At the heart of people-oriented leadership lies humility. We don’t ever arrive! To be effective as leaders, we need to be growing and learning continuously. With all our responsibilities, it’s easy to forget to work on our own development. It is common for many of us to focus on production, profit, and the worthy goal of developing employees, but these … Read More

The ways in which leaders do or do not deal with problem behaviors have lasting impacts on their workplace cultures. Leaders must learn to respond quickly and thoughtfully to problem behaviors as they arise. When they do this well, they convey a spirit of care and accountability to the rest of the team and reinforce healthy workplace culture. Unfortunately, even … Read More

Whether you lead a team, division, or department, decisions about what to start, stop, or continue doing should be driven by something more than a “gut feeling.” Decisions based on evidence, including the right data (and the right interpretation of that data) will always outperform intuition over the long haul. However, this maxim comes with a caveat! Data-driven decision-making and … Read More

The annual performance review is probably one of the most hated of all business practices. One study highlighted in Fast Company reported that 69% of all millennials (who comprise the largest segment of the work force) think performance reviews are drastically flawed. Many stated that their experience with performance evaluations had a negative impact on them and caused a range … Read More

[Excerpt from The Ordinary Leader] As children, my siblings and I never had a shortage of ideas, and many of them were actually implemented in some form or another.  If an idea didn’t pan out, we would move on to the next one.  Being curious and creative was natural for us.  If we had an idea, we would pursue it.  … Read More

Young Leaders Must Be Intentional about Influence At a recent leadership workshop I was facilitating, a young leader approached me at the break with a big question: “I just got promoted to a new position at work,” she said, “and I’m younger than most of the people I’m supposed to lead. What’s your advice for leading people who are older … Read More

I became an entrepreneur 20 years ago. I was 30 years old at the time and had recently left my career as a medical social worker in order to follow my dream of moving to an island. That move forced me to start my own business. I had both an expertise and a passion for self-care and burnout prevention within … Read More

[Excerpt from The Culture Question] Some managers are like the person who tells their partner, “I said ‘I love you’ when we first got together, and I’ll let you know if anything changes.” The underlying belief here is that no news is good news. Despite the fact that, for leaders, no news often is good news, some employees fill the … Read More

Those who find themselves taking up the mantle of leadership would do well to Google “leader scandal” as a sobering reminder. It seems that hardly a day passes when there isn’t another story of a leader brought to their knees because of words, deeds, or deals dragged out from the shadows. These transgressions are then amplified, accelerated, and publicly shredded … Read More

[Excerpt from The Culture Question] Early in my career, I, Randy, worked for a manager who clearly embodied an “old-school” management style. He was full of bravado and purposely intimidating. He was a terrible listener and would frequently yell in an effort to get his desired results. Initially, it was exciting to be around him. I felt an intoxicating energy … Read More