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Using a Developmental Leader Approach

Equip and inspire professionals to be deliberately developmental in their daily leader approach. Every interaction and event at our workplace can be an opportunity for development – of ourselves and/or of others.

Dispelling Six Myths About Feedback and Your Development_3x5 Leadership

Dispelling Six Myths About Feedback That Are Cutting Your Development Short

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It all comes back to feedback.

I’ve written these words numerous times. Maybe even a few too many times. So much so, in fact, that when I departed my previous job two years ago, several direct reports on my team gifted me a going away plaque that captured many of my “infamous” leader quotes and themes. Top center of that plaque: “It all comes back to feedback.” At least it stuck!

But I keep coming back to this statement because I completely believe in it.More

Strategies to Unlock the Power of Mentoring_3x5 Leadership

Essential Strategies to Unlock the Power of Mentoring – for Mentors, Mentees, and Everyone In Between

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Mentoring is one of the most powerful developmental activities and relationships we can engage in. It has certainly become so for me in my own growth over the last few years. However, it is also one of the hardest to tap into, and for many reasons. For one, the time commitment needed to invest in meaningful mentoring relationships is often at odds with our busyness and the overwhelming demands at work. Thus, mentoring tends to be placed on the backburner…and remain there because work never becomes less busy. Second, I believe many of us have a too-narrow view of mentoring and what it could look like, though there are many faces to mentorship. Further, we easily become lazy in our mentoring, taking an unstructured approach versus a more engaged structured one.

But there is a third common barrier to enjoying successful mentoringMore

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Toward a More Structured Approach to Mentoring

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Early in my career, mentorship was not an integral developmental activity for me. What I initially expected – mentors to approach me to establish formal, long-term relationships – did not in fact happen. I quickly found that work demands and the professional culture norm of busyness often prevented that happening for me as well as most others around me. But, I admit, I held a narrow view of what mentorship was back then, which led to the “six faces of mentorship” reflection shared a few weeks ago.More

Using Feedback for Developmental Experiences_3x5 Leadership

Three Ways Leaders Use Feedback to Create Developmental Experiences for Others

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Feedback is an essential component of all leaders’ developmental journey. Yet, despite feedback being a core part of any developmental plan and a topic widely researched within organizational behavior, leaders still struggle to effectively leverage this tool to develop others and improve their performance. Too often leaders’ use of feedback is either sparse, solely focused on assessment, or diluted; it becomes diluted when leaders attempt too much by pairing assessment with developmental feedback, which usually lands poorly on and confuses the person receiving it.More

The Six Faces of Mentorship_3x5 Leadership

The Six Faces of Mentorship & Why You May Not Have Mentors Like You Desire

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In her fantastic book, Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg describes a conversation she had with a woman on her team while serving as the COO at Facebook:

“I never used the word ‘mentor,’ but I invested a lot of time in her development.

So I was surprised one day when she stated flatly that she had ‘never had a mentor or anyone really looking out’ for her. I asked what a mentor meant to her.

She explained that it would be someone she spoke to for at least an hour every week.

I smiled, thinking, ‘that’s not a mentor—that’s a therapist.’”

More

The Power of Leaders Creating Moments_3x5 Leadership

The Power of Leaders Creating Moments

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A recent phone conversation with a mentee led me to discover the incredible impact of leaders creating moments for others. Our relationship began four years ago when he served as a new freshman in the West Point cadet company I oversaw. Now a senior, in our conversation a few weeks ago, he shared a story from his freshman year where he was struggling to collect all the items he needed for a unit inspection that was occurring, which he was already late for. He recalled being flustered and after frantically searching his entire room for the necessary items and not finding them, he hopefully looked for any support in the barracks hallway. I happen to be in the hallway at that moment, heading to observe the inspection myself, when I encountered the cadet. He was embarrassed but looked to me for what to do.More

Problem Solving Tool_SWOT_3x5 Leadership

Leaders Help Others Solve Problems. Here’s a Simple Tool to Assist.

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The late General (retired) Colin Powell – former Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – is popular for (among many things) making a statement regarding a leader’s obligation towards peoples’ problems:

“The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”

While the statement addresses soldiers, it is a universal lesson in leadership – leaders help solve problems. Whether it be in a managerial role or as a mentor, leaders help others remove obstacles, achieve clarity on a path forward, and help enable and inspire action.

But one important aspect of leaders helping people solve problems, which seems to be less discussed, is HOW. How can leaders best help others solve problems, overcome challenges, and commit to a plan toward progress?More

Two Development Tools Available to Every Leader_3x5 Leadership

Two Important Developmental Tools Available to Every Leader (and Mentor)

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Have you ever hesitated to reach out to a boss or a mentor and ask for their time – maybe to seek out advice for a current challenge?

Do you feel like a burden when you do?

What about encountering distracted, seemingly aloof communication from a boss or mentor? Though likely unintentional, even the smallest signals can message that we are distracting our boss or mentor from more important things, or that we are not someone on their short list of people worth their time.More

Goal Setting Cover_3x5 Leadership

Self & Leader Development Through Goal Setting (from a Self-Identified Non-Goal Setter)

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“It is not enough to take steps which may someday lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I have an interesting relationship with productivity. Deep down I truly believe that productivity alone does not equate to success or value. I internalize a childhood lesson from my mom, “don’t confuse motion with progress,” and am a huge fan of my wife’s sweatshirt that reads, “your worth is not measured by your productivity.”

However, I have a bevy of passions – my faith, family, fatherhood, professional work, writing reflections on this platform, mentoring, self-development habits, and other interests like endurance running – that together require a lot of time. To successfully attend to all these passions, I have to be intentional and productive in how I spend my time. I often become frustrated if I find myself inadvertently ignoring any of these identities.

I believe others can relate to this productivity conundrum.More

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Leadership by Wandering Around 2.0 – Connecting & Communicating Through Presence

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3×5 Leadership Note: Leadership by Wandering Around was the first article we wrote and published when we created 3×5 Leadership. To date, it remains the most popular article. That tells us the idea resonates with many. So, to celebrate 3×5 Leadership turning 5-years-old this month, we want to revisit this essential idea and expand on the idea with what we have learned over these years. Enjoy!

The idea of presence remains a critical component to effective leadership. It is an essential ingredient to building trust, deepening connections, and creating shared understanding with those we work with and lead. And while physically being present is the foundation of this idea, it requires so much more like our attitudes, words, and behaviors during those times. Regardless of industry and organizational context, leader presence is necessary; it is something we can enact across physical and digital domains.More

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