It is traditional at this time of year to reflect on the events and actions of the previous twelve months. As this year comes to a close, what I find most striking is the unbelievable vitriol that has infected interpersonal relationships. It seems to have become impossible to discuss even… Read More »How Dare You Disagree
Photo by Freepik Shortly after arriving in the new organization, I asked why we were doing certain tasks that didn’t seem to make sense. This was my first job as an airplane mechanic. I was very young, impressionable, and quite curious so I was disappointed when another mechanic told me… Read More »Don’t Raise Mushrooms
Photo by Freepix A Story About Joe, Jane, and their Teams Joe and Jane both led divisions in a large company that were roughly equal in size and responsibility. The company had recently implemented some changes that were unpopular and disruptive to both divisions. Joe was having a lot of… Read More »How to Make Change a Little Easier
Image by Freepik It’s often a difficult concept for leaders to grasp – this idea of accountability. What does accountability mean for a leader? Accountability and responsibility are often used synonymously, but there is a subtle, yet critical difference. You are responsible for accomplishing assignments, living within corporate values, or… Read More »How to Create a Culture of Accountability in the Workplace
Many leaders I’ve worked with lead remote teams. Although remote teams became the norm during the covid years, even before then it was becoming very common for teams to be geographically separated across the country and around the world. And even with today’s advanced technology, communicating with remote teams still… Read More »How to Collaborate Effectively if Your Team is Remote
In the military the acronym GOBI means General Officer Bright Idea and is a usually disparaging term for directed change. Equate General Office to the most senior executives in your company. They usually have many years of experience that leads them to believe that a new direction is a good… Read More »Leadership in Change Management – Part 2
What makes a good leader? There are countless books that claim to answer that question. In fact, by my rough estimate, if you laid all the leadership books end-to-end they would stretch for more than 35 miles. I’ve been fortunate to work for and with some very good leaders who… Read More »How to be a Bad Leader
Many leaders are leading matrixed teams. Most if not all their team members are from other parts of the company and not in the leader’s reporting chain. Often this arrangement results in the team leader feeling they don’t have real leadership authority. Although it’s true that a matrixed team leader… Read More »Leading a Matrixed Team
Whether you’re a new leader, or just moving to a new leadership position, you’ll probably approach your new job with at least a little trepidation. That’s natural and you should only be concerned if you don’t feel at least a little uncertainty. Even if you have some leadership experience, never… Read More »Seven Tips for New Leaders (Or anyone who wants to be a better leader)
Yes, if… The short answer is they can be. But it depends on what team building events you employ. You may have heard of the big team building experiences where the whole team treks out to the woods for a few days of camping, rafting, climbing, or whatever. If you… Read More »Are Team Building Events Worthwhile?