Extraordinary Happens When You Get the Culture Right
Are you losing too many opportunities? Chronically experiencing poor relationships? Observing under-performance and disengagement from your people? Do you wonder if your company could be demonstrating more extraordinary results? The good news is you can and...
It’s Time to Critically Think About Critical Thinking!
“The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. A second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. A first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.” A.A. Milne, Playwright and Author (most notably: Winnie the...
Being Seen, Heard, and Understood
Psychological safety, trauma-informed functioning, emotional intelligence, and mental health are common organizational focuses today. At the root of these are the need for a deep understanding and establishment of, conditions that foster peace, joy and love in people...
“You Need to EARN My Trust!” Are You Sure?
Many faulty beliefs go unquestioned and the notion of earning trust before it is given is one of those. Others do not need to earn your trust. Rather, the trust you need earn is that which you must find within yourself. Trusting yourself requires self-confidence such...
“I Don’t Feel Appreciated”
When I begin working with organizations, people frequently report that a significant challenge for them is a lack of appreciation. Leadership and front-line staff alike say they give their all and don’t always feel valued for their efforts. Many fear they are...
How to Shift AWARENESS to Changed BEHAVIOR
Imagine you have toxic, disengaged (quiet quitting) behaviors in your workplace. Everything you read and measure shows this negatively impacts your growth, profitability, and reputation. The facts confirm that the effective people in your organization are personally...
Is Your Culture Toxic? Is It Costing You?
“In all 15 countries and across all dimensions assessed, toxic workplace behavior had the biggest impact predicting ‘burnout symptoms’ and ‘intent to leave’ by a large margin. McKinsey Health Institute May 27, 2022 Article: Addressing Employee Burnout: Are You...
Help! I Dread Work and I’m the Boss!
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln The leadership style that starts in childhood is at the heart of why 55% of people are disengaged and 16% are actively...
It’s ALL About Customer Service… Or Is It?
“You’d corner me in your conformity but even in dormancy I’m sleeping with enormity, stretching the belly of the earth and everything I was born to be.” ― Curtis Tyrone Jones, a veteran, coach, motivational speaker, and author When I hear...
Mental Health: Creating Safe Spaces
“We have brains in order to get along with each other, to be with other people, to connect with other people. That’s really what we are fundamentally all about. And so, much of trauma is about a rupture of the safety of the people who are supposed to protect you and...
Shame: Don’t Kill the Messenger!
“Each and every time the grace of devastation enters our reality, we have an equal opportunity to either cement the falsehood of limiting beliefs or to allow limiting beliefs to melt away by walking through the fire of our most epic disaster.” Matt Kahn, Author of...
Why Servant Leadership Can Sometimes Be Top Down
“The goal of many leaders is to get people to think more highly of the leader. The goal of a great leader is to help people to think more highly of themselves.” ― J. Carla Nortcutt, Professor When it comes to being human, no matter age, experience, title, or...
Why Systemic Change is Hard
“The system of patriarchy is a historic construct; it has a beginning; it will have an end. Its time seems to have nearly run its course—it no longer serves the needs of men or women and in its inextricable linkage to militarism, hierarchy, and racism it threatens the...
Steps to Understand and Implement a Responsibility-Based Culture
“An organization’s ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” – Jack Welch Rarely do executive and senior leaders have the opportunity to network with their peers and receive and discuss information...
Unresolved Psychological Contracts
“If others tell us something we make assumptions, and if they don’t tell us something we make assumptions to fulfill our need to know and to replace the need to communicate.” ― Miguel Ruiz, Author, The Four Agreements A psychological contract is beliefs people...
A Fool with a Tool is Still a Fool
“A fool with a tool is still a fool.” Grady Booch, American Software Engineer In any situation involving significant transformation, the most important change process is the one within, one’s mindset. In my 12-month culture transformation process people often...
Your Greatest Barrier Is Your Pain Tolerance
“…Sometimes I suspect that what had really happened was that we became more resigned, more cynical, raised our pain thresholds as we lowered our expectations. All in all, we settled for less.” Emma Donoghue, Playwright It’s no accident we often hear, “no pain,...
Seize Opportunities Within the Great Resignation
“The true test of character is to live win-win even when promoted to positions where win-lose is possible.” ― Orrin Woodward If you search google, you’ll find The Great Resignation is defined as an informal name for the widespread trend of a significant number...
