3 Common Traits of Incompetent Leaders & How to Work with Them

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Unfortunately most of us spend at least 50-75% of our life working for incompetent leaders! Why? Four reasons:

  1. The working world in general continues to promote the wrong kind of people to leadership positions.
  2. It sometimes take us awhile to realize we are working for incompetent leaders.
  3. Finding a new job is hard work. Sometimes it’s just easier to stay working for a crappy leader vs find time to find a better job.
  4. There is no guarantee the next job we find doesn’t have an incompetent leader. It’s not easy to tell if your future manager is any good.

3 Common Traits of Incompetent Leaders

There are 3 common traits of incompetent leaders. Your leader could have one of these traits or worse all three.

Trait 1: Absentee leader – this leader “lets” the team do all the work and doesn’t really set strategy, lead, or coach others. Their style is often to outsource any or all efforts that a leader usually need to do to one of his or her team members. ...  read more

How to Stay Committed to Your New Year Resolutions – 5 Tips

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I know it’s March. I intentionally waited until now to talk about New Year Resolutions. We are usually super committed in January and perhaps still a bit in February on our New Year Resolutions. March is when we start slipping. I am hoping this post can reinvigorate our efforts 🙂

It’s human nature to stay waning on our commitments. Life gets too busy or it gets too hard. Here are 5 tips to stay the course or recommit to your New Year Resolutions. ...  read more

Do Nice Guys Have an Advantage or a Disadvantage at Work?

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I was amazed that there was a Wikipedia entry for the term “nice guy.” It focused however mostly on how nice guys fare in dating and relationships. This article is about whether nice guys have an advantage or a disadvantage in the work place.

Being a Nice Guy or Gal at Work can be an Advantage

I would argue that nice guys and gals at work in the long run can be an advantage. This advantage highly depends on how you are being nice though. I would argue being generally liked by many in the office from admin assistants to executives is a strength and an advantage in your career. It can broaden your influence skills in the long run. You never know who you are nice to in the hallway or out in social gathering at work that actually turn out to be helpful or powerful later on in your work. On the other hand, being nice even when co-workers or leaders are pushing you around is to be absolutely avoided.  ...  read more

Why and How to Manage Stress to Work and Live Better

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Two months ago, I was super stressed. Both my well-being and my work performance took a toll. I couldn’t rest well and kept waking up with headaches. Day and night, I found myself fretting about things I couldn’t control. I discovered many things at my new job that were suboptimal and outside my influence to change it. In life, we were anxious to move to a large space as we were busting at the seams in our 2 bedroom 1 bath with two growing girls. Working at home all day made the situation worse.  ...  read more

What are the Signs and Examples of Bad Leadership

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Last week, I shared 5 leadership examples and asked you to distinguish which ones are examples of bad leadership vs good leadership. If you haven’t tried it yet, I recommend doing that exercise first before reading any further.

Signs of Bad Leadership

Do you know the top signs of a bad leader? There are many, but here are four signs that are not as obvious.  ...  read more

Good Leadership vs Bad Leadership – Can You Tell the Difference?

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A senior leader once told me – A leader’s every action is an example! I looked at her puzzled. She clarified and said, “Every action a leader takes is an example of good leadership or bad leadership.”

Why is This Important

Being able to tell the difference is key for those who work for leaders as well of those who are leaders. For those who work for leaders today, being able to distinguish good leadership from bad leadership can determine your work happiness, your potential to learn from that leader, and your career trajectory in the current company. If you work for a bad leader and don’t know it, you can be unhappy at work and not realize that it may not be your fault but that of your leader who had set a toxic culture. You can develop bad habits early thinking your leader is a good example and perpetuate that example when you become a leader later.  ...  read more

What Did You Learn from 2020 – 3 Tough Lessons I Learned

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Happy New Year! Everyone wants to forget 2020; however I think it’s a year to remember. This has been the most memorable year in almost a century. Despite all the difficulties, I feel fortunate to have my family, health, and a better appreciation for the simple things in life.

While we all hope 2021 will be a better year, it is still unclear how long we will be in our current state or if we would ever go back to the way we were prior to March 2020. While I miss seeing my parents in person, traveling, and gathering with friends, I also gained much more time with my family and loved living a much simpler life with my husband and kids.  ...  read more