Blog
What to Do When Someone Speaks Their Truth to Your Power
Speaking truth to power is something Americans believe in wholeheartedly. We love historical examples of the Founding Fathers sending a message to King George and of reformers like Martin Luther King, Jr. Americans revel in the stories of investigative journalists and...
2 Signs You’re a Leader Who Kills With Kindness
You see yourself as one of the most caring leaders on the planet. You really listen to your employees and their complaints. You work hard to create good relationships with your direct reports, seeking to be a special type of boss to them. You do what you can to make...
2 Decisions That Will Revolutionize Your Productivity
How's your personal productivity? Do you keep papers, desktop files, and emails from time immemorial because you are afraid you’ll need them “someday”? You won’t. Do you claim the 1000+ emails lurking in your inbox are easier to retrieve that way? They aren’t. Stop...
5 Reasons Your “Team” is Not a Team
Although there are countless books about creating better teams, participating on and leading teams remains a top frustration in most companies. Here are 5 reasons your “team” might not actually be one: 1. There are no shared goals or values. Your “team” may believe it...
What Top Leaders Know about Eliminating Frustration at Work
Did you know that most of the drama going on in your workplace started with a thought that probably isn't even true? When you accept your thoughts as true, they become beliefs, even if they are untested, inaccurate, and flat-out false. You make up a lot of stuff...
5 Steps to Masterful Confrontation
Handled appropriately, confrontation done well allows you and your team to consider differing opinions, ideas, and assumptions with passive aggressive or victim-y behavior less likely to come into play. This, in turn, leads to greater buy-in and accountability. Still,...
Why Confrontation is the Secret Ingredient of Success
You dream of working easily and seamlessly with colleagues with little or no contention. Who really wants to work in a contentious environment? Surprisingly, little or no disagreement/conflict is a sign that your group is not as good as you think. When there is...
What to Do When Your “Open Door” Becomes the Gateway to Drama
A well-intentioned “Open Door” policy can become its most problematic policy. The purpose of these policies is to foster communication between rank and file employees and management in order to share ideas and to address issues of concern such as safety,...
Daily Communication Habits Boost Leadership Presence and Impact
The fact of the matter is that most leaders spend a tiny fraction of their time giving huge public speeches. Instead, leadership happens moment by moment, person by person, both through words and deeds. There are hundreds of moments like these every day. Each moment...
How to Be a Credible Leader
Previously, I wrote about four areas for leadership focus. In this post, I'm focusing on establishing your credibility. Over the past century or two, the expectations of what a leader is and does has shifted and that applies to how leaders established credibility....