My mission: To make the world a better place, and choose a line of work that makes that happen. I do what I do for a living because when people have a better day at work, there is a positive ripple effect on the lives around them. And, when business is more productive, that’s good … Read more
I did some impromptu soul-searching recently when Drew McLellan posted this prompt on social media: “I got a note…from a 17-year-old entrepreneur from Scotland, asking me what I wish 17-year-old entrepreneur me had known. “I am certainly going to offer him my advice, but I’d like to share yours as well. “What would you want … Read more
A client, Ajit, turned me on to a great resource for understanding logical fallacies. I had been talking about biases and fallacies recently, an area that has interested me ever since my friend Nick loaned me the most accessible book I’ve seen on the subject, You are not so Smart by David McRaney. In my … Read more
In Westernized societies, we have quite the bias toward extraversion, and this can hurt organizations. My assistant (an introvert) and I (an extravert) recently had a conversation about extraversion bias we thought we’d share with you. Extraversion and Leadership DeAnne: It’s interesting to me how, during a session when you ask people about the qualities … Read more
You’ve read a lot on this blog about feedback and how to give it. I’ve often reiterated how the old “compliment sandwich” is tired, transparent, and holds the possibility of backfiring. First, let’s review what a compliment sandwich is and isn’t. The compliment sandwich is an attempt to give tough feedback between two bits of … Read more
In a recent team-development session, we made some important growth happen. Growing as a team isn’t arbitrary, and it doesn’t happen without real, hard work. And it especially doesn’t happen when the team lacks vulnerability-based trust. As with building trust in any type of relationship, trust doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, building trust is a … Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I was challenged to provide five minutes of content that would make a difference for leaders. Because of the power of questions, I decided to come up with three questions that are easy to explain but would have a lot of power. Here’s what I presented: Leaders move fast and … Read more
In The Effective Manager, Mark Horstman shares data on the value on one-on-ones. In their research, which has been replicated multiple times, they found that results and retention improve by about 10% when managers implement weekly one-on-ones. Another finding is that managers who are consistent with one-on-ones with their people tend to get promoted at … Read more
I was re-reading the outstanding Flawless Consulting by Peter Block and appreciated how he outlined the issues underlying phrases like: “These people” OR “Those people” (followed by) “don’t understand” OR “need to understand.” WHAT THESE PEOPLE DON’T UNDERSTAND… So, what’s wrong with this? It separates the leader from the people they lead, diminishes a leader’s … Read more
Rubrics are such a nice way to organize and prioritize. But I’ve changed my mind about one thing since I wrote the first blog post on rubrics over four years ago. Now, I like a four-point rubric for most decision-making and prioritizing, instead of a 3-or- 5 point rubric. For my purposes, it usually looks … Read more