Every team has a conflict culture. Only one of three types is healthy: here’s how to spot avoidance, battle, and debate cultures in yours.

The Expensive Problem Hiding in Your Leadership Team’s Politeness Your leadership team probably gets along fine. They’re smart, experienced, committed. They may even like each other. And they may be costing your company millions by being too polite to fight about what actually matters. Or maybe they’re having the same argument over and over again […]

You want to motivate employees to take risks — and you’re not aware of what all feels like a risk to them.

Is Your Strategic Plan Fighting Human Nature? Ask Yourself:• Is your team exhausted but can’t slow down? • Is an us-vs-them mentality killing your culture? • Do people resist change despite knowing it’s necessary? • Do you need results NOW but your people need a break? If you answered yes to any of these, your […]

Trust-based leadership is trickier, more important, and simpler than people acknowledge. My fear of loss sabotages my dreams for me and my company. And so does yours. Maybe you’ve read Stephen M.R. Covey‘s book, The Speed of Trust. Its thesis is that as trust goes up, the speed of business goes up and the cost […]

Have you decided that it is (or that it may be) time to fire someone? There’s no best way. Firing people sucks. Dark topic… I hope to shed some light. And to mix a metaphor, this article will give you the key — heck, 7 keys — to the least worst way to go about […]

“You’re nice,” is a compliment. Many of us would like to be seen as nice. Truth is… Nice isn’t necessarily good. Nice at work — and in so many other areas of our lives — can be destructive. And now you’re probably as tired of the word “nice” as I am. Good. Maybe you’ll stop […]

Recruiting effectiveness is a competitive advantage. Maybe it’ll be your competitive advantage over your competitors. Maybe it’ll be their competitive advantage over you. Up to you. And in a tight labor market like this, the field of competitors is spread — the best are further ahead than even the next best. In this season of The […]

Unemployment… 3.5%. Burnout percentage, unknown. Open seats you may be having trouble filling. When it comes to their teams, one of the top concerns we’re hearing from business leaders is burnout. “My team’s burning out. I’m burning out. I can’t afford for the people I have to burn out.” The conventional wisdom is that to […]

Leaders — even the best among us — are only human. And as such, we’ve all got blind spots that harm company culture. Blind spots lead our best laid plans to backfire. We intend well. We don’t see clearly. We stumble and blunder into obstacles we cannot perceive, and wonder how we got all these […]

What do your company and diapers have in common? They’ve got to be changed regularly. It’s not your fault. You’re not doing anything wrong. Your company (unlike diapers) isn’t full of crap. Rather, we live in a changing world and you’ve got changing goals, and so what got you to the present you’re in won’t […]

A Riddle That’s Not Funny When is a job requirement not a job requirement? This may be a riddle, but it’s no joke. When there are no consequences for consistently missing a job requirement, then it is by definition NOT a job requirement. It’s an item on the employer’s wish list. When a leader says, […]