Management Skills

receive feedback

How Well Do You Receive Feedback?

By Melissa Eisler |

How a leader receives feedback signals how valuable feedback is on the team and in the culture. Learn five tips to receive feedback in a way that encourages a growth-minded culture.

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Compassionate Leadership

Compassionate Leadership and Culture

By Melissa Eisler |

Compassion is a complex and often misunderstood mindset, yet it is critical for healthy and thriving workplace cultures. Building a culture of compassion starts with – and necessitates – compassionate leadership.

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communication mistakes

8 Common Communication Mistakes Leaders Make

By Melissa Eisler |

There are dozens of communication mistakes leaders make, particularly when they need to communicate something tricky like behavioral feedback or ideas for improvement. Let’s take a look at the most common mistakes leaders make in communication, so that we can learn from them and avoid the common pitfalls.

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Dear People Pleasers, Stop Sugarcoating Feedback

By Melissa Eisler |

Sugarcoating feedback is when you bury the lead underneath a pile of niceties – so much so that the main message is not actually delivered, received, or understood. Find out why leaders sugarcoat their feedback and learn about the associated risks.

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personality assessments

5 Top Leadership and Personality Assessments

By Melissa Eisler |

Personality assessments can play an important role in helping you gain insight into your innate tendencies and strengths – which will ultimately help you become a more balanced and effective leader. They can also illuminate any areas that don’t come as naturally for you. The goal of this kind of self-discovery is to gain an honest representation of what development you might need; assessments can fast track this learning.

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360 feedback

360 Feedback: How Do Others See You?

By Melissa Eisler |

360 feedback instruments and processes are designed to gather feedback and perspective from the people who work closest to the leader, and then reflect those perceptions back to support their leadership development. Here are three approaches and four tools to getting 360-degree feedback, depending on your budget and needs.

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Continuous_Improvement

Continuous Improvement Mindset: Getting 1% Better Every Day

By Melissa Eisler |

Meaningful and sustainable change takes time and is created by making tiny shifts over time. Patience, discipline, and a mindset for continuous improvement are necessary to grow and develop as humans.

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personal board of directors

Your Personal Board of Directors

By Melissa Eisler |

When you are a leader, it can be difficult to get candid feedback from those who work for you, which is where the concept of a personal board of directors is helpful. A personal board is a group of individuals that can help you make sound decisions, give you advice and feedback, challenge your assumptions, brainstorm ideas, and generally expand your thinking. Who do you want on your personal board?

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4 Frameworks for Feedback Conversations Leaders Can Use

By Melissa Eisler |

You know you have to give someone feedback, but the idea of giving constructive feedback has you in knots. What’s the best way to say what you need to say so it is productive for everyone? Learn four frameworks for feedback conversations you can use to deliver feedback in a candid, compassionate, and productive way.

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Feedback as a gift

Feedback as a Gift: Reframing Difficult Conversations

By Melissa Eisler |

If you can learn to see feedback as a gift, you will increase your capacity to have difficult conversations, which will improve your relationships at work, your team’s performance, and the culture of your organization.

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getting honest feedback

11 Steps to Getting Honest Feedback as the Boss

By Melissa Eisler |

The higher up you climb in an organization, the more valuable feedback tends to be. The problem is, the more power you have, the more difficult it is to get honest feedback. This presents a huge dilemma to leaders who want the honest truth about where they need to grow. Find out what you can do as the leader to encourage honest, direct feedback from your team.

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Strategic boundaries

How to Create Healthy and Strategic Boundaries

By Melissa Eisler |

We all have the same 24 hours in each day. You must use your time wisely – in a way that meets your strategic initiatives at work and your personal goals simultaneously. Creating and communicating strategic boundaries is the best way to focus your time and resources on high-impact, mission-critical efforts and activities.

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9 Elements of an Effective Request

By Melissa Eisler |

Most leaders don’t get what they really want or need from their teams because they don’t know how to ask for it. Here are nine things to consider to ensure your next request is a productive one.

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power at work

Power at Work: What it Really Means and How to Gain Power (Even When You Think You Have None)

By Melissa Eisler |

Most people think of manipulation and deceit when they think of power at work. However, power is often misunderstood – and it is not inherently bad. The more you understand power, the more power is accessible to you. Learn about 11 types of power and find tips on how to gain more power at work.

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compassion and candor

The Intersection of Compassion and Candor in Workplace Communication

By Melissa Eisler |

We must cleanse our organizations of the negative stigma of direct communication, and replace it with the sense of generosity. Saying something that needs to be said is a gift that strengthens people, teams, and organizations if done with care. Here is how to balance compassion and candor in your communication.

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self-awareness

10 Steps to Develop Self-Awareness – the Most Critical Leadership Competency

By Melissa Eisler |

Self-awareness is the cornerstone to strong leadership. If you are a leader, you must be aware of where you fall short if you are to close the gap between where you are and where your organization needs you to be. Because you cannot fix a problem you are unaware of, you have to be proactive about discovering your blind spots. Here are 10 ways to gain a more complete picture of who you are as a leader.

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active-listening

Active Listening: 12 Levels to Enhance Your Listening Skills

By Melissa Eisler |

When most people are listening, their minds are elsewhere. By contrast, active listening is when you place all of your focus on the speaker – paying attention at 12 distinct levels. Find out what they are and how to practice them – to establish trust in your relationships, build psychological safety on your teams, and deepen your connections both personally and professionally.

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Melissa is the founder and principal executive coach at Wide Lens Leadership. As an ICF Certified Executive Coach with a Master's degree in organizational leadership, Melissa has coached hundreds of leaders ranging from C-suite to entrepreneur, from Fortune 500 companies to startups, and across diverse industries. She is passionate about supporting leaders and teams on their growth journeys toward greater impact, more collaborative teams, and stronger results.

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