If you were in charge of your corporate culture and knew it needed fixing, would you fix it? Certainly anyone in charge of change management would want to say yes to this question, but as anyone who is actually in charge of corporate culture knows, it’s harder than it looks. I like to think of...
Guest Author
The Art of Influence: Lesson 2 – Listening & Communication Skills
We hear "be a good listener" a lot, but how does listening help you develop your communication skills? How do you DO it anyway? We really enjoyed Mary's practical advice for how to lead more effectively by listening and communicating more clearly. - InPower Editors Being a great listener isn’t...
5 Steps to Taming Your Emotional Triggers
We welcome Dr. Marcia Reynolds back to the site to provide insight into ways of understanding and releasing your emotional triggers. Learn about Marcia's book, The Discomfort Zone and how to turn discomfort into a leadership asset. – InPower Editors How to Tame Your Emotional Triggers No...
How to Give Feedback by Asking Questions
Managers can read books, get trained, practice and plan, and still your employee may toss you something you don't anticipate. But you can handle it. The key is asking good questions and really listening. When you give feedback, you are a role model. They will eventually hear you in their head, and...
Leadership Through Conversations
Sometimes the simple things are the most powerful. How often do you simply talk to the people you work with? How often are you human with them and invite their humanity out? John reminds us why leadership conversations are so important. - InPower Editors Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of...
INSIGHT: Vision vs. Reality
How much energy do you spend trying to push back reality? Many of us deplete ourselves unconsciously by fighting reality with vision, and then we wonder why the heck we’re so tired. What insight can we draw from this cycle? I know I can fall into this pit, even with the most noble of goals: to...
Leadership and Power
What is power? It turns out that power means different things to different people, and really is only tangentially related to actual leadership, but in almost all cases power is related to the use of resources and the ability to change the world. The typical definitions of power that I have picked up in having this discussion online over the last few months are all related to “external” power and the manipulation of resources and circumstances outside ourselves. Yet two kinds of “internal” power are at least as important. Not all those in power are leaders, but all true leaders have power.
Leadership Haiku: Why Do They Follow You?
By: Mary Schaefer “I see you ahead of me. You see me behind. Where are we going today?” Whether you subscribe to the notion of leaders having “followers” or not, let’s consider this: What do others trust your leadership, i.e. why do they literally follow your lead? Someone has to be first. ...
Moving From Managing To Leading: Building Your Authentic Leadership Style
Fun! I recently found this video I made for an online program I ran in 2012. And another one on the same topic (targeting women) in 2023. I still stand by everything I said in both of them! Hopefully there are some gems here for you! The higher you go, the harder it is to advance because you’re in...
When You’re In Power, Are Those Around You Threatened?
Sometimes when we begin to refine our understanding of power, and consciously work to bring more of our own power to the fore in our lives, it creates discomfort with – or for – those close to us, including colleagues, employees, friends and even spouses and children. If others have become used to you giving your power away, when you take it back this can surprise them, and sometimes even threaten them. This can be true when you are granted external power as well, and those around you are not used to the new level of responsibility you now shoulder. As I launch into the Take Back Your Power series of blog posts I think it’s important to acknowledge this dynamic and prepare for how to handle these situations.








