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
Chris McQueen, former Google employee, delivered a keynote address on some of the best practices his unit has learned, and I’ll share two of them with you. This week, I’ll offer some thoughts on generating solid team relationships. Next week, we’ll touch on the magic of three particular words. As most of you know, I’m … Read more
I’ve written before about insights from Fred Kofman’s The Meaning Revolution, and I will keep doing so from time to time. It’s full of gold. But one page, one paragraph specifically, made me kinda mad. From page 50: “Study after study concludes that a caring manager is essential to employee engagement. Employees want their managers … Read more
It can be helpful for leaders to use feedback from their teams in order to become more effective. Getting feedback from your team, however, comes with obstacles. One such obstacle is that people are often reluctant to be totally honest with their boss. They may be skeptical or feel like it’s not completely safe. Relationships … Read more
Recently, I worked with a CEO and his immediate team in a very fast environment. We spent time processing thoughts and feelings the whole enterprise was experiencing during current major changes. This is a relatively small business, and the group I worked with comprised of 80% of the company. So, we had a very good … Read more
In leadership development sessions, we spend a lot of time getting curious about what it’s like to be the people who report to us. By definition of how people usually end up in leadership roles, the leader tends to be more capable, better paid, and more secure in their interactions. This dynamic sometimes makes it … Read more
Engagement is the holy grail of productivity. We read articles and books and blog posts about the value of engaged employees and how much more productive they are. We hang on those Gallup statistics: 34% of employees are engaged in their work 13% of employees are actively disengaged in their work The remaining 53% are … Read more
A member of a client team gave me a book as a gift. The book is The Meaning Revolution by Fred Kofman. It’s very good, and I’m likely to write more about its insights in the months to come, but for now, I want to share my new favorite saying: To optimize the system, you … Read more