M. Sutton
Employee Survey Skeptics Might Have a Point
Leadership & Culture
What's your main reason for distrusting employee survey data? The recommendations arising out of the data are so impractical, costly, or unfeasible that they can’t support be supported without more, better, or ...
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I Can’t Believe They Said That!
Leadership & Culture
Has an employee ever told you that they don’t respect or trust you? Yes No View Results Loading ... If you’ve ever been in the unfortunate position where a key employee hit ...
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Are You Afraid To Practice?
Leadership & Culture
In everything that we do in life, we know repetition helps us get better (regardless of your position on the nuances on the 10,000 hours rule. If you don’t know what I’m ...
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Do You Trust Blindly, SMARTly, or Not At All?
Books
The authors push you to reconcile your assumptions about the trustworthiness of people with the idea that your trust default position significantly impacts your relationships: essentially, your own biases and predispositions affect ...
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You Don’t Have to Fall
Good Weekends
Often, I lament that people don’t have hobbies and passions anymore. It seems that everything has turned into a vehicle to make money, become some sort of influencer, or strengthens one’s career. ...
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Don’t Descend a Mountain w/Someone who Doesn’t Know What They’re Doing
Good Weekends | 2 Comments
I hope you’re planning a good weekend…This past weekend, I went hiking twice. If you’ve never bested a mountain, you don’t know joy! --------------------------------------------------------------- On Saturday, I took an older couple ...
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Camp Club Getaway: Adult Summer Camp!
Good Weekends
I hope you had a good weekend! Over Labor Day Weekend, I stepped into a version of myself that I’ve always admired: I attended adult summer camp at Camp Club Getaway in ...
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Leadership is Risky
Good Weekends | 2 Comments
I hope you had a good weekend - I did. This past weekend, I set out for a bike ride on Saturday morning. If you live in the northeast, you know we ...
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Teamwork OFF the Clock
Leadership & Culture
The majority of time, I do my outdoorsy stuff alone because I can be a bit self-centered: I want to go when I want to go, stay as long as I want, ...
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My Juneteenth was May 10th
Leadership & Culture | 2 Comments
One of the things that I never share with people who aren’t family (and I don’t share this with all of them) is that it bothers me that my family has always ...
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Make Conflict (Management) An Everyday Thing
Leadership & Culture
Most people hate dealing with conflict! It’s uncomfortable, takes time, and frankly, it’s often low on the priority list. Seriously, each of us can think of other things we’d much rather do ...
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So, You Think Your Boss is Retaliating Against You
Leadership & Culture
Other person: I think my boss may be retaliating against me. Me: ↓↓↓↓....................... (Yes, I said all of this!) Is this problem really retaliation? To begin, you should be careful about the ...
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5 Checklists to Get Your People Aligned for the New Year
Leadership & Culture
Take the beginning of the year to set the tone about what matters to you and your team! If you take all five steps, you’ll even set aside time for check-in throughout ...
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Identities WITH Benefits
Leadership & Culture
If you don’t celebrate Christmas or want to participate in gift exchanges, what is it like for you at work from Thanksgiving until the New Year? If you celebrate Christmas and its ...
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In the Grip of Chronic Stress
Leadership & Culture
Three Things to Know about People and Stress that will Help EVERYBODY at Work People behave differently when they are operating under stress. Their best bet for working through stress comes from ...
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Influencer: Conflict Management Series (3 of 4)
Leadership & Culture
Have you ever seen a leader at a stand off with their team about something that the leader asked or told them to do, but the team has refused to do? Rarely ...
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Reasons better than, “It’s the Law” to do Anti-Harassment Training
HR Compliance
If you only provide anti-harassment training because it satisfies risk management or compliance obligations, it’s time to shift your perspective! If you see it as a “check the box” thing, you’ll convey ...
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Books and Podcasts for Leaders
Leadership & Culture
Did you know that studies tell us leaders exceed their goals when their colleagues and direct reports describe them as having great emotional intelligence or good people skills? Data also tell us ...
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Yes, Sexual Orientation is Protected
HR Compliance
This past summer, the SCOTUS issued a decision that impacts how employers treat sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace. The decision addressed three legal cases all at once, and they ...
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Announcing “They”
Leadership & Culture
Why? Because necessity is the mother of adoption, and while debate about the word may seem new, singular they has been on an “inexorable forward march...” Time Magazine, January 17, 2020 ...
