We’ve all heard stories or perhaps even witnessed leaders who just can’t keep their cool. They may storm through the office, slam a phone down, berate a manager or simply send dozens of nasty emails. This type of behavior is extremely uncomfortable for employees to witness, eats away at organizational culture, breaks down trust, and […]
Leadership Guide for Managing Conflict: Five Conflict-Management Styles
Conflict happens, whether we want it to or not. Most of us have a strong, visceral reaction to conflict, including (but not limited to) fear, avoidance, excitement and/or dread. However, when you boil it down, conflict is just when one person’s wishes and desires are different from another person’s. It’s the emotions that conflict evokes […]
5 Ways to Increase Happiness and Create Positive Change at Work
Have you ever started your “dream” job only to find yourself feeling bored and unmotivated a few months — or even a few weeks — in? As consultants who work extensively in strategic culture and employee development planning, we see this common scenario time and time again: New employees join an organization (small or large) […]
Introvert or Extrovert? There’s a Third Option
“Sensitive fake extrovert.” That’s how Jade Lenier classifies herself. As a performer and public speaker, you’d take her for an extrovert, but in truth, says Lenier, “my extroverted outsides don’t match my introverted insides. Because I do love being around people, but I become overstimulated and overwhelmed by them and must retreat to my own corner of […]
Miscommunication? Belief Language May Be To Blame
Language plays a crucial role in managing teams and empowering people. Not only is unbiased language powerful, so is behavior language. Here are the basic definitions of behaviors versus beliefs: What Are Behaviors? Behaviors are what a person is doing Behaviors can be observed, heard or experienced Behaviors can be measured What are Beliefs? Beliefs describe a person’s internal judgments about […]
Paradox of Leadership: How Do You Cultivate Diversity of Thought AND Hold People Accountable?
I recently had the honor of speaking with three other exceptional speakers in LA at the gorgeous Terranea resort. Since our four sessions were running concurrently, we couldn’t see each other present, so I made a point of meeting each one of them before the presentations started. As one of the speakers was prepping his […]
Watch Your Mouth: Decoding the Language of Unconscious Bias at Work
Oh Boy, Here She Goes Again How many times have you been in a mixed gender group and the leader says something like: “Ok, you guys. It’s time to get down to work.” “Oh, man, this is going to be a challenge.” “Oh brother, I can’t believe this just happened in that meeting.” Man, guys, […]
How Does Frequent Firing Affect Organizational Culture?
Refresh your news feed and you’ll see that someone else on the national stage was fired. So let’s take a closer look at this phenomenon. How does frequent firing affect organizational culture? Is there a better option? And if not, is there a way to fire someone while maintaining their dignity? The Cost of Firing […]
Get a Grip on Employee Conflict
A client recently asked me to help him resolve some staff conflicts within his marketing team. At the surface, it looked like the staff were insubordinate, reactive, and uncooperative. However, after some discussions with all of the staff, it became clear that the real issue was GRPI (pronounced grip-i), not insubordination. Is GRPI a rare […]
Seven Practical Tips For Increasing Empathy
We have something in common with rats that may surprise you. Those scurrying little (sometimes large) rodents ruling garbage cans across the world are actually capable of empathy, just like humans. Many species display empathy in some form or another, but primates—especially us humans—have a more sophisticated capacity for empathy due to our large working […]
