Years ago, when I was first entering the world of full time management, some words of advice were given to me that recently resurfaced in a client conversation: don't handle the food. The conversation all those years back was about establishing myself as a leader (at a young age) and that no matter how easy it might [...]

Worst sentence starter ever! And how often does it start your sentences? I’m returning from my annual adventures at the USA Volleyball Adult National Championships where I competed with a new group of women. I begin training my body in January, because when the tournament becomes the most challenging (in the medal rounds), I want [...]

Duty or desire…I’m not sure this is the spectrum.  And, the more I read about employee engagement the more I wonder about it. Couple that with the complexity of character strength and personal values and the pieces of the puzzle grow. Do you operate from duty or desire? When you show up at your place [...]

Springtime has sprung, and the zoo is filled with babies. I love the zoo, and all the ways animal behavior and human behavior aren’t that far apart. Recently I walked through the elephant exhibit and noticed how fascinated we are with elephants pooping. Yes, I said it. Elephants consume between 100 and 125 pounds of [...]

In our recent Leaders’ Lab, the conversation was about succession planning. It's a complex topic that often becomes specific to the execution process for knowledge and client transfer. We discussed the very tactical approach of introducing new people into client relationships and educating future leaders about organizational knowledge. It’s premature to get so tactical, like [...]

Goal: a pair of posts linked by a crossbar; the object of a person’s ambition. Recently the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl for a sixth time, an incredible feat for any sport! The path to that championship began the day after the last season concluded, as the players decided how they would dedicate [...]

From the steady stream of paperwork, constant interruptions and the onslaught of emails, finding the time to keep an organized workspace can be very challenging. Even more than that, if there isn’t a simple and efficient system to manage papers, emails and other productivity tasks, work performance can suffer and businesses can be negatively impacted. [...]

It’s the holiday season again and there are many things happening anew that are a-old. Thinking about your year-end chaos and how listening creates impact is something I wrote about a few years back. As we look around us now, so much has changed in our world. And, although time is still ticking at the same pace, [...]

Are you someone who sets goals? Written goals? According to this Forbes article, those with written goals are more likely to accomplish them. Yet many of us don’t have goals at all. How do you start? Most of us have heard of SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-measurable) as the recommended way to construct goals. I [...]

I was engaged in conversation with a new manager who was frustrated with his team. "I don't get it. I give them all the room in the world to innovate their roles, to complete their assignments. Yet they come back to me with everything. I know the last manager wanted to see everything before it [...]