Keys to Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace
Some teams are more open and creative than others, and they help organizations thrive. In these teams, people share ideas freely, collaborate easily, and support each other’s successes and struggles. Do you have a team or an organization like this? The recipe for a magical team is made with a few main ingredients, and one […]
Ban the Phrase: ” I’m Sorry You Feel That Way”
Here’s a scenario that happens to almost everyone at some point: You need to have a difficult conversation at work, and it’s not easy to speak up. But you do it anyway. “I thought that I was going to be part of that meeting, and I felt left out when I didn’t get the invitation.” […]
Giving Priority To Your Values
One of the best ways to make a decision you won’t regret is to make sure that you are making it in line with your own values. What is most important to you? The list of values is long: bravery, humility, honesty, justice, love of family, freedom, strength, discipline, kindness, equality, creativity, peace, generosity, achievement, […]
How to Find Your Why
One of the keys to understanding who we are is to understand why we do what we do. What is your why? I have many clients interested in answering this question. The more we’ve worked together, and the more I’ve worked on my own “why,” the more I see that this question is difficult to […]
Managing the Transition Season
The end of summer—officially the fall equinox on Sept 22, but, unofficially, for many of us, by late August—is a time of transition. The weather is changing, the light ebbing (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least), the harvest coming in, kids returning to school. At work, people return from summer vacations and budgets are often […]
We don’t offer enough validation at work. We should.
Everyone needs validation. I see this in all areas of life, particularly in organizations, where leaders often express a hunger for more recognition and appreciation than they get. Of course, it’s not healthy to be addicted to validation from others; to yearn for praise and feel unworthy when you aren’t showered with it. If you […]
Research on Leading With Generosity
I think of summer as a generous time of year: the sun is beaming, farmer’s markets are overflowing with ripe produce, and leafy trees are offering up their shade. Generosity is an important human quality, and it is becoming recognized as an important leadership trait that can benefit organizations and the individual. Adam Grant, Wharton […]
The Importance of the Intangible
“The intangible represents the real power of the universe. It is the seed of the tangible” -Bruce Lee What is the intangible? It is what we can’t touch or measure. (The word “tangible” comes from the Latin word, “tangere,” to touch). And yet I believe that the intangibles in relationships, including business relationships, matter more than […]
Are You Interesting or Interested?
I found some great Memorial Day weekend reading in this month’s Harvard Business Review, and as I travel this weekend I’ll be thinking more about one article in particular, The Surprising Power of Questions by Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John. The authors break the issue of questioning down to two main problems: “Most of us […]
Spotting Hidden Talents in the Workplace
People love superhero stories in part because we all wish we had special powers beyond the ordinary. Yet every day we overlook or undervalue special talents in ourselves and others that are as useful in our lives as X-ray vision or super strength. In an article in the Harvard Business Review, “Why Talented People Don’t Use […]