Leadership

I was shadowing a coaching client in her leadership meeting when I watched this brilliant woman apologize six times in 30 minutes. 1. “Sorry, this might be off-topic, but..." 2. “I'm could be wrong, but what if we..." 3. “Sorry again, I know we're running short on time..." 4. “I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but..." 5. “This is just my opinion, but..." 6. “Sorry if I'm being too pushy..." Her ideas? They were game-changing. Every single one. Here's what I've learned after decades of coaching women leaders: Women are masterful at reading the room and keeping everyone comfortable. It's a superpower. But when we consistently prioritize others' comfort over our own voice, we rob ourselves, and our teams, of our full contribution. The alternative isn't to become aggressive or dismissive. It's to practice “gracious assertion": • Replace "Sorry to interrupt" with "I'd like to add to that" • Replace "This might be stupid, but..." with "Here's another perspective" • Replace "I hope this makes sense" with "Let me know what questions you have" • Replace "I don't want to step on toes" with "I have a different approach" • Replace "This is just my opinion" with "Based on my experience" • Replace "Sorry if I'm being pushy" with "I feel strongly about this because" But how do you know if you're hitting the right note? Ask yourself these three questions: • Am I stating my needs clearly while respecting others' perspectives? (Assertive) • Am I dismissing others' input or bulldozing through objections? (Aggressive) • Am I hinting at what I want instead of directly asking for it? (Passive-aggressive) You can be considerate AND confident. You can make space for others AND take up space yourself. Your comfort matters too. Your voice matters too. Your ideas matter too. And most importantly, YOU matter. @she.shines.inc #Womenleaders #Confidence #selfadvocacy

In the U.S., you can grab coffee with a CEO in two weeks. In Europe, it might take two years to get that meeting. I ’ve spent years building relationships across both U.S. and European markets, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: networking looks completely different depending on where you are. The way people connect, build trust, and create opportunities is shaped by culture-and if you don’t adapt your approach, you’ll hit walls fast. So, if you're an executive expanding globally, a leader hiring across regions, or a professional trying to break into a new market-this post is for you. The U.S.: Fast, Open, and High-Volume Americans love to network. Connections are made quickly, introductions flow freely, and saying "let's grab coffee" isn’t just polite—it’s expected. - Cold outreach is normal—you can message a top executive on LinkedIn, and they just might say yes. - Speed matters. Business moves fast, so meetings, interviews, and hiring decisions happen quickly. But here’s the catch: Just because you had a great chat doesn’t mean you’ve built a deep relationship. Trust takes follow-ups, consistency, and results. I’ve seen European executives struggle with this—mistaking initial enthusiasm for long-term commitment. In the U.S., networking is about momentum—you have to keep showing up, adding value, and staying top of mind. In Europe, networking is a long game. If you don’t have an introduction, it’s much harder to get in the door. - Warm introductions matter. Cold outreach? Much tougher. Senior leaders prefer to meet through trusted referrals—someone who can vouch for you. - Fewer, deeper relationships. Once trust is built, it’s strong and lasting—but it takes time to get there. - Decisions take longer. Whether it’s hiring, partnerships, or leadership moves, things don’t happen overnight—expect a longer courtship period. I’ve seen U.S. executives enter the European market and get frustrated fast—wondering why it’s taking months (or years!) to break into leadership circles. But that’s how the market works. The key to winning in Europe? Patience, credibility, and long-term thinking. So, What Does This Mean for Global Leaders? If you’re an American executive expanding into Europe… 📌 Be patient. One meeting won’t seal the deal—you have to earn trust over time. 📌 Get introductions. A warm referral is worth more than 100 cold emails. 📌 Don’t push too hard. European business culture favors depth over speed—respect the process. If you’re a European leader entering the U.S. market… 📌 Don’t wait for permission—reach out. People expect direct outreach and initiative. 📌 Follow up fast. If you’re slow to respond, the opportunity moves on without you. 📌 Be ready to show value quickly. Americans won’t wait months to see if you’re a fit. Networking isn’t just about who you know—it’s about how you build relationships. #Networking #Leadership #ExecutiveSearch #CareerGrowth #GlobalBusiness #US #Europe

