Early in my career, empathy was my ace-in-the-hole management technique. I was all business when it came to helping my team on technical, process and performance issues, but if they had an emotional reaction or issue, I reverted to empathy because it was the easy thing to do. I learned that when I...
Dana Theus
3 Things My Dog Reminded Me About Employee Performance and Employee Engagement
I rescued a pup last Fall. His name is Loki and he's a Pomeranian and something-or-other mix. One thing I didn't know about a rescue dog is that they've often been traumatized (e.g., abusive owners, time on the streets etc.) and it takes a while for their real personalities to become apparent....
Cultural Change: An Update on Workforce Diversity
As I’ve begun to explore the interpersonal dynamics of workplace discrimination more closely, I have gone back to update my own understanding of workforce diversity data and what it tells us about the the demographic makeup of the modern workforce. I have been disappointed to find that the racial...
Dear Dana Workplace Advice: Career Planning in the Age of Digital Disruption
Welcome to “Dear Dana”, our regular column to give you career and workplace advice/coaching. Please write in and tell me about a career challenge or frustration you’re facing at the office! Today's topic is career planning! – Dana Theus Dear Dana: You wrote a post about how white collar workers...
Can Empathy Help You Overcome Bias?
Almost everyone deals with bias, and there are many strategies to deal with it, but we love Dana and Kate’s takes on InPowered strategies for confronting bias with empathy and humility. Enjoy a not-so-obvious-but-very-effective strategy to deal with awkward and unfair situations you find yourself...
Change Leadership: Maximizing your ROL (Return on Luck)
Sure, sometimes you’re the lucky recipient of spontaneous innovation, but according to business gurus, consistently good innovators actually have strategies for leveraging luck (the good and the bad) when it trips across their paths. In “Great by Choice” Jim Collins and Morten Hansen have...
Dear Dana Workplace Advice: Self Care for Leaders During Layoffs
Welcome to “Dear Dana”, our weekly column to give you career and workplace advice/coaching. Please write in and tell me about a career challenge or frustration you’re facing at the office! – Dana Theus Dear Dana, I am uncomfortable even writing about this but my company is going through...
Is Thought Leadership the Same as Change Leadership?
There are so many ways to “lead” that sometimes we get confused trying to distinguish them all. At the end of the day, it may not matter as long as leadership happens. But what are you really good at? What kind of leadership can you become more intentional about? What kind of leadership can you...
3 Ways Emotional Intelligence Can Cure the Toxic Boss
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is the cure for the Toxic Boss. But of course, it’s not quite that easy. S/he’s a boss, after all! Sadly, this cure does not come in the form of pill, either. Toxic bosses are a disease in the workplace and corporate culture more broadly. Like most diseases toxicity has...
Leadership Perspective: Are Traditional Measures of Workforce Diversity Outdated?
Despite being the #1 recruiting trend for 2018 for businesses, and despite decades of trying to improve workforce diversity demographics in the workplace, the commercial sector has made little progress. I believe this supports the theory that homogeneous workplaces are more the result of...