I work with a lot of teams, and I’ll be honest — people usually don’t call me in because things are going well. Which means, in my work, I see a lot of dysfunction. And in my experience, dysfunction is so very often caused by one of two things: 1) Broken...

One of my clients decided to try meditating recently. I have to admit, I’m not a meditator — not because I haven’t tried, however. I have. But it’s frickin HARD! It’s one of those tricky things that seems like it should be easy — but trust me, it’s not. What’s more,...

A few things we’ve been talking about — building a culture with our team, having tough conversations, clarifying terms and decisions — all of it is uncomfortable, I know. All of it is difficult. If you don’t think so, I’m sorry, but you’re likely kidding yourself....

Has this ever happened to you?  You make a decision as a team. You think you have all decided together. Then, you go about your day, and you notice — not everyone is following through with that decision. They’re sitting at their desks doing something else, not doing...

I know someone who recently left an incredibly toxic work environment. It was a long time coming — he really did his best to stick it out, to try and make it work, to do his part — but nothing was enough, because, as my dad used to say, “You can’t make chicken soup...

Imagine if your whole team agreed with you, all the time, about everything. Sounds pretty sweet, right? Too bad that’s about as realistic as certain bacon producing farm animals sprouting wings. If that were the case, there would be no need whatsoever for leadership...

In a recent past post, we talked about how we typically form culture by accident rather than design. Which is important, to be sure. But it also begs the question: When it comes to culture, what do we have the right to define, as leaders?  A client of mine had a...

Have you ever had one of those bosses whose actions and words are out of alignment? Where they talk about collaboration and pretend to solicit your feedback, but you know full well they have no intention of ever taking it? I have several clients facing that very...

If you're a new leader, joining a new team -- or you think you might be doing that some day -- have you thought about your entrance strategy?  Every new boss, manager, CEO, and everything in between, has an entrance strategy -- even if they're not consciously aware of...

Have you ever noticed that in business, we have strategies for everything — everything, that is, except people? Think about it. Most leaders will sit down and thoughtfully design all kinds of strategies with their team: goals, growth, skillset, compensation...