Is your organization built on a culture of trust? Look around you; there are plenty of clues as to whether trust abounds. How quickly are decisions made? How many people do you copy (or worse, bcc) on e-mails? Do executives check in on the “troops” even when on vacation? Given that 82% of workers don’t…
The Goldilocks Rule and Leadership Strengths
Remember the book Now, Discover Your Strengths? Published in 2001, the book by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton (a pioneer of the “Positive Psychology” movement), this book put the idea of focusing on one’s strengths in the limelight. I support the basic premise – invest in building one’s natural talents rather than focusing solely on…
Deflecting Compliments is Not an Olympic Sport
Have you noticed that some women seem loathe to receive a compliment? It’s almost like one-upping in reverse: who can denigrate themselves the fastest in a conversation? If deflecting compliments was a sport, some women would be Olympic gold medal contenders. Case in point: in a comedy sketch shown on Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer,…
Building Leadership Trust Requires a Leap of Faith
When I was 17 years old, my family moved across the state to a new life. It was the first (and only) time my parents ever moved us. It was a huge deal. Because of all the unknowns – new school, new friends, unfamiliar town, my parents could have decided to tighten the reins on…
Zen of Jen – Put Yourself in Timeout
When our kids were little, Mr. People Equation and I sometimes gave them “timeouts”. One thing we quickly discovered is that effective timeouts weren’t about punishment. Instead, timeouts helped our kids figure out when they had crossed a boundary that wasn’t OK to cross. When the Miller kiddos were very young, the boundaries were very…