A few years ago, I wrote that great teams embrace healthy conflict. Does it hold up? Yes, the “healthy conflict” approach holds up. Teams still suffer from lack of productive conflict and healthy debate. There’s a lot of “sparing feelings,” … Read More
Seven years ago I wrote about what to do when you hit “send” on an email while in an agitated or emotional state, and then immediately regret it: How to Dial Back the Hasty Email Does this still happen? Unfortunately, … Read More
~ Alan Seven years ago I shared the technique of conducting a “Vote One to Five” in situations where you’re short on time but need to check a team’s response to an idea, action item or new direction. You can … Read More
Seven years ago, I wrote about “the two kinds of naysayers” in a post titled: Leaders Know the Two Kinds of Naysayers. I wrote this because I was seeing a lot of leaders miss out on two things: 1) their … Read More
You may have heard me talk in the past — or recently — about The Four Levels of Maturity model. I’ve been talking about it for a long time, because it holds up! In a nutshell: Level 4 is the … Read More
Around this time in 2016, I wrote a post called Production versus Research and Development for Leaders. I think it holds up as a concept, and I have used this analogy hundreds of times since then. The nuance works better than … Read More
Several of my current clients are struggling with anxiety at work. Some are nervous about getting laid off, while others work in vocations that are short-staffed, so they are overworked. So, below is a list of tips for dealing with … Read More
This week, I want to touch on a big role of leaders, which is the importance of getting to know their people. When I was getting my Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, one of the required classes was … Read More
Last week, I gave one of my couples “homework” to complete by their appointment this week. I handed them a piece of paper with a list of fifty or so open-ended questions, and I said, “Ask each other these questions … Read More
Some people push back when you ask them to take a positive approach in their leadership. They equate positivity with being nice, but being kind is deeper than empty hype like, “Good job” or “Nice work” or “Super!” You can’t … Read More