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...
Mentorship is an important part of any leadership development program. But should you formalize something that is often most powerful in its informal state? Having participated in and supported many different styles of mentorship program over the course of my career I believe the answer is often...
Efforts to increase diversity in our workplaces has been dismally slow over the last few decades, despite business initiatives, research and even expansions of the very definition of diversity. Like many, I find this frustrating. I find it especially frustrating that in light of #metoo, the public...
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...
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...
Many women are praised for having an intuitive handle on empowering those who work for them. Whether women are naturally good at this skill or not, true empowerment is the most challenging leadership style to master. Last month I read a book, Turn the Ship Around, that I think really nails the...
Key Takeaways Psychological safety fuels team intelligence: When team members feel safe to share without fear of judgment, everyone contributes, boosting the team's overall problem-solving and innovation capabilities. Creating safety is an active leadership role: Leaders can foster psychological...
Mentoring is often thought of to help younger employees develop by passing on the wisdom of more experienced leaders. And it is! But that model ignores all the wisdom that many people have to give those of us who sit in leadership positions. And there is a lot that early career employees have to...
In the early 1980’s Robert Levering, a journalist, and his writing partner Milt Moskowitz set out on a three-year tour to travel the United States. They interviewed employees across the country to find out what made for a really good work environment. They asked two questions: “What makes this a...
In executive coaching (both women and men) I’ve often observed that two parallel stories about women and men in the workplace often coexist. First, “women and men communicate differently” is a truth that few bother to deny. Second, “men and women are treated equally in the workplace.” To me, it’s...