Stop Protecting Your Reputation
“The strongest oak tree of the forest is not the one protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.” ― Napoleon Hill ...
Shifting Social Power Relations
“To reflect upon the present as history is to understand that history may now be made by default. Understanding that, we no longer need accept as “necessary” the lesser evil. We no longer need to accept historical fate, for fate is a feature of specific kinds of...
Episode 10 – Leaders Driving Culture Change
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In my work with clients, I often hear people say, “how can I motivate this person to do what they’re supposed to? They’re lazy. They’re unmotivated.” The truth is people are always motivated. They’re just not always motivated to do what YOU want them to do.
In this episode, Judy and her guest, Tara Gregor, founder and CEO of Breakwell, a resource hub for holistic wellness discuss a very different and highly effective approach to motivation. Old models and external motivation tactics simply don’t work anymore. So, if those don’t work, what does? Tune in to this podcast to learn a new approach.
The Danger in Larger-Than-Life Heroes
“The danger in larger-than-life heroes is that many get affixed to their perceived status and achievements to the cost of themselves and others.” Judy Ryan, CEO LifeWork Systems I have met leaders who have accomplished great things. They have turned around...
An Inclusive Culture is a Winning Culture
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr What a noteworthy time to be a business leader, witnessing...
Are Your People High Performing?
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” Michael Jordan “You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward. But both those methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self-motivation.” Homer Rice As a business leader, you...
Use of Power
“The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.” ― Mahatma Gandhi “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” ― Abraham Lincoln I was not sure whether to call this...
Mentoring to Develop Your People
“Your most important task as a leader is to teach people how to think and ask the right questions so that the world doesn’t go to hell if you take a day off” Jeffrey Pfeffer In our culture transformation model, a key concept is ongoing monthly mentoring to...
Do You Have a Powerful, Positive and Helpful Ego?
“If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and, in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.” John Lennon The notion of ego is often used to describe the harmful expressions of ego. We all...
Episode 9 – Why Agile Transformations Fail
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In my work with clients, I often hear people say, “how can I motivate this person to do what they’re supposed to? They’re lazy. They’re unmotivated.” The truth is people are always motivated. They’re just not always motivated to do what YOU want them to do.
In this episode, Judy and her guest, Tara Gregor, founder and CEO of Breakwell, a resource hub for holistic wellness discuss a very different and highly effective approach to motivation. Old models and external motivation tactics simply don’t work anymore. So, if those don’t work, what does? Tune in to this podcast to learn a new approach.
S.L.A.M. Say Less; Ask More
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” Edith Wharton, a novelist Many people confuse leading people with managing people and caring for or loving people with worry or concern for them. When we worry about another...
Part 3 of 5 – Program Design
• 90% of organizations don’t use a planning process • People focus on desired results only 50% of the time • 71% of people are disengaged • 88% of companies lack an effective plan to grow Gallup Organization You successfully started your business and now...
Are You a Transactional or a Transformational Leader?
“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” Sam Walton Transactional leadership or transactional management is the part of one style of leadership that...
Powerful Leaders Create Other Leaders
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams “The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the...
Are My People Responsible Even When No One’s Watching?
“Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.” S. Lewis For years, I have been spitting in the soup of leaders using control models whether in homes, schools, community organizations or businesses. Engaging in control models is choosing...
Why Ditch Annual Performance Appraisals
“You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward. But both of those methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self-motivation.” Homer Rice, a former American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator Today one of my instructors...
Rip Out ALL the Roots
“There is a law that man should love his neighbor as himself. In a few hundred years it should be as natural to mankind as breathing or the upright gait; but if he does not learn it he must perish.” Alfred Adler To exact improvements in our society, we all must become...
When Everything Falls to Pieces
“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free Without a stable foundation, all your hard work and dreams will crumble. Do you have the foundation you need when shift hits the fan? If...
Episode 8 – If Not Punishment, Then What?
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Episode 7 – Game Changing Appreciative Inquiry
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Episode 6 – When Everything Falls To Pieces
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Episode 5 – The Power of Mentoring
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Power Distance Index – Managing Relationships with Authority
“Some societies and religions have a tendency to expand the moral circle and to consider all humans as belonging to a single moral community.” Geert Hofstede, Social Psychologist I was re-reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers and he hit upon a theme I see a lot...
