One of the biggest obstacles to team performance is when people don’t communicate.  Usually people don’t communicate because a) they’re afraid of hurting someone’s feelings (or otherwise wounding them) or b) they’re afraid that if they were completely open and honest t...

The Bottom Line: We complain when we don’t feel like our leaders are empowering us, but we either don’t realize or don’t remember that leaders are most empowering when the people accountable to them empower up.  

I was having lunch with a friend a couple of weeks a...

This article nearly made my head explode.  Here’s the nickel version: David Graeber, an Anthropologist at the London School of Economics, asserts that many, many jobs people do today are “bullshit.” (I’m going to try and minimize the swearing here).  He says such a jo...

If you pick up a book on organizational design that was written in the last 15 years or so, it’s almost a certainty that the author is going to tell you two of the most important things you can do as a leader are:

1. Define your organizational values. 

2. Find people...

 Photo by Benjamin J. DeLong

I was having a conversation with the VP of HR of a very successful company that has a very strong culture.  One reason he gave for that was they are able to balance being kind while maintaining accountability.  I had to think about this, and...

II'm testing this approach with a client right now.  My invitation to you is to start testing it as well.  The data aren't in, but given what I know about people, it should work.  Don’t worry; it’s easy. 

If you’re a business leader and your business is i...

Every year Gallup releases their “State of the American Workforce Report,” and every year it shows approximately the same thing:  about a 1/3 of the workforce is committed to and enthusiastic about their job, about half are doing what it takes to get by, and the rest a...

I was recently in talks with a prospective client about how my company might help them with employee engagement. They’re in the health care industry, and the company operates a number of provider locations, each of which essentially provides the same service.  I was br...

I just got back from a round table discussion where the topic was “Training on a Budget.”  It should have been called “Training without taking any time.”  By far, the primary concern of the executives in the room wasn’t what training was going cost; they all had money...

When I tell people I’m a behavioral psychologist, there’s always a subset of the population that assumes I must know a lot about personality assessments like the DiSC, or the Meyers Briggs.  And usually, the people who make that assumption are BIG FANS of personality a...