Communication

SmartBlog on Leadership – Can Your Team Say No?

May 17, 2012

    Twice a month, Lead Change Group authors write a blog post on the SmartBlog on Leadership site. Today it’s my turn with a post called How to Get Your Team to Speak Up. It’s based on my observation that many team leaders create a culture where saying “no” is unacceptable, thereby causing their team [...]

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May Leadership Development Carnival by Dan McCarthy

May 7, 2012

Dan McCarthy, founder of the blog Great Leadership and host of the monthly Leadership Development Carnival keeps it simple this month and offers us a straight-forward carnival. No theme– just 27 excellent essays on leadership. Speaking of keeping it simple, you can see my carnival entry titled The KISS Model of Leadership Development. Other interesting [...]

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Killing Flies with Honey- How to Turn a Frustrating Colleague into an Asset

May 1, 2012

 A guest post by Chris Wallace It’s a tough lesson to grasp when you’re 8-years-old, but sometime during the road to adulthood I finally understood my grandmother’s favorite maxim — “You kill more flies with honey than with vinegar.” This wise saying couldn’t be more true than in an office environment. Even if you’re a generally rosy [...]

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How To Gain Buy-In From Your Team

March 28, 2012

Last fall, I chaperoned a group of second-graders on a field trip to the ArtPrize exhibition in downtown Grand Rapids. Picture this: ten 8-year-olds, excitedly dashing around parks and gardens, in and out of exhibition buildings. They were so excited to experience the art displayed throughout our city. Naturally, their first impulse was to run. And [...]

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7 Things Employees Want to Know In a Department Reshuffle

February 28, 2012

Overheard at a lunchtime conversation in the company cafeteria: Employee: “That sure was a big announcement by the CEO this morning. They’re really moving the boxes on the org chart this time. What’s your reaction? Mid-level manager: (shrugging shoulders, sounding nonchalant) “Meh. I’ve been around this place for a long time. It’s just same monkeys, [...]

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Don’t Kill Productive Meetings by Dragging Them Out

January 20, 2012

My friend Sally works for a company that holds monthly small-group “open forum” type meetings for cross-sections of various company departments. The purpose of these meetings is to promote cross-departmental communication.  Each month, leaders from different functions in the company moderate the discussion. In general, Sally enjoys the meetings, except for one aspect: they are [...]

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3 Keys to Keeping a Virtual Open Door Policy

December 9, 2011

Recently I wrote a post about what happens to employees’ brains when they cross the threshold of their workplace door. In a happy coincidence, at about the same time, I was connected to Kyle Lagunas, who wrote an excellent post on his blog about doors and workplaces: how to maintain an “open door policy” when [...]

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What Type of Angry Boss Are You?

September 24, 2011

My kid came home the other day and showed me some artwork that he drew while waiting for his classmates to finish their math tests. He drew a series of random dots, connected them and then created a cartoon out the resulting shape. His first shape resembled an angry person screaming so he labeled it [...]

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Is Faulty Wiring Frying Your Gut-Check?

June 10, 2011

Even the most plugged-in leaders get it wrong sometimes. This fact was driven home to me the other day as I listened in on a phone conference led by a regional manager named Pete who manages a group of customer service teams spread across the northern half of the United States. My purpose in joining the [...]

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Great Speakers Form Authentic Relationships

April 26, 2011

A Book Review of Speak Up! by Heather Stubbs Most books on public speaking emphasize external attributes— projecting one’s voice confidently, maintaining eye contact and telling spellbinding stories. These are all important factors says author Heather Stubbs, but to be a truly powerful speaker, you need to first get your internal house in order.  That’s [...]

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