Episode 4 – How Can I Motivate Them?
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In my work with clients, I often hear people say, “how can I motivate this person to do what they’re supposed to? They’re lazy. They’re unmotivated.” The truth is people are always motivated. They’re just not always motivated to do what YOU want them to do.
In this episode, Judy and her guest, Tara Gregor, founder and CEO of Breakwell, a resource hub for holistic wellness discuss a very different and highly effective approach to motivation. Old models and external motivation tactics simply don’t work anymore. So, if those don’t work, what does? Tune in to this podcast to learn a new approach.
Globalization – Embracing Our Oneness
“Accordingly, globalization is not only something that will concern and threaten us in the future, but something that is taking place in the present and to which we must first open our eyes.” Ulrich Beck, German Sociologist and Social Scientist I am writing this...
Task Ownership
“The educator must believe in the potential power of his pupil, and he must employ all his art in seeking to bring his pupil to experience this power.” Alfred Adler, Psychologist Task ownership Task ownership is when a person is accountable to recognize and adopt...
Episode 3 – The New Culture Model
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In this episode, Judy and her guest, Lynn Dornfeld, dig a little deeper into the new culture model from several different angles. What are the components to follow? What are the success criteria? What is a culture framework and why do you need one?
The Absence of Punishment in Our Schools
While this article is about schools, the information on trauma-informed and why use of punishment and rewards are counter-productive, is relevant not only in schools but in all organizations and to everyone within them. As is our practice when posting industry...
The Key to Employee Engagement
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ~Viktor Frankl In order to understand employee engagement, you must first understand what...
Episode 1- Spitting in the Soup
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This topic is designed to challenge basic norms we’ve held sacrosanct for centuries. These are the four control models described in this episode as widely promoted means to cultivate good citizenship in homes, schools, churches, and workplaces; really everywhere. This episode helps listeners to recognize these as the impediments they are and that they need to be dismantled and replaced with new models.
Spitting In The Soup
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People are always motivated. It’s not anyone’s job to motivate others. People can control themselves. They can do what’s right and don’t need approval or shaming to do so. They don’t need to be enabled. The problem is we don’t have faith in people nor do we know how to effectively teach them to pick up responsibility for things that are theirs to own. When we learn to do so, others can become accountable, caring and fully engaged, making a positive difference in your business.
Engaging People In Life and Work
“Personal power is the ability to stand on your own two feet with a smile on your face in the middle of a universe that contains a million ways to crush you.” ― J.Z. Colby, Journey As a business leader, you don’t want to be one of those million ways to crush people....
Honesty is the Best Policy – or is it?
“Failure of an employee to speak up in a crucial moment cannot be seen. This is true whether that employee is on the front lines of customer service or sitting next to you in the executive board room. And because not offering an idea is an invisible act, it’s...
Why Transparency CAN Become a Bloodbath
“Killers aren’t always assassins. Sometimes, they don’t even have blood on their hands.” ~ Ruta Sepetys, Author I once knew a school teacher who quit her job teaching 8th graders (which she loved) to work for my company transforming school cultures where...
Google’s Former Head of HR Issues a Warning
All Business Owners and Leadership Teams Should Read Culture matters, now more than ever. Laszlo Bock shares three reasons the timing has never been better to invest in your organization’s culture. Culture influences decisions, and decisions make or break...
Managing Evolutionary Change
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who...
Upgrading Our Human Systems
“The time is now. Because in this time of change, the world needs every one of us to stand in our power, reach our highest potential, share our gifts and be the best that we can be. Humanity can no longer accept antiquated definitions, labels and metaphors about how...
Hispanic Heroes
Note: While this article was written for Autentico and focused on Hispanic leadership, the concepts within are applicable to all people. “You are not lucky to be here. The world needs your perspective. They are lucky to have you.” Antonio Tijerino, CEO, Hispanic...
Agility and Resiliency – A Formula for Success
“The game of business used to be like football: size mattered. Then it changed to basketball: speed and agility. Today business is more like chess: customer priorities change continually, and the signals given by these changes are vital clues to the next cycle...
