6 Books Every Leader Should Read 

I often get asked my opinion on the best books for leadership development.

If you’re leading a team, you can never stop growing as a leader.

Your self development process is paramount to your success as a leader.

If you don’t invest in your personal development, your team will lose confidence in you.

They won’t trust you and they won’t admire or value you as a leader.

So what are you doing right now to develop yourself as a leader?

What are you reading?

4 Tips for First Time Leaders 

I often get asked what advice I’d give to people advancing into a leadership position for the first time.

As a first-time leader, it’s really important that you get a strong foundation.

If you don’t get off on the right foot as a new leader, you’ll run into challenges.

Your team won’t have any confidence in your ability and they won’t believe you deserve the position.

When this happens, they’ll come up with their own ideas.

They’ll veer from the pathway that you’re trying to lead them on.

They may decide that they don’t want to work for someone that doesn’t have the skillset to be a leader.

Then, they’ll leave you.

If you don’t get good advice as a new leader, you’ll struggle.

Here are four tips that I give to every first-time leader.

How To Share Positive Feedback With Your Team

Your team is everything.

You would not be where you are without your team.

You’re the one that gets all the credit, when things go right.

They’re the ones that get all the blame when things go wrong.

This creates an environment where your team doesn’t feel like their success is tied to your success.

And that’s because you don’t give enough positive feedback.

Positive feedback helps people improve, become more productive and be more deeply engaged at work.

Here are three keys for sharing positive feedback with your team.

How to Become an Effective Communicator – Anton Gunn

You need to get better with your communication when it comes to leading your team. 
 
In a time like this, where things are going so fast and we’re dealing with many different challenges; communication is at a premium. 
 
So, it needs to be efficient. 
 
It needs to be effective and the message needs to be received. 
 
People are not able to execute when there’s not good communication amongst your team. 
 
Many things could go wrong, especially in healthcare. 
 
People can die if you don’t have good communication.  
 
Here are a few things to think about as you communicate with your team. 

How To Prepare For The Next Crisis | Anton Gunn

Everybody is worried about what the next crisis is going to be. 
 
It seems like for the last two years, we’ve been hit with nonstop crisis. 
 
We’re managing in a ‘new normal’, continuously thinking about what the next crisis could be and how we’re going to manage it. 
 
If you aren’t prepared for the next crisis, things will spiral out of control. 
  
Whether it’s a global pandemic or racial and social unrest, there’s going to be another crisis that will be problematic. 

Here are three things to focus on to prepare you for the next crisis.

What To Do When Your Boss Abruptly Retires- Anton Gunn

I know you didn’t see this one coming.  
 
Your boss has abruptly retired.  
 
It shouldn’t be surprising to you that we’re going through unprecedented challenges as a nation right now.  
 
Many people that thought they’d have a long career are rethinking what they want to do for the rest of their lives. 
 
 
CEOs are retiring without even giving a 12-month advanced notice.  
 
 
This is the person that you came to work for.  
 
 
This is the person that put you in the position you’re in right now.  
 
 
You look up to them, but now they’re retiring.  
 
 
And you’re concerned about what this means for you.  

Functioning At Work After A Personal Tragedy

Experiencing a personal tragedy is incredibly hard.  
 
It’s challenging to deal with while still having to be a leader at work. 
 
People are depending on you, but you’re still dealing with personal pain. 
 
You want to grieve but you also want to be available for everybody at work. 
 
It’s a difficult challenge that many of us never find a way to balance. 
 
Sometimes, we become more focused on work than dealing with our tragedies. 
 
This can cost us in our personal lives. 
 
Sometimes, we do the complete opposite and drop everything to only focus on our personal life. 
 
Over time, this will lead people to believe we are not committed to work. 
 
So, what do you do when you’re in this predicament? 

What To Do When Your Boss Expects You To Work On Vacation

You’re on vacation.

You’re trying to enjoy time with your family and reconnect with them.

But you just happened to look down at your phone and you see that your boss is emailing you.

They’re asking you where something is.

They want you to jump on a call while you’re on vacation.

You’re feeling frustrated about this because you have no boundaries.

When it comes to work, whether it’s night, weekends or vacation, you find yourself responding to messages from a boss that is a workaholic.

It sucks, it’s frustrating and you need to do something about it.

How To Keep Your Team Together

Your team is not on the same page.  
 
People are ready to leave the organization.  
 
It is your responsibility to put the team together because if that team doesn’t stay together, here’s what’s going to happen: 
 
You’re going to have problems. 
 
Major things will fall through the cracks. 
 
Then nobody’s going to be there to help you overcome those problems.  
 
People will begin working in a selfish way, 
 
They’ll only care about their own goals and success. 
 
You’ve got to fix this. 
 
And there is a simple solution to this. 

How To Give Negative Feedback To Your Boss

It’s has happened again.  
 
They’ve done something that is not right.  
 
They’ve put themselves in a position that makes you feel bad. 
 
Yes, I’m talking about your boss. 
 
You want to help because you care about them and the organization. 
 
But they continue to make mistakes. 
 
And you’re struggling to give feedback. 
 
But, the same way you see these mistakes, so does everyone else. 

And this will reflect on you as well. 
 
You may be afraid to approach your boss because they don’t take feedback well or like criticism at all. 
 
Here are a couple of things to think about before approaching your CEO with feedback.