Identify Your Leadership Style and Maximize Effectiveness

Identify Your Leadership Style and Maximize Effectiveness

Becoming a better leader isn’t something that happens in a day, or even in a week. Building that set of skills requires intentional thought and effort. Understanding your innate leadership style can help you determine where to start. Once you’ve made an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, you can begin to make change by playing to your strengths and minimizing or mitigating your weaknesses.

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7 Characteristics of Effective Leaders

7 Characteristics of Effective Leaders

Having a great business idea or getting promoted to a leadership role doesn’t automatically make you a good leader. In fact, there are lots of mediocre (or downright bad) leaders out there. I learned a lot about leadership throughout my own journey to CEO. I’ve learned even more over the last ten years as I’ve coached, mentored, and advised hundreds of growth-stage leaders. The most effective leaders are intentional about their leadership, working to develop the skills and characteristics that will make them better able to reach their own goals and to help their teams identify and reach theirs.

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Leading a Remote Company

Leading a Remote Company

How have the companies that have always operated completely remote done it? If they can do it every day, why can’t the rest of us? What kind of lessons could they teach us? I reached out to the leaders of two Trajectify clients who founded and run completely remote companies: Max Rice - CEO and Founder of Skyverge & Caleb Frankel - CEO and Founder of Instinct Science

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Isolation Will Kill Your Business Faster than a Pandemic or an Economic Collapse

Isolation Will Kill Your Business Faster than a Pandemic or an Economic Collapse

Uncertainty is frightening to anyone. But many business owners — especially the introvert entrepreneurs out there — go deeper inside themselves during times like this. They isolate — because stepping out of their comfort zone and into this vast uncertainty threatens things many of us believe we need, including to be in control, to be safe, to be right. What if by reaching out, we expose ourselves as not knowing the answer, as being vulnerable and afraid?

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How to Lead During Times of Uncertainty—Business Responses to COVID-19

How to Lead During Times of Uncertainty—Business Responses to COVID-19

If you’re still reeling from the news of the last few weeks—or days—you’re not alone. Businesses all over the world are scrambling to protect employees, figure out remote work schedules, reforecast revenues, or simply keep the doors open. No organization will manage all of this perfectly, but some will find ways to strengthen the relationships with their customers and their employees, to expand their understanding of their business, and solidify their own commitment to their values.

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6 Questions to Ask Before You Choose a Business Coach

6 Questions to Ask Before You Choose a Business Coach

If you run a business, lead a team, or head up an organization, there’s a good chance you’ve considered hiring a coach—or at least looking to someone else for guidance. A coach is focused on unlocking your potential. They work with you to improve your performance. As with anyone that you bring into your confidence and your business, you want to make the right choice. We’ve been on both sides of the equation—as coaches and as clients.

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Five Lessons Learned At My First Awareness Training

Five Lessons Learned At My First Awareness Training

At least once each year, I attend another coaching program. I enjoy getting coaching while I benefit from watching how others work and learn new techniques. Last month I attended a four-day program in NYC that was eye-opening, by definition, because it was my first awareness training.

I was able to do a lot of personal development at the program and will share in this article some of what I learned. First, let me explain awareness training.

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Seeking a Meaningful Career: Matt’s Path to Trajectify

Seeking a Meaningful Career: Matt’s Path to Trajectify

The last several months of my professional career have been incredibly rewarding as I have taken on the role of Business Coordinator for Trajectify. I am part of an amazing team where my contribution is valued and I have the ability to grow both professionally and personally. This career is a great fit with my values, strengths and personality. Things weren’t always this wonderful for me. Like many others, I have struggled over the years with “what I want to be when I grow up.” In searching for the answer to this question, I’ve come to realize that figuring out my career was much more of a journey than a destination.

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Does Your Organization Have a Warning System in Place?

Does Your Organization Have a Warning System in Place?

Over a family dinner recently, my brother-in-law explained that my mother-in-law’s car has some high-tech alerts on it. I asked my mother-in-law if it had a collision avoidance system, and she responded, “All I know is that if I hear three beeps I need to stop so I don’t bang up the car.”

What if we had a similar alert system for leaders of businesses – when something goes wrong, you hear three beeps and you know you need to stop so you don’t damage your business?