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I’M DONE! …Giving Up on an Employee
HR Compliance
Which employee are you most likely to give up on first? _______________________________________________________________ Employee 1: Can’t Do: Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities You have an employee on your team who has great energy and ...
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Are you a Coach, Supervisor, or Deadbeat Parent?
Leadership & Culture
Think about most of the leaders that you've worked with....would you say that you've worked with more As, Bs, or Cs? a) coaches (They help you figure out what's in your way ...
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When The Leader Won’t Lead
Leadership & Culture
Note: our blog posts are written to be inclusive of gender-nonconforming and non-binary people; thus, you will see the pronoun “they” in many places where you would traditionally see he or she. ...
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Paternalism is a Fail in Employment, Including During Covid
HR Compliance
What does it mean to be a fair leader? What does it mean to be an empathetic one? Consider this situation. You are conducting interviews and one of the applicants is ...
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Because of COVID “I don’t feel safe” (Part 2 of 2)
Leadership & Culture
Key “Compliance” Employee Return to Work Issues. Click for resources on each of these. FYI, these rules apply to public, private, and nonprofit employers. 1. An employee says, I don’t feel safe ...
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Lead Them Back To Work (Part 1 of 2)
Leadership & Culture
Your team, maybe your entire organization, just took a major hit, but you need to get them back on track. You know they are skittish,justifiably so. You also know that you have ...
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Crucial Accountability: Conflict Management Series 2 of 4
Leadership & Culture
This review of Crucial Accountability is the second of four extended reviews covering the Vital Smarts books, which also include Crucial Conversations, Influencer, and Change Anything. This focus of book is to ...
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Is it culture or “just checking the box”?
Leadership & Culture
How does your team know the difference between a true organizational value and things that “management and HR” require simply because they want to look better just in case the organization is ...
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Silence is NOT Golden
Leadership & Culture
Note: this message was originally designed to be a video, but due to circumstances beyond our control, it's now presented as text. It matters that YOU (you personally, not your your ...
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Don’t schedule the meeting until you can answer this question: 3 Tips Remote Employee Engagement
Leadership & Culture
Don’t schedule the meeting, virtual or in-person, until you can answer this question: “What do I want people to think, feel and do after the meeting?” Studies tell us that leaders think ...
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Rapid Fire Change and Self Care for Leaders
Leadership & Culture
Self Care for People Like You - Who Run Teams or Work Solo and Need to Pivot to Survive and Thrive Rapid sudden change is to leaders what a sudden heart ...
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I had an “IN OFFICE” team last week; Now, it’s REMOTE!
Leadership & Culture
What a Difference a Day Made. 24 little hours. Can we say that again! Who would have thought that we would be in a situation where, nearly overnight, a group of more ...
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Leader-Managers in a Crisis
Leadership & Culture
A crisis could almost be defined as any problem that we don’t have ready answers for that is going to have a significant impact no matter how we respond. It is the ...
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This is How the Fight Started…And Why It Keeps Going
Leadership & Culture
Want to see a fight at work? Easy! Just add one of these. Want to see a civil war at work? Add more than one. Perceptions of unfairness, including perceptions of favoritism. ...
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What’s Your Next Move? Your Team Plays Anticipatory Chess
Leadership & Culture
What do you think these 10 statements and questions represent? 1) Formal discipline and public acknowledgements: how often you give either and as a regular of what types of triggers? 2) ...
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Crucial Conversations and Emotional Intelligence
Leadership & Culture
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said. Peter Drucker Some years ago, I wanted to create some videos. After a lot of hunting, I found a great videographer ...
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What Went Wrong?
Leadership & Culture
Wells Fargo managers interviewed women and people of color for already-filled jobs to make it look like they were trying to boost diversity, Joe Bruno says. A Dollar Tree in Indiana is ...
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The Key to Getting the Most from your Leadership Consultant
Leadership & Culture
If you’re an experienced leader in an organization, I bet you have at least one story about engaging an external consultant and not getting exactly what you’d hoped for. In all likelihood, ...
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You’re The Expert On Your Work Experiences!
Leadership & Culture
What do you really believe about the workplace? More specifically, what do you believe is the purpose of work, the role that work plays in our lives, and what makes for a ...
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Does Your Team Have a Holiday Wish List?
