Dave Anderson | Tag Archive | Candor

I agreed to talk to the boss.  Three of my peers approached me about a sales campaign that they thought missed the mark.  It was our boss’s idea, but it wasn’t a good one.

Over time, I became the person my peers came to when someone needed to confront our boss.  I accepted that role and felt comfortable doing it.  I just wish my peers would have spoken directly to our boss themselves instead of going through me. Continue Reading…

“You are one of my projects.  I want to help you and teach you some of the things I’ve learned the hard way.”  Mitchel took a drink of his beer, looked at me, nodded and thanked me.

I had just transferred to a new geography. Mitchel and I were peers.  The only difference was I had been in leadership in our company for 5 years and Mitchel had recently been promoted.  I knew he and I would work well together and become fast friends.

I was right…and wrong. Continue Reading…

Self-awareness sounds like some new age, kumbaya, talk show topic.  As an aspiring man’s man, my low sensitivity level has not always allowed me to consider things like self-awareness.  But, obviously I have or I would not have been able to write that last sentence…

Self-awareness is a critical element for the success of a leader.  As a leader, if I do not recognize who I am and how I affect other people, I will never reach my potential. Continue Reading…

Over the last 4 weeks I have been sharing my experiences taking over new teams and my insights based on times when I did it well and when I did it poorly.  I learned new things each time and believe what I am sharing can help anyone stepping in to lead a new team.  The 5 Steps for New Leaders on New Teams are:

Steps 1-3 are all building towards what I see to be the two most important attributes of successful teams:  Trust and Culture. Continue Reading…