I’m working with a client right now who is leading his organization through a massive restructuring. He engaged me to help with the inevitable human reactions to monumental change. My favorite line I heard from him on enabling his employees to accomplish the transition successfully is: “I can’t just hand them a business card with » Read More
. By this time you’ve heard story after story of Black Friday gone wrong. Shoppers with a laser focus on “making the season bright” allowed themselves to be willing to hurt another to achieve their prized purchase. What a way to start off the holiday season wrong on so many levels… “Leaders” at work face » Read More
One of my clients had recently started experimenting with how he responded to customer requests. His customers were co-workers —people internal to the company. He had been finding himself increasingly annoyed and impatient at their requests, and he wanted to change that. To his credit, he knew most of the annoyance he felt was simply » Read More
I grew up on a farm. Yep, that’s me on the right, at 5-years old, working with my father. Notice the stripe-on-stripe outfit. I dressed myself that day. And that’s not the only thing I did that day… Farm kids learn responsibility early. I would say I “added value” as early as age 5. I » Read More
I want to admit right up front, when I was a corporate employee, I was, let’s say, “challenging.” Several years ago I was meeting with my boss about me potentially becoming a supervisor. He started telling me what he liked least about being a supervisor. He said, “giving people bad news.” It’s just so painful, » Read More
Bosses, no, I really don’t intend on making you a target of disrespect. Earlier this year I expounded on how much this phrase, “respect must be earned,” bugs me, in the context of a manager to employee relationship — mainly because it can be misinterpreted and give license to immature or unscrupulous managers to treat » Read More
[Pssssssst, did she just use the L-word?] One of my close friends is in the last phase of a selection process for a new assignment. Her first meeting and her final meeting is with the executive she would be reporting to. We’re pretty sure she’s a shoe-in because we already know he likes her. Her » Read More
A “Best of” post from Mary Schaefer’s blog, Reimaginework.com, Feb. 24, 2010 My colleague in leadership, Joe Gerstandt, and I sometimes exchange Q&A’s – the latest from Joe being: JOE: We both talk about new ways of leadership in our work…for you, what are some examples of what that actually looks like? MARY: Great question. » Read More
Recently I gave a presentation titled, “5 Simple Steps to Engage Even Your Most Skeptical Employees In Change, So You Can Create a Strong Foundation for a Positive and Developmental Work Culture” As I went through it, I myself was struck again by the necessity to understand and consider human nature when we are trying » Read More
You are invited…to an upcoming LeadChange Group BlogTalk Radio panel discussion. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, March 9, 3-4pm ET for the topic of: “Character-Based Leadership: Where Did it Go and How do We Get it Back?“ Whether you are a leadership consultant, HR professional or peer manager, you are in a position to influence » Read More