Mentoring: Your Competitive Advantage
“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” Steven Spielberg When we work in organizational culture change, our clients initially focus on the new concepts and tools in our...
Resilience and Agility: The Dynamic Duo for The New World of Work
“Most notably, this study shows that high agility is associated with much higher levels of depression and anxiety risk when combined with low resilience. In essence, agility produces negative mental health consequences when the employee cannot be resilient....
Is Your Workplace Psychologically Safe?
“In general, only a child who feels safe dares to grow forward healthily. His safety needs must be gratified. He can’t be pushed ahead, because the ungratified safety needs will remain forever underground, always calling for satisfaction.” Abraham Maslow You see it...
Teal Organizations
The Teal paradigm refers to the next stage in the evolution of human consciousness.[1] When applied to organizations, this paradigm views the organization as an independent force with its own purpose, and not merely as a vehicle for achieving management’s...
Kinds Of People You Need
“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” Harry Truman No matter what your role, you have an important mission and vision to fulfill at both work and home. You also...
The Courage To Be Disliked
“When we least expect it, life sets up a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back....
5 Top Challenges In Today’s Workplace
“Culture lives in the collective hearts and habits of people and their shared perception of how things are to be done. The #1 advantage for the ‘organization of tomorrow’ is investing in a Human System that creates a NEW KIND OF TEAM in which people are motivated...
Teal: The Future of Business Management
It is helpful to better understand the characteristics of teal. Self-management is one of the primary factors of teal.
Advantages of Cross-Functional Teamwork
One of the biggest challenges leaders face, according to Deloitte, is organizational design. Specifically, redesigning their structures through teams. The line and block hierarchy found on a company org chart isn’t how work actually gets accomplished. Let’s face it,...
DUP Global Human Capital Trends
This workforce is changing. It’s more digital, more global, diverse, automation-savvy, and social media- proficient. At the same time, business expectations, needs, and demands are evolving faster than ever before. While some view this as a challenge, we see it as an...
The Rise of The Social Enterprise
THE SYMPHONIC C-SUITE: TEAMS LEADING TEAMS Senior leaders can’t afford to work in silos in today’s complex, dynamic environment. The goal is to act as a symphony of experts playing in harmony—instead of a cacophony of experts who sound great alone, but not together....
Reciprocal Care in Hierarchical Exchange
Leaders play a key role in creating a work environment that enables employees to fulfill their creative and innovative potential, generate new ideas, and implement those ideas. This is a challenging task because generating and developing novel ideas often involve...
Creating a Culture of Digital Transformation in 2018
It wasn’t the technology. What they needed was a fundamental shift in the way their employees worked to get things done. While the new front-end solution was a great improvement, the assumption was that their employees would start using it as soon as it was...
The Ideal Millennial Work Environment
There are a number of things that guide millennials in the workplace. They want to be happier than their parents, find more purposeful work and work with better companies. Millennials want their companies to align with their values. But with all these desires, what...
The Agile Cultural Shift
Today’s rapidly changing, digitally infused markets and the intensifying fight for customers demand that organizations execute with unprecedented speed and agility. To address this reality, enterprises are looking for an edge; and, for many, that edge is embracing...
If Not Punishment, Then What?
Toxic Shame is a neurotic, irrational feeling of worthlessness, humiliation, self-loathing and paralyzing feeling that has been inflicted onto an individual through repeated, traumatic experiences often, but not always, rooted in childhood. When shame becomes...
How Can I Motivate Them?
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams In my work with clients, I often hear, “How can I motivate this person to do what they’re supposed to? They’re lazy. They’re...
Commit to Personal Responsibility
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: That the moment one...
Right Under My Nose
“Developing an awareness of life beyond your immediate surroundings brings a healthy restlessness which, if infused with peace and used well, can be a foundation for positive change in the world.” Dadi Janki, Brahmakumaris Chief Auto-Pilot: Operating In A Blind...
Disengagement is Betrayal
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you...
Accountability IS Happiness!
“While it doesn’t sound too exciting, I believe happiness is being 100% accountable for your life.” Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love I couldn’t agree more. Being accountable is taking 100% responsibility for your relationships, your motivation,...
Like PB and J, Freedom WITH Responsibility
“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.” Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents What would our world be like, (including our homes, schools and places of business) if...
