Blog
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....
4 Leadership Focal Points to Guide the Way
I haven’t met a leader yet whose day is not full of information, fast-paced action and distractions. At any given moment, you are bombarded with input from multiple directions. To appear “in control” and competent, you feel you have no other choice than to react to...
A Simple 2-Step Assessment to Manage Your Team
It’s easy to simply react to the day-to-day grind. Before most managers know it, they can find themselves in a situation where key talent has left their teams. Additionally, managers may realize they have the wrong people in the wrong positions for the wrong...
Are You Leading or Bullying?
“I feel like you’re intimidating and bullying me.” These are the words of a female employee during a meeting with her male supervisor, who intended to set expectations with her. The supervisor was taken aback and started to question his behavior. With stories of...