How does your working style inhibit or enhance the company’s development into a modern, nimble, or otherwise agile organization? Companies are pouring money into “digital” transformations, focusing effort and precious company resources at the team, or worker, level. But time after time, the results are not as promised by the big consulting firms. What’s goingContinue reading “Powerful Questions for Leaders, no. 36”

How do you deal with emotions at work Emotions are a natural part of being human. But they are messy, hard to fit into a neat box, and let’s face it, they make us uncomfortable. Some of us try to hide our emotions at work, others use emotional responses as a shield to deflect blame,Continue reading “Powerful Questions for Leaders, no. 35”

What can we do to better support middle managers? Middle managers have the hardest job in the whole company. No, really. They are the conduit between the executives and the workers, constantly balancing the organization’s vision and direction with the tactical needs of the people who do the things that keep the place running. WithoutContinue reading “Powerful Questions for Leaders, no. 34”

How are your employees handling the recent supreme court ruling? It can be uncomfortable to discuss politics, personal health, and other touchy subjects at work. As a leader, you might be thinking, “What if I say the wrong thing” or “I don’t want to offend anyone”. But here’s the thing – by standing on theContinue reading “Powerful Questions for Leaders, no. 33”

How do you demonstrate empathy at work? In Harvard Business Review, Ernest Wilson says, ” … empathy is most lacking among middle managers and senior executives: the very people who need it most because their actions affect such large numbers of people.” The world of work today is much different than it was as recentlyContinue reading “Powerful Questions for Leaders, no. 32”

When you imagine the perfect workplace, what do you see? Josh Bersin did an amazing talk yesterday for hashtag#wbecs22 about what companies need in this age of not only disruption, but also reinvention. His research indicates that the key to success is hiring and retaining the best people. And our ability to hire and retainContinue reading “Powerful Questions for Leaders, no. 31”

How did you handle it the last time you made a mistake at work? Everybody makes mistakes. It’s how we respond to them, both our own and our employees’, that shapes the culture, success, and failure of the organization. It might not feel like it in the moment, but mistakes are a gift. They giveContinue reading “Powerful Questions for Leaders, no. 29”

Loyalty or Integrity – Which is more important to the success of your team, your organization, and you as an individual? In many organizations, loyalty to the company, its shareholders, the president, or the CEO is held up as the ultimate virtue. On the surface, this seems like a solid approach, but what do youContinue reading “Powerful Questions for Leaders, no. 28”

Are you getting what you hoped for out of your OKRs? If not, what does that tell you about your organization? OKRs are a like a trust meter. If trust is thin in the organization, you won’t see aspirational statements or multi-directional “cascading,” and you certainly won’t see innovative solutions and delighted customers. Instead, yourContinue reading “Powerful Questions for Leaders, no. 27”

What are you doing on the daily to make your corner of the world a better place? On the whole, we humans seem to be facing a crisis of sorts. Whether we realize it or not, we have lived through (and are still living with) a trauma. We are emotionally drained, lonely, and more andContinue reading “Powerful Questions for Leaders, no. 26”