Leaders often ask what sort of leadership style is appropriate. Authoritarian or relaxed? Different style for different people or always treat everyone the same? Years ago, Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard published their Situational Leadership model, suggesting a leader should adopt a style that is appropriate to a follower’s ability… Read More »What’s the Best Leadership Style
In workshop discussions concerning conflict management, inevitably the subject of dealing with “toxic” individuals comes up. I maintain that if you have toxic individuals on your team, you normally don’t have a conflict problem, you have a values problem. We’ve talked about workplace culture before but, in my experience, few… Read More »Dealing with Toxic Team Members
Employee engagement is a concept that gets a lot of press these days. Leaders wring their hands about low levels of engagement and experts offer all kinds of actions and formulas that will fix the problem. All that angst isn’t really necessary, as engagement is a pretty simple concept. Few… Read More »I Want to be on That Team
Have you noticed a lack of social civility these days? Everywhere I look it seems people have self-selected into various camps and are not interested in what anyone else has to say. It seems impossible to have a civilized discussion on anything beyond the weather. This situation is affecting young… Read More »Five Ways to Encourage Conflict on Your Team
We want and appreciate comments to this blog. We really do want to know what you’re thinking. But, there are those who see an invite to comment as an opportunity to advertise their products and services. Most annoying are those who want us to use their content generation services. They… Read More »Three Steps to Ease Your Transition to Your New Team
Our leadership students come from many different companies. Most come from companies with great cultures that take an active interest in their employees and develop them into engaged individuals with a vested interest in organizational success. Others…not so much. I’ve had a number of students who, unfortunately, worked in environments… Read More »Stuck in a toxic work culture? Three thoughts on what to do.
My wife gave me a DNA kit for Christmas. It’s pretty simple. You spit into a tube and mail it in. In a few weeks your results come back telling you where your ancestral roots most likely trace. I found that my roots are solidly in the British Isles with… Read More »Know Thy Team: Why Leaders Should Learn Who Their Team Members Really Are
Your teenage daughter walks in to the house after school looking sullen and without her characteristic after school greeting. You ask, “How was school?†“Fine†is the answer. But a few seconds later the slam of a bedroom door indicates to you that everything, indeed, is not fine. The silent treatment continues into dinner despite your efforts to find out what the problem is. Thank goodness at work you get to deal with mature adults where nothing like this ever happens, right? Right.
You’ve noticed that Bill, one of your team members, isn’t his usual self. In fact, it seems like he is being downright rude. He’s doing the work, mostly, but he’s not being as punctual and you are finding more than the usual number of errors in his stuff. He also has been kind of sarcastic in meetings. Not to the point of open insubordination, but still, it’s getting annoying. You finally ask, “Bill, everything OK?†“It’s fine.†Sound familiar?Read More »That cold shoulder just might be feedback…Are you listening?
Hope is not a strategy. You’ve probably heard that before and it’s certainly true. We can’t hope success into existence. Hoping will not accomplish goals. Hoping bills get paid doesn’t pay the bills. Those accomplishments require positive action. To be successful, we must actually do something. Hope is not a… Read More »Hope is Not a Strategy: But it is Important
The change of command was over and as the new commander I would soon be meeting my new staff. Truth was, I had been the operations officer, the second-in-command, and knew the staff fairly well. I also knew that I was inheriting what I was certain was the worst secretary… Read More »What does a leader do when stuck with a poor performer?