You may have noticed a lack of weekly emails letting you know about a new blog post. Don’t worry; we’re still doing blogs. However, in light of recent events, instead of our normal posts, we thought it would beneficial to go through our Psychology of Change series. This series walks through the Change Curve and … Read more
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
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
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
Last week, I introduced you to Chris McQueen, current Head of Community—Created Content for ServiceNow, former Google employee. This week, I want to share something else from McQueen that I think you’ll find helpful. Any time you cite a problem, turn it into a question that starts with these three words: How Might We… First … Read more