One of my current clients – I’ll call her Tonya – is struggling with a pattern that I see in many leaders. Tonya is a member of the executive leadership team of her organization, and she has too much on her plate, more than is humanly possible to achieve in the hours available to her.…
Last year, I worked with a client who was smart, ambitious, and very committed to doing the best work possible. I’ll call him Sam. As an individual contributor in the financial services industry, Sam had always worked hard and shown initiative, and he had risen quickly in his organization. At the time we worked together,…
Who are you, as a leader? The first way most of us typically answer the question “who are you?” is with information, from our own perspective. If you and I met at a professional event somewhere and fell into conversation, that’s probably where you would start, too. You’d tell me your name, where you work,…
Let me tell you about the morning I had today. One of our cats has diarrhea, and I cleaned up after her four times before 9:30. The other cat caught and killed a cardinal, despite the fancy collar that I had fitted around his neck just last week that is supposed to make it easier…
About a month ago, I had a conversation with a client that I’ve been thinking about ever since. I had asked her to watch Amy Cuddy’s TED talk on how our body language and physical postures shape how we think and feel about ourselves. In her research, Cuddy demonstrates that open, powerful physical poses affect…
I was at a conference the other day and saw a brief video that demonstrated something called the McGurk effect. I had never heard of this phenomenon, and found it fascinating. The presenter asked half the room – myself included – to close our eyes, and played 4 seconds of video which the other half…
I have been thinking about one of the most common phrases associated with teams: “team building.” I don’t know about you, but I have an automatic, skeptical response when I hear that phrase. Some of that comes from too many experiences of team building activities that fail to engage teams in their real challenges. These…
In honor of the New Year, this post offers some fun and inspiring examples of teamwork, and ideas that can inform your thinking about teams and how to build environments where they can flourish. So go get yourself a cup of coffee or tea, and then enjoy a few minutes of rest from the daily…