I am very excited to announce that my book Ignite! The 4 Essential Rules for Emerging Leaders will be officially launched and widely available on May 31st!

The best leaders spend up to 20% of their time coaching their direct reports.

It's a responsibility that leaders all too often overlook as they get caught up in pressing matters, but nothing can be more important to the health and future of an organization.

Coaching others not only helps develop their skills, it frees leaders to focus on more strategic initiatives as their junior leaders develop. It also builds the bench strength of an organization to ensure a competitive advantage in years to come.

Another  common and costly leader mistake that can result in a loss of  credibility and trust.

MISTAKE: Drawing clear lines in the sand.

The challenge in many organizations is that most leaders don’t get to know their people well enough to create a motivating environment. They like to draw lines in the sand between business and personal.

Actually, our business and personal lives often intersect and have a huge impact on each other.We need to make business personal.

What is your team's purpose?

What is your team supposed to do that no other team does?

These are important questions for all teams - whether you belong to a management team, a functional team, a project team, or other.

The challenge in most organizations is that teams don't have clarity about their purpose. They brush it off as something too fluffy to consider. Or, for other teams, their purpose ends up on a pretty poster in a conference room and does nothing but take up wall space.

Another  common and costly leader mistake that can result in a loss of credibility and trust...

MISTAKE: Leading by email (or by texting, project management tools, online chat, or other technology) instead of Leading by Example.

A common and costly leader mistake that can result in a loss of credibility and trust...

MISTAKE: Getting caught up in the Popeye Syndrome – “I am what I am.”

The implied message here is: “I am the way I am and if you don’t like it, who cares?”

Leaders often exhibit this behavior when doing things like conducting meetings without involving team members, and when resolving team member issues without asking for input or engaging them in the problem-solving process.

At the start of a recent leadership development program with a group of emerging leaders here in Denver, Colorado, I asked the group how they would know if the 9-month program would be successful.

What would success look like for them individually?

Here are some of their responses:

"Success is making a positive impact in the lives of our staff, clients and all members of our organization… empowering people."

"I measure my personal success through the accomplishments of my team."

As heard in one of my team coaching sessions last week from a participant...

"If two people agree, you don't need one of the opinions."

The Manager who approached me in Part 1 of this series had used his original question of 'Sal, why do I have to give people recognition for doing their job?' to set me up.

He was persistent and continued, "I don't give people recognition for just doing their jobs. That's what they get paid for."

The conversation went on, and he justified his position of not giving people recognition by saying that he had high standards. Hmmm. High standards, I thought. What does that have to do with it?

Recognition in the workplace is a critical element toward creating a cohesive team.  So, the next several posts will deal with the topic.

In this post we'll start with the business case - the "why" - for recognition.