Leadership & Culture
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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Are You Out Of Sync With Your Team?
Leadership & Culture
Are You Out Of Sync With Your Team? Your business is constantly evolving and being in values-based alignment will position you to meet the growing needs and expectations of your employees, partnerships, ...
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It’s Time
Leadership & Culture
Leaders, It's Time.... Recently, I had a conversation with the executive director of a nonprofit that took an interesting turn. We went from talking about dealing with conflict to “how long do ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...
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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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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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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Crucibles of Leadership
Leadership & Culture
Crucibles of Leadership by Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas Such transformative events are called crucibles - a severe test or trial. Crucibles are intense, often traumatic - and always unplanned. ...
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Nine Commitments to a Better 9-to-5 in 2017
Leadership & Culture
Life is funny in that things start to move in a complementary direction once you are clear about your goals and take responsibility for overcoming inertia. Essentially, once you get started, it’s ...
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7 for 2017: Resolutions for HR Professional
Leadership & Culture
The dawning of New Year brings a symbolic opportunity to reflect and refocus. The month of January represents a free pass to give voice to what we know can be improved upon ...
Read More Connect for Power
Leadership & Culture
They think you're alright, but they don’t like you. They don’t like you because they don’t FEEL like they can relate to you. Intellectually, they know you’re okay, but there's nothing that ...
Read More 8 Perspectives on Happiness On and Off the Clock
Leadership & Culture
Personal leadership doesn't begin and end at work. Whether you are responsible for guiding others or simply managing yourself, leadership is not a work that merely takes place in the professional realm ...
Read More 5 Key Components of Team Building
Leadership & Culture
As I think about team-building, it is really leadership; and leadership is really about finding ways to motivate your team. I think much of it is captured in Steve Forbes’ point about ...
Read More MOJO: How to Get it, How to Keep It How to Get It Back If You Lose It
Leadership & Culture
by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter When I first started reading this book, I failed to recall that I’d actually attended a workshop lead by Mr. Goldsmith. Several years ago, I attended ...
Read More Rebel within the Lines!
Leadership & Culture
Can you rebel within the lines and have productive and positive relationships with your employer and co-workers? How you do manage not becoming completely stifled or crushed by organization culture so that ...
Read More The Work of Leadership
Leadership & Culture
By Ronald A. Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie This article is included in the Harvard Business Review's 10 Must Reads on leadership. The Work of Leadership makes clear the intersections between itself ...
Read More Influencer: The Power to Change Anything
Leadership & Culture
The book looks at change by evaluating how individual changes are the avenues and mechanisms by which larger systemic changes occur. While many books on change talk about change at the organization ...
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Draw Your Boxes
Leadership & Culture
You teach people how to treat you! Yes, you do, even that person who is mean or rude! There are two types of boundaries that you need to set early on in ...
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Distinguishing yourself from your work
Leadership & Culture
In a society where most working professionals spend so much of their time at work, going to and from work, thinking about work or planning how to leverage their current work to get ...
Read More What Leaders Really Do?
Leadership & Culture
What Leaders Really Do? by John Kotter (featured in On Leadership) Many organizations are over-managed and under led. Management and leadership must balance each other; neither is preferable or better. Companies should ...
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