How to Do Financial Due Diligence Before Selecting Stocks? Stock picking isn’t just about looking at charts and following trends—it’s about understanding the financial health of a company. Before investing, a structured Financial Due Diligence (FDD) process can help you avoid bad bets and spot strong opportunities. Here’s a framework to follow: 1. Understand the Business Model & Industry - What does the company do? - Who are its competitors? - Is it in a growing or declining industry? 2. Analyze the Financial Statements - Income Statement (Profit & Loss) – Revenue growth, profitability (Gross, Operating, Net Margins), EPS trends - Balance Sheet – Debt levels, cash reserves, working capital position - Cash Flow Statement – Operating cash flow vs. net income, free cash flow trends 3. Check Key Financial Ratios - Profitability: ROE, ROA, Gross & Operating Margins - Liquidity: Current Ratio, Quick Ratio - Leverage: Debt-to-Equity, Interest Coverage - Valuation: P/E Ratio, P/B Ratio, EV/EBITDA 4. Assess Management & Governance - Background & track record of leadership - Insider buying/selling trends - Transparency in disclosures & corporate governance 5. Review Competitive Position & Moat - Does the company have a sustainable competitive advantage (brand, network effect, patents, cost advantage)? 6. Industry Trends & Macroeconomic Factors - Economic cycles, inflation, interest rates - Global supply chain, geopolitical risks - Market trends affecting revenue streams 7. Cross-Check with Analyst Reports & News - Read Equity Research Reports, Investor Presentations, Credit Reports - Stay updated on company news, regulatory changes 8. Look at Historical Performance & Future Guidance - Compare past financials vs. projections - Evaluate management’s growth expectations 9. Risk Assessment & Downside Protection - What’s the worst-case scenario? - How resilient is the business in a downturn? 10. Compare with Peers & Make an Informed Decision No company operates in isolation—compare financials and valuations with competitors before buying. Smart investing is about discipline, not hype. By doing thorough due diligence, you increase your chances of picking winners while avoiding pitfalls. What’s your go-to method for analyzing stocks? Let’s discuss.

Micromanagement is the fastest way to kill motivation. It's not leadership. It's fear in disguise. Great leaders trust. Poor ones hover. Micromanagers think they're helping. But they're not. The good news? You don’t have to stay stuck in this trap. Whether you’ve been micromanaged or fallen into the habit yourself, here’s what you need to know, as we head into 2025: What Micromanagement Really Does: 🚫 Stifles Creativity ↳ Teams can’t innovate when they’re constantly second-guessed. 🔗 Breeds Dependence ↳ If every decision requires approval, teams stop thinking for themselves. ⏱️ Wastes Time ↳ Endless hovering distracts everyone—including you. 😠 Creates Resentment ↳ Nobody thrives under a helicopter boss. If you’re ready to step into 2025 as a stronger leader, I've put together 3 frameworks and tools to help: 1️⃣ The GROW Coaching Model A goal-setting and problem-solving framework that helps leaders and their teams clarify priorities and focus on outcomes. Here’s what it stands for: • Goal: Define what success looks like for your team or project. • Reality: Assess the current situation—what’s working and what’s holding the team back? • Options: Brainstorm solutions together to inspire ownership and creativity. • Will: Commit to an action plan that the team drives forward. 2️⃣ Kanban Boards A visual system for managing tasks and workflows that reduces micromanagement while maintaining clarity and transparency. How to use it: • Visualize the Workflow: Map out every task and step in the process so everyone knows what’s happening. • Limit Work in Progress (WIP): Prevent overload by capping how many tasks can be actively worked on at a time. • Quickly Spot Bottlenecks: Debug issues that lead to bottlenecking at certain parts of process. 3️⃣ Feedback Loops Support autonomy by creating intentional, structured opportunities for communication and growth. Here’s how: • Establish a Cadence: Set consistent 1-on-1s or team meetings to discuss progress, challenges, and wins. • Focus on Growth: Use these sessions to encourage problem-solving and personal development, not micromanagement. • Empower Teams: Ask open-ended questions (“What do you need to succeed?”) and trust their answers. By empowering your team, you don’t lose control—you gain it. Great leaders hire great people. Then they help them thrive. Your job? Remove obstacles, not become one. How do you empower your team? Drop your thoughts in the comments ⬇️. ♻ Repost to help your network in 2025. And follow Eric Partaker for more.

