaders think of purpose functionally or instrumentally, regarding it as a tool they can wield. On the other hand, deep purpose leaders think of it as something more fundamental; an existential statement that expresses the firm’s very reason for being. These leaders project it faithfully out onto the world.   “Rethinking the nature of purpose should prompt you in turn to re-imagine ...

How To Use Improv In Business

"It is a driving passion of mine to get people to understand that improv skills can be effectively translated into the business world with powerful results," says  Bob Kulhan , veteran improv performer, university professor, and author of the fascinating book,  Getting To "Yes And": The Art of Business Improv . And, "Nope, improv isn't just making stuff up," explains Kulhan. "Preparation and awareness are critical to successful improvisation." He further explains that improvisation takes technique, training, practice, thoughtfulness and intelligence. "Improvisation at its most effective is a deliberate strategy that draws on intelligence in concert with instinct. And, in business, improvisation thrives at the pivotal intersection where planning and strategy meet execution." Kulhan, who was trained in improv by notables including  Amy Poehler  and  Tina Fey , also teaches you in his book the powerful difference between  "Yes, an...

How To Demonstrate Your Leadership Credibility

  Demonstrate your leadership credibility by: Practicing what you preach. Walking the talk. Ensuring your actions are consistent with your words. Putting money where your mouth is. Following through on your promises. Doing what you say you will do. Good, quick tips from the book. The Leadership Challenge .   Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me a copy of the book.  

How To Build Resilient And Thriving Teams

  Wellbeing At Work is an essential read for leaders who want to create a thriving and resilient workplace culture. Doing so is critical when you consider Gallup’s research of a few years ago that found that one-third of Americans have shown signs of clinical anxiety or depression.   To strengthen wellbeing in the workplace the book provides leaders various solutions, including a new metric to track suffering, struggling, and thriving — Gallup Net Thriving .   In addition, the book covers:   The five elements of wellbeing: career, social, financial, physical, community. Why career wellbeing is the foundation of the best possible life. How net thriving teams can improve businesses, neighborhoods, and governments. Why wellbeing initiatives work substantially better when people have great managers who engage them in their work first and establish trust. Why the fastest road to net thriving is playing to each individual’s strengths.   “As workplaces aro...

How To Step Up During Six Critical Leadership Moments

The book,  Step Up , shows readers how to step up to the plate during  six critical leadership moments .  Readers learn how to: Use anger intelligently in the workplace. Recognize and deal with terminal politeness. Make decisions when no one else is making them. Take ownership when others are externalizing a problem. Identify and leverage pessimism. Inspire others to take action. And, before you start to read the book, you can take (via a QR code in the book) a  fifteen-minute online Step Up Leadership Assessment , which will give you instant feedback on your  leadership readiness  and point you to the most relevant chapters in the book. The book's two authors recently shared these insights with me: A Conversation with Henry Evans and Colm Foster, authors of  Step Up What is a “leadership moment”? These are moments when leadership is required in order to see a problem solved, opportunity seized, momentum changed, rela...

How To Lead With Purpose

“Purpose is the why behind everything within an organization,” says author John Baldoni, of the book,  Lead With  Purpose . Baldoni also believes that  it is up to leaders to make certain that organizational purpose is understood  and acted upon. And, to harness the talents of their employees, leaders must recognize their responsibility to instill purpose in the workplace. Other recommendations include: Make purpose a central focus Instill purpose in others Make employees comfortable with ambiguity Turn good intentions into great results Make it safe to fail (as well as prevail) Develop the next generation According to Baldoni, purpose forms the backbone of what an organization exists to do; upon which you can build vision and mission. To define an organization’s purpose, you must ask three questions: 1.  What is our vision  — that is, what do we want to become? 2.  What is our mission  — that is, what do we do now? 3...