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 […]

People Analytics: How Managers And Organizations Can Leverage Their Employee Data

Today we’ll be exploring Data and People Analytics, topics you may have heard of before but may not know exactly what they are or how they can benefit your organization. Even if you’re not already a data scientist, we’ll introduce you to these skills and show how you can start leveraging the data that your […]

Leadership Lessons from the Kitchen: How to Prevent Difficult Communication from Burning Your Fingers

I would never have guessed at the time but leaving the Ivy League to go to culinary school gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about leadership. I recently shared four of the lessons I learned as a chef and the response was overwhelming. Since my lessons seem to have hit a nerve, I thought I’d […]

Why Communication Fails and How to Fix it: The Perception Gap

Despite your best efforts, there’s a very good chance that your communication is being perceived and processed in a way you did not intend. The disconnect between what is meant to be communicated and what is actually understood is known as a Perception Gap. In this two part series, I will talk about Perception Gaps, […]

Diversity Officers Must Have These Four Qualities

Google, known for having its finger on the pulse of the future, has an employee base that is only 2% black and 3% Hispanic. Apple, also known for building our future, has an employee base that is 70% male. These indisputable stats show that ethnic, racial and gender imbalances are prominent in the U.S., despite […]