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Four Top Challenges of Leadership and Business Growth

Four Top Challenges of Leadership and Business Growth

As a business grows, its leaders face new challenges, often in strategy, organizational development, and values and culture. They may be faced with complicated decisions regarding capital, partnerships or corporate structure. In November, we hosted our Fall Leadership Retreat where Trajectify coaches were joined by CEOs and business owners from a variety of industries. In focused, mastermind-style discussions, each leader took turns sharing business challenges they are facing. The group got a chance to provide feedback and offer outside-in perspectives to their peers.

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Building a Business With Partners: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Building a Business With Partners: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

We recently facilitated a panel of four pairs of co-founders/partners. They shared their experiences in building a business together - exploring benefits and challenges, offering advice and personal perspectives. Putting business partners on stage - including friends, siblings, and spouses - also made for great entertainment (watch the video). If you’re going to make partnership successful, have a good sense of humor :-) Here are some of the lessons learned and insights:

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3 Strategies You Should Adopt in Your 2020 Planning

3 Strategies You Should Adopt in Your 2020 Planning

We don't want to have to be in a position to make passionate decisions, especially in business. Good planning means accounting for all outcomes while we are in our natural state, operating in Quadrant II (one of Strategy), not Quadrant I (Crisis). Here are some strategies to follow to help you do just that.

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Leadership Lessons from My Mother's Death

Leadership Lessons from My Mother's Death

My mother died earlier this month. It wasn't something we were expecting. She had been successfully fighting breast cancer. Complications from treatment led to a series of cascading medical issues over several weeks until her heart was no longer able to take it.  I woke up early the day after her death and my mind was racing, so I grabbed a pen and paper to slow down my thoughts. Some of what I wrote ended up being about observations and feelings that I could connect to leadership.

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Three Pillars of Effective Leadership: Insights From Experienced CEOs

Three Pillars of Effective Leadership: Insights From Experienced CEOs

Being a leader means always having your fingers on the pulse of your business. It means juggling responsibilities, putting out fires, and claiming responsibility. You are responsible for the vision, agenda, and strategy of your entire team. While sitting in the driver's seat can be exhilarating, it can also be exhausting and lonely. But what if it doesn’t have to be? Learn some of the basic pillars of leadership: strategic planning, building a healthy you and a healthy team, and getting outside-in perspectives.

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2019 Trajectify Summer Reading List

2019 Trajectify Summer Reading List

Here’s that world famous list that thousands have been awaiting. Each year, Trajectify coaches and clients put together recommendations for books that they've been reading. We encourage you to use some of your vacation time and your days away from the office to invest in growth through reading. Wherever your adventures take you, even if it's just in your backyard hammock), use this out-of-office time to learn, reflect, and challenge yourself.

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Four Tools To Improve Your Time Management

Four Tools To Improve Your Time Management

Time management is the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities. Successful time management allows you to work smarter, not harder, getting more done in less time but this is not always an easy process.

Time management, including work-life balance, prioritization and decision making, are elements of the most common struggles for entrepreneurs. It is difficult to make time for the important things when it is even hard to decide what is actually important.

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What If You’re the Problem with Your Team?

What If You’re the Problem with Your Team?

“Sometimes I’m trying to finish the project you gave me earlier in the week, and I’m nearly done. But you tell me to drop it, that it’s not as important as some new thing you want the team to start on. I like your ideas – and you have a lot of them – but I wish you would let us finish what we start before you tell us to do the new thing. It gets kind of frustrating because I feel like you don’t appreciate that we’re trying to do the things you want, but it’s always changing.” Have you been there before with a team like this? No matter what you might put in your strategic business plan, you will not succeed unless people can learn to work together effectively.

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What is your Double Doink for 2019?

What is your Double Doink for 2019?

If you happen to be a football fan, you’ve probably now heard about the Double Doink. Let’s have some fun and create a general purpose definition for a double doink: the accomplishment of an improbable feat or an achievement from an impressive effort that results in failure or negative consequences. I’m not sure if I’ve had a double doink yet this year, but I know I’ve had plenty over the course of my career. I’ve been contemplating some of the things that you should do to recover from a double doink. Here are five things to consider after a mistake or failure.

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