This is so true. I was a terrible manager when first given the opportunity. Leading by example came naturally to me, but quality management is an art and science that wasn’t prepared for. Although i’m not as terrible as I was before, I’m still learning everyday and trying to share what i’ve learned with others going through the same boat. Here are a few things i’ve learnt along the way: * Promote Work-Life Balance: Encourage employees to take breaks, use their holiday entitlement, and set boundaries between work and personal life. Lead by example by respecting these boundaries yourself. * Provide Clear Expectations: Clearly communicate goals, expectations, and timelines to reduce uncertainty and stress. Ensure that each team member understands their role and how it contributes to the overall success of the team. * Offer Support and Resources: Be approachable and available to listen to your team members' concerns and provide guidance. Offer resources such as counselling services, mental health days, or flexible working arrangements to support their well-being. * Recognise and Appreciate: Regularly acknowledge and appreciate your team members' contributions and achievements. This can be done publicly or privately, depending on the individual's preference, to boost morale and motivation. * Encourage Open Communication: Foster a culture of open communication where team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, concerns, and ideas without fear of judgement or reprisal. Actively listen to their feedback and address any issues promptly. * Provide Opportunities for Growth: Offer training, professional development opportunities, and career advancement paths to help employees develop their skills and reach their full potential. Recognise and celebrate their progress and achievements along the way. * Promote Collaboration and Team Bonding: Encourage collaboration, teamwork, and mutual support among team members. Organise team-building activities, social events, or volunteer opportunities to strengthen relationships and foster a sense of belonging. * Lead with Empathy and Compassion: Take the time to understand your team members' individual needs, challenges, and strengths. Show empathy and compassion in your interactions and decisions, and be flexible and accommodating when necessary. * Create a Positive Work Environment: Foster a positive and inclusive work environment where diversity is valued, and everyone feels respected, heard, and appreciated. Address any conflicts or issues promptly and promote a culture of mutual respect and support. * Monitor and Address Burnout: Keep an eye out for signs of burnout, such as decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, or changes in behaviour. Take proactive steps to address workload issues, provide additional support, or adjust expectations as needed to prevent burnout and support employee well-being. Hope these help! Your team will thank you for it ❤️ ♻️Tobi Oluwole

*Let it go!* “Appa, who will be CEO while you are away?”, the kid asks me. “Well, Jagdeep uncle, Sunit uncle, Saurabh uncle, Parneet aunty and others … they will run the show.” “Oh, so you are basically not required.” “Mmm … I hope I am … but not all the time.” “What if something breaks while you are away?” “It won’t.” “But what if it does?” “Abey … Hindi worksheet kiya?” <Exit kid, Stage right > Every year, as December rolls by, I get ready to take a break from work. Early in my career, this just meant asking the boss for time off, making sure there were no loose ends, and off I go. Over the years, things have become a bit more complicated. For one, I can’t ensure there are ‘no loose ends’. Can’t pack up my job into neat little boxes to be reopened when I return. My job is all loose ends! And I surely can’t change the fact that a quarter end will come by while I am out of action. The Gregorian calendar doesn’t give a damn that I have an “Out Of Office” message on. Which means my only real option is to delegate. Empower my colleagues aggressively to do whatever needs to be done. Delegation, I have learnt however, is deceptively hard. Particularly when you are delegating not a task, but responsibility. It is hard enough to train someone on a set of tasks, oversee them initially as they perform independently, provide feedback and slowly let go. But it is harder still when what you do is not clearly defined. No specific task, but a series of judgements one makes, choices you exercise. How do you delegate that? The key, I believe, is to have a set of commonly accepted principles. Some general behavioural tenets that everyone in the leadership team collectively believes in. Norms about “How we do things here” that we constantly talk about, emphasise and re-emphasise at every turn. Repetition is the mother of all learning. Talk about your principles openly and often enough that no matter which specific individual exercises a choice, it is likely to be in the same ballpark. Another element I have found important in successful leadership delegation is to establish and publicly declare a decision making framework. My usual framework when I am OOO is: “Each department head is empowered to make all decisions in their department. If there is a conflict between choices, Mr. X (or Ms. Y) will be the tie-breaker.” The hardest, but most important aspect of delegating responsibilities, is letting go. I need to recognise that Mr. X might do things differently than I would. They might make some choices that I might not have made. If you are aligned on ‘commonly accepted principles’, these might be differences in detail, not in spirit. Yet, differences there will be. My success as a delegating leader is in owning up and publicly supporting these choices, whether I would have made them precisely that way or not. So what I should have told my kid is: “If something breaks while I am away, it is still my responsibility.”