Loved AND Lovable
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Elizabeth Appell In my work, I help people take the risk to blossom. I tell business leaders, employees, educators and parents that all people have...
Be Your Most Imaginal Self!
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” Proverb Consider the following ellipses from the books “Butterfly,” by Norie Huddle, and “Waking the Global Heart,” by Anodea Judith. Caterpillars are consumers that eat non-stop. They...
Choose Helpful AND Harmless
“It always seems impossible until it is done” Nelson Mandela I often reflect on how many people are “checked out” at work, home, and school; they are suffering and barely surviving, rather than overcoming and thriving. The main reason for this...
Become the Hero You’ve Been Waiting For
“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.” Arthur Ashe Too many people stubbornly believe it’s necessary and justifiable to use...
Motivation From The Inside Out
“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to because THEY want to do it.” Dwight D. Eisenhower For centuries as a people, we have opted to use control measures such as command-and-control management (eliciting fear and...
Transforming Discouragement
“Inferiority feelings rule the mental life and can be clearly recognized in the sense of deficiency and dissatisfaction, and in uninterrupted struggles both within individuals and humanity.” Alfred Adler, Psychiatrist, 1870-1937 The Current Dilemma It’s clear that our...
Millennials: Canaries In The Coal Mine
“Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden & Civil Disobedience A canary in the coal mine refers to a time when canaries (birds) were carried down into mine...
Keep Moving Forward Into Transformation
“If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, keep moving forward.”Martin Luther King Imagine you commit to construct conditions in which creativity, caring, and exceptional results...
Put YOUR Stake in the Ground
“Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up.” Rocky Balboa Anything worth doing is worth doing completely. Yet, often we hold back commitment waiting for reassurance and commitment from others first. Doing this is understandable but not helpful. A...
Be Unconsciously Competent
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us”. Joseph Campbell, Author Often, we are afraid to make even positive changes because we have...
The Education Of Our Children
“Consider the kingdom you have made and judge its worth fairly. Is it worthy of a child of God? Does it protect his peace and shine love upon him? Does it keep his heart untouched by fear and allow him to give always, without any sense of loss? Does it teach him that...
I Can’t be a Good Boss & a Friend too
“To power up the whole system involves learning to bring the heart and mind into a creative joint venture. Heart intelligence supplies balanced strength and allows more of one’s individual spirit — the passionate actualization of one’s core values...
The Need for Patience & Reassurance
“It’s not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not. We just need to be kind, unconditionally and without ulterior motive, even – or rather, especially – when we’d prefer not to be.” Josh Radnor,...
The Power of Mentoring
“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” ― Plato “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be...
Successfully Navigate The Future
“The most exciting breakthroughs of the twenty-first century will not occur because of technology, but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human.” John Naisbitt Whether you welcome or resist it, change is happening at the speed of...
Cover Story: Me Too: Unwrapping Abuse Systems
“An insight the size of a mustard seed is powerful enough to bring down a mountain-sized illusion that may be holding our lives together. Truth strikes without mercy. We fear our intuitions because we fear the transformational power within our revelations.”...
5 Articles That Reveal The Real Value of Employee Engagement
“The challenge is to see engagement not as a one-off activity, but as a holistic view of the employee experience… That means everything from the first moment the person applies for a job all the way through to managing work schedules, getting performance reviews, and...
7 Unexpected Employee Performance Management Trends To Watch For In 2018
Performance Management is how we’re working together as teams and managing people. We can let the term slip into the meaningless buzzwords bucket, or we can rally around it and commit to building authentic work relationships and nurturing employee development and...
Perceptual Blindness
“Change blindness in the world of facts and knowledge is a problem. Sometimes we are exposed to new facts and simply filter them out. But more often we have to go out of our way in order to learn something new. Our blindness is not a failure to see the new fact; it’s...
The Preponderance of Neglect
“Most organizations don’t fall apart as a result of one big blow. Most relationships don’t end because of one grand argument. Most lives don’t fall to pieces due to one sad event. No, I suggest to you that sustained failure happens as the consequence of small,...
Culture Eclipses Strategy But Purpose Eclipses Everything
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson...
Why Are We So Stuck?
“One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” Arnold H. Glasgow This is a challenging time to be American. On the one hand people are talking about recurrent themes such as inequality,...
Leader-Follower Agility