The Board’s Role in Strengthening Trust During Leadership Succession
Effective boards recognize they have only one employee. When a Board focuses on its governance role, it delegates operational responsibility to the organization’s CEO or Executive Director (or whatever the first-chair title is). When a Board prudently trusts its CEO/ED, overall efficacy increases. When trust erodes, something eventually fails that then becomes extremely difficult, if not […]
Succession Planning and the Organizational Life Cycle
The motion of a swinging pendulum can be fascinating to watch. If designed to do so, a swinging pendulum can create beautiful, symmetrical designs of calm and order. However, a swinging pendulum can also result in disarray and destruction. It depends on the degrees of awareness and intentionality in those who put the pendulum in […]
5 1/2 Powerful Questions Used by Executive Coaches
The essence of executive coaching is to raise awareness and deepen one’s sense of response-ability. Quite often we become preoccupied with the issues right in front of us – the tree instead of the forest (which is how we sometimes find ourselves “barking up the wrong tree”, even if it’s just in our own head), […]
Identifying Your Own Personal Motives
The question, “Why do we do what we do?” could lead to existential angst, if you chose to see it that way. Or it could be the beginning of a productive dive into understanding your own personal motivation. The deeper the dive, the more you and your team will find to help with productivity and […]
Why Demonstrate Integrity as an Example for Others
Setting an example worth following requires the establishment of a commonly understood “true north” (not to be confused with “magnetic north”). But it’s not an impossible task. Set your internal compass on demonstrating integrity, and you will lead with significance. That’s a great sentiment in theory, but how does that translate into building and maintaining […]
Your Best Guide To An Outstanding Office Celebration (Hold The Cheese, Please)
Part of successfully shaping the culture of your workplace starts in knowing your team members at more than a surface level. When you know your team well, you know what is meaningful to them and what isn’t, and that helps you show your team you care. One of the best ways to show you’re listening […]
Meaningful Celebration in the Workplace
How is meaningful celebration achieved in the workplace? It takes more than free food, although without food, celebration often feels incomplete. People tie meaning to the reasons for and frequency of celebration. It’s a combination of thoughtful consideration and authentic spontaneity, both of which feel authentic to people when they experience them as an integral […]
A Manager’s Guide To Compliments Versus Encouragement
Navigating the nuanced differences between compliments and encouragement is at times a winding road, but take heart. Both compliments and encouragement can be used to your advantage to create a healthy workplace environment, especially with a little attention to detail. Let’s take a look at the benefits of encouragement, compliments, and the in-between. Workplace Compliments […]
Catch People Doing It Right: Celebrating Success in the Workplace
It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind. If you’re not careful, you may end up valuing the product more than you value the person behind the product, a big misstep. So, how do you keep a continual eye on the benefits of building a healthy team? The answer is: Catch people doing […]
Why Governance is Important to an Organization
“With great power comes great responsibility.” To whom is this quote attributed? Some would say Ben Parker, fictional uncle of Peter Parker, the “secret identity” of Spiderman. Some would say Voltaire, or another thinker/activist from the later French Revolution. And yet others would go back to classical philosophers or biblical times (see Luke 24:18). Either […]