Running an organization is all about managing tensions and dilemmas. If you optimize one thing, you sacrifice another. This Framework creates clarity and helps you manage them. Some old frameworks are so powerful that they deserve renewed attention. The Competing Values Framework by Robert E. Quinn and John Rohrbaugh (1983) is such a framework. This essentially simple model helps understand a great deal of why managing an organization can be so difficult and why you never get it perfect. It starts with two dimensions. The first is Internal vs. External. Internal refers to activities aimed at making the organization function well internally and creating harmony. External refers to activities through which the organization collaborates and competes with its environment. The second dimension is Flexibility vs. Control. Flexibility refers to activities helping the organization develop, stay open, innovate, decentralize and the like. Control refers to activities that focus on getting things done in a productive and often centralized manner. Based on these two dimensions, Quinn & Rohrbaugh identify four different models that are at play and that compete in every organization: Open Systems Model (External, Flexibility) Focuses on innovation, growth and resource acquisition, to increase the organization’s abilities and opportunities Typical examples: R&D, Purchasing, M&As Rational Goal Model (External, Control) Focuses on producing and delivering products and services efficiently and effectively to the market Typical examples: Production, Marketing, Sales Internal Process Model Focuses on creating stability and control through information, communication and control systems Typical examples: Accounting, Internal Communication, Quality Control Human Relations Model Focuses on creating engagement and cohesion and on keeping motivation and morale high amongst employees Typical examples: HR, Human Development, Training As the examples show, it’s not that hard to recognize the four competing models in your organization. As such, this framework helps understand the conflicts that may arise between, for example, Sales (Rational Goal Model), R&D (Open Systems Model) and Production (Internal Process Model). All three operate based on their own set of—competing—values. The framework itself does not offer much in terms of solutions. However, understanding the values at play in different parts of your organization and acknowledging how these compete is a great starting point for managing the inevitable tensions. Time to evaluate your organization through the lens of the Competing Values Framework and manage each part of it according to the right model. #organizationaldevelopment #organizationaleffectiveness #managementdevelopment

