The questions you pose can unlock insights, inspire self-reflection, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. In this article, we’ll explore how to ask the right questions to drive staff development and growth, while incorporating values that align with your organization’s goals.

Do you or your team look at the calendar with dread as you see the number of meetings you’re expected to attend each day? How many have become routine status updates or just a complete waste of time? Forbes Research & Insights references that employees find less than 50% of the meetings on their calendar useful, ugh!

Every Father’s Day is a moment of reflection. Since my father’s passing in 2016, I’ve worked diligently to keep his values alive and apply them in all aspects of life, including leadership. His favorite phrase was ‘strength and honor’, likely learned from a childhood gladiator movie, but he lived those to the best of his ability.

This month marks the 2-year celebration of founding Promote Leaders! Being an entrepreneur has been a dream, with its share of difficulties. After reflecting on this milestone, the topic of self-accountability was at the top of my list. Here are my lessons so we can all turn our commitments and ambitions into realities.

Overcoming self-doubt is a challenge for everyone, but I see so many incredible and accomplished women hold themselves back that it felt appropriate to dedicate this Women’s History Month newsletter to the topic. We have enough obstacles to overcome, let’s remove the ones we place in the way ourselves and rewrite the narrative on confidence. Let's not just own the room; let's redesign it!

Many of us, myself included, default to ‘yes’ when asked to help or take on a new project. What we don’t often realize is that by saying ‘yes’ to one thing, we are saying ‘no’ to another, often a more important task. By creating clarity around your priorities, calendar, and goals you can more effectively evaluate if this new ‘ask’ is something that will enhance your areas of focus or distract from it.

You are a gift... As many of us scramble to find the perfect something this holiday season, the experiences you have with others and the time you spend with them is the real gift. Your presence is what your family, friends, charities, and even team will recall with fond memories. As you close this year and look ahead, take a moment to reflect on your true impact. Your presence is your greatest gift. What does it mean to be present?

Showing gratitude has been a core pillar of not just my leadership style, but my life. Yet, for a long time, I didn't understand the impact of receiving. Every time I deflected a compliment by explaining it away, I didn't realize I was diminishing the giver's intent. Embracing the practice of receiving has opened the door to more honest relationships, even at work, where my team brings their best ideas, collaborates more effectively, and offers thoughtful feedback.

Many of the leadership qualities we often write about and admire, like communication, agility, and vision, are ineffective without a foundation of trust. Saying ‘trust me” just isn’t enough. Why should your team follow and be coached by you?

Why did you become a people leader? Leadership, like any role, is difficult but there are tangible benefits to being a leader that are often left unarticulated in the sea of posts on the impact of poor managers. Though a real issue, this bias towards only pointing out the challenges, many emerging leaders are turning away from management or existing leaders are reconsidering their role. If you need to re-ignite your spark for leadership or are considering taking a leadership role, maybe this can serve as some inspiration.

With the end of the year quickly approaching, many leaders are asking me how to best hold their teams to a high standard, even exceed expectations, in these critical final months. What's struck me is that the answer they’re expecting is to drop being empathetic and become a hard-driving, even micro-managing, leader to simply get things done. This truly highlights the frequent tension between empathy and accountability in the leadership space. Though often misunderstood, empathy and accountability can co-exist.

It's the season for mid-year reviews, both for business performance and for your teams. But have you considered reviewing your goals too? Twice a year, I make a point to pause, reassess my priorities, and adjust my calendar in an ongoing quest for balance. This habit allows me to stay focused, live consciously, and still leave room for life's surprises.

Outstanding leaders achieve results through their people. A motivated team tends to stick around longer, forms better client relationships, and navigates challenging situations with more ease. It's no secret that dedicated, high-performing employees are a treasure, yet it's surprising how many #leaders are well-versed in every detail of a client, project, or process, yet fall short in truly understanding what motivates their team. This is an opportunity begging for attention!

As I reflect on the inaugural year of Promote Leaders, the biggest lesson I’ve learned by far is the power of listening.

Throughout my career, I’ve prided myself on being an exceptional active listener and asking powerful questions, but this past year as a coach has expanded my view and taught me new lessons that have benefited me as a coach, partner, and leader.

Several of my clients recently finalized their end-of-year reviews with their direct managers. Unfortunately, they are leaving these sessions disappointed by receiving unclear feedback or not being given a clearly defined career path, feeling over-reliant on one person to champion their development and advancement.

Promote Leaders has developed a proprietary Career Stakeholder Map, shown below, approaching the concept of expanding your network through the lens of a stakeholder map, a tactic often used for large change management initiatives.

I once missed out on a promotion and was told, "You're a good worker, but we don't really know you."

The feedback left a lasting impression on me because I was guarded, keeping my personal and professional life separate, following the traditional philosophy of my parents of "working hard and keeping my head down.” I kept this approach even after finally achieving that promotion.

However, when I changed companies, I decided to be slightly more open and share more about my personal life and interests. To my surprise, it made a big difference.

It’s that time of year when everyone is setting personal and professional goals. Though an important time for reflection, how can we ensure those goals are actually achieved?

Very early in my career I learned about Executive Presence, which included principles like leading with poise, confidence, and grace.

After spending years honing that skill, I realized that my definition also included assimilation. Breaking through that barrier and finding my authentic leadership style revealed an entirely new world where I was more productive, built better relationships, and expanded my influence.