How To Give Better Criticism – and Take it Better from Others

In a terrific article by Arthur C. Brooks for The Atlantic, he talks about how we humans love to criticize but hate to receive criticism. In other words, we love to dish it out, but can’t stomach receiving it. I believe that’s why internet forums are so popular and so toxic; we can hide behind … Continue reading How To Give Better Criticism – and Take it Better from Others

Lead Like a Bird

Writing for Inc. Magazine online, workforce performance expert Henna Pryor made up a term that is not only poetic, but useful for any leader. She says “birdsong leadership” is a way to make your employees feel safer and become more productive. She writes, “I was listening to the birds on my back porch last week … Continue reading Lead Like a Bird

Coach in Quiet Moments

This is a reprint one of my posts inspired by Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. I felt inspired to share it again, just in case you (or someone you love) might be stuck in a behavior patter that’s not serving them right now.   In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg discusses how important feedback has been to … Continue reading Coach in Quiet Moments

How to Get Better at Anything

Performance = Potential – Interference In her book Naked at Work: A Leader’s Guide to Fearless Authenticity, Danessa Knaupp tells the story of Tim Gallwey, who authored The Inner Game of Tennis in the 1970s. Gallwey claimed he could teach anyone to play competitive tennis in less than an hour, and managed to prove his … Continue reading How to Get Better at Anything

Let’s Eliminate Employee Probation

“Probation” has a couple of meanings, including one from our criminal justice system. Its technical definition is “the release of an offender from detention, subject to a period of good behavior under supervision.” We also use it for newly hired employees, making their first few months feel like a presumption of incompetence until proven otherwise.

Charisma on Command: Building Conviction

[Charismatic people] are simply displaying conviction through every physical method possible.  Eye contact, tonality, flinching, muscle tension, breathing and myriads more.  They are so minute that we don’t consciously pick up on them as an observer.  But our subconscious processes them all and provides us with a feeling: “He’s lying,” or “He’s telling the truth.””

Sympathy Won’t Help You

Brené Brown is a researcher who has specialized in studying shame for most of her career. Her recent book, I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t): Making the Journey from “What Will People Think?” to “I Am Enough” covers the topic of shame and how to develop resilience. She writes about how empathy … Continue reading Sympathy Won’t Help You