Leadership & Culture
I talk to employees to nearly everyday. Interestingly, it often seems like employees are unhappy, some sort of complaint, or a wish for a more perfect workplace. Broadly, the frustrations are as ...
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Please Be Advised: December 2019 Compliance News
HR Compliance
New Jersey Salary Ban: January 1st! On January 1st, 2020, New Jersey’s Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act law goes into effect. Essentially, the new law prohibits an employer from an applicant ...
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Can I enforce a dress code at the holiday party?
HR Compliance
People think all work bets are off when they are not on the clock or at their desks. Whether for good or bad; they are wrong. Anything that connects an employee to ...
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The Holiday Work Slowdown
Leadership & Culture
Can you really get meaningful productivity out of employees in November and December? While it may seem counter-intuitive, the November - Mid January holiday season is an excellent time to get work ...
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Uh oh! My Manager Received a Harassment Complaint
HR Compliance
One of your managers receives a harassment complaint. Do they know what to do? While harassment complaints are never welcomed, they should be anticipated by your organization’s policies. Not only should your ...
Read More The MBTI, Teams, and EI
Leadership & Culture
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator, also known as the MBTI, is probably one of the most well-known personal assessment tools available. Whether someone completed the assessment while in college many years ago ...
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APPOV: Disengagement Begins with Small Things
Leadership & Culture
Each week, I volunteer to count money for an organization. Since I have been doing it, it seems like there is a complaint every week about mistakes. The person who relays the ...
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The Consultant’s Dilemma
Leadership & Culture
One of my greatest stressors as a consultant is ending the project. Sometimes, I stress more than others, but I always stress and it’s about the same thing: will this project die ...
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APPOV Leadership: Regina
Leadership & Culture
Regina is the kind of leader who you don’t see coming. She’s the leader of my church ladies fellowship group. Get this: I don’t actually attend her church. Nope. Not at all. ...
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Analyze this True Story with Your Team: The Hiking Trip
Leadership & Culture
Context: I’m part of a meetup group whose purpose is to get people who don’t normally hike to try getting out into the great outdoors. Because of our mission, our activities are ...
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21 Signals that It’s Time to Quit!
Leadership & Culture
Professionally-speaking, one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was to terminate someone. Although that experience took place quite some time ago, I remember it as if it were yesterday. ...
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APPOV Leadership: Stacey
Leadership & Culture
If you are perceptive enough, you’ll see signs of excellent and failed leadership everywhere you go. Whether good or bad, you can spot it, if you’re looking for it. This is especially ...
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Leadership Requires Courage
Leadership & Culture
"I am convinced that courage is the most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you cannot practice any other virtue consistently." ~Maya Angelou One of the best ways to get ...
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Why Culture Matters
Leadership & Culture
“Organizational culture matters!” Few people argue against this assertion. However, many of the same agreeable people are at a loss about how to create or change culture even as they describe the ...
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Money ISN’T Everything, but Free ISN’T Cheap
Leadership & Culture
Confession: I have a client who can’t afford to pay my regular rate. I don’t work with this client often because, well, money. As a self-employed person, money matters to me in ...
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The Culture Crocodile
Leadership & Culture
The Culture Crocodile When I provide training to organizations, particularly large organizations, I make note of aspects of the organization’s culture. While some elements of an organization’s culture take time to understand, ...
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The Coaching Habit
Books
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way By Michael Bungay Stanier This book marries basic coaching principles with Charles Duhigg’s, The Power of Habit. Stanier’s effort to make ...
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What are Your Team’s Habits?
Books, Leadership & Culture
THE POWER OF HABIT: WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO IN LIFE AND BUSINESS by Charles Duhigg When we think about organizations, we are more apt to engage in conversations about culture ...
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Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Books
In this book, the fact that Gladwell’s academic work includes sociology is apparent. Oddly, his work reminds me of Freakonomics which is an economist’s work to evaluate the answers to questions that ...
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101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees by Peter Falcone
Books
This book is most useful to new supervisors, individuals new to human resources, and seasoned managed who don’t want to admit that HR is not their cup of tea. The book offers ...
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What I Know For Sure: 5 Things Teams and Leaders Need
Leadership & Culture
1. Individual team members need to know that their specific needs won’t be crushed or ignored. They need to see a path forward with respect to contributing to the team’s goals and ...
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