A monthly ritual that changed my life. The Think Day (everyone should try this): In the 1980s, Bill Gates began an annual tradition he called the Think Week. Gates would seclude himself in a remote location, shut off communication, and spend a week dedicated to reading and thinking. The radical approach became essential to his process: "Think Week is a time when I can be creative and push my own thinking. It's a time to step outside the day-to-day demands of my job and really focus on the big picture." - Bill Gates I first read about the Think Week a few years ago and knew I wanted to give it a shot. I didn't have an entire week to dedicate to it (early career demands, family priorities, etc.), but figured I could adapt something with a similar core vision. The Think Day was my creation: Pick one day each month to step back from all of your day-to-day professional demands: • Seclude yourself (mentally or physically). • Shut off all of your devices. • Put up an out-of-office response. The goal: Spend the entire day reading, learning, journaling, and THINKING. By doing this, you create the free time to zoom out, open your mind, and think creatively about the bigger picture. My essential tools for Think Day: • Journal and pen. • Books/articles I've been wanting to read. • Secluded location (at home, rental, or outside). • Thinking prompts to spark my mind. Six thinking prompts I have found particularly useful: 1. Are you hunting antelope (big important problems) or field mice (small urgent problems)? 2. How can you do less, but better? 3. What are your strongest beliefs? What would it take for you to change your mind on them? 4. What are a few things that you know now that you wish you knew 5 years ago? 5. What actions were you engaged in 5 years ago that you cringe at today? What actions are you engaged in today that you will cringe at in 5 years? 6. What would your 80-year-old self say about your decisions today? I aim for an 8-hour window split into 60-minute focus blocks with walks in between. You have to slow down to speed up. In a speed-obsessed world, the benefits of slowing down are extensive: • Restore energy • Notice things you missed • Be more deliberate with actions • Focus on the highest leverage opportunities • Move slow to move fast. The Think Day can help. Give it a shot and let me know what you think. *** If you enjoyed this or learned something, follow me Sahil Bloom for more in future!

Story telling magic: In this immersive room you and your AI-adjusted shadow become part of a story of shadows. Whole space interacts with your movements and the light you carry.   A project by artist Joon Moon. On view at the G.MAP visual art center, Korea.   Here’s a longer description of the project:   “The viewer’s light moves the shade and shadows of an entire room that is an 8m x 8m x 4.2m immersive projection environment. It’s an interactive narrative in which the story progresses to next stages when the viewer finds and approaches the shadows who call him here and there. The total viewing time is about 14 minutes. The story was written so that all interfaces such as the viewer's light, the shadows, the optical illusion, and the immersive environment could be incorporated into the narrative. It intended the viewer to be engaged completely in the narrative.   The room was installed without any openings not only for surround projection, but also for the beginning of the story. Shadow kids are stuck in this room. They are flat shadows, but they become three-dimensional as the story progresses. Fishes jump out of the plane of the floor and swim in the air. In this optical illusion, the viewer deeply engages with the kids who make eye contact and take a light from the viewer’s hand. Using the light, the kids draw new shades and three-dimensional space. Doors open on the wall, and the kids explore the space hidden behind the room. Between 2D and 3D, they draw a pleasant story that the optical illusion creates.”   I’ve added the website of Joon Moon in the comments.

Stress isn’t always about the thing itself. It’s about our relationship to it. Two leaders can face the exact same challenge — a missed deadline, a difficult board meeting, a team conflict — yet their experience of stress is entirely different. Why? Stress often has less to do with the external event and more to do with the lens through which we view it. 👉 When we label something as unbearable, it grows heavier. 👉 When we approach it as a problem to be solved, it becomes manageable. 👉 When we see it as an opportunity to grow, it can even become empowering. This distinction matters because leaders carry tremendous weight. If everything feels like a “threat,” stress compounds. But if we learn to reframe — to shift our relationship to the pressure — we not only reduce stress, we increase our capacity to lead with clarity and resilience. As an executive coach, I work with clients on this every day. Here are a few practices that make a difference: ✅ Name it clearly. → Is it the situation itself that’s stressful, or the meaning you’ve attached to it? Naming the difference is the first step in reframing. ✅ Shift the narrative. → Instead of asking “Why is this happening to me?”, try “What is this asking of me as a leader?” ✅ Control the controllable. → Stress escalates when we fixate on what’s outside our power. Refocus on the small actions you can take. ✅ Build in recovery. → Even the strongest leaders need rituals that restore — whether that’s exercise, mindfulness, or simply 10 minutes of stillness. The goal isn’t to eliminate stress. The goal is to reshape our relationship to it so it serves us, rather than overwhelms us. Coaching can help; let's chat. Book Your Coaching Discovery Call Today  ↳ https://lnkd.in/eKi5cCce Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Joshua Miller for more tips on coaching, leadership, career + mindset. #executivecoaching #leadership #mentalhealth #coachingtips #wellness