Leadership & Accidental Bosses

Many of us seem to fall into leadership positions unintentionally: We start a business to solve a problem, and have to hire staff (though we may never have managed a team before); or we’re promoted into a management position because of our technical skills, but don’t get trained on how to lead other people.

If you’re in a smaller organization, you may not have access to leadership training or management courses – so how do you shift from being an accidental boss to a purposeful one? And how do you figure out how to wield power without abusing it, or becoming someone you’re not? Here are a few resources to get you started.

Leadership & Vision

• The Accidental Boss: Making peace with power
• Why I Quit Coding: The pain and pleasure of focus – Is your failure to focus standing in the way of your company’s growth?
• It’s Different for Leaders: Lessons from Mozilla’s CEO appointment. (Former Mozilla CEO John O. Lilly called this the “most thoughtful reaction that I’ve seen.”)
• Moving Into Purpose: When going with the flow stops working – on the heart-and-mind shifts required to stop resisting change and start taking charge of your work life.

Managing Your Team

• Why You’re (Micro)Managing Too Much – and How to Stop – Read this if you’re feeling stretched thin, under-supported, and you aren’t confident that your team is as effective as it could be.
• When Delegating Seems Like More Work For You – Ever catch yourself saying, “I could do it myself in the time it’ll take to explain it to someone else”? This is for you.
• How Great Leaders Inspire Engagement and Solve Problems Faster – Avoid these “rookie boss” mistakes and you’ll start seeing better results from your team.
• Ken Blanchard Just Got Spiritual On Your Ass – the author of The One-Minute Manager shares a surprising lesson on bringing out the best in people.
• How to Fire Someone With Compassion and Respect – one of my best-loved articles. Firing people doesn’t need to make everyone miserable. Here’s how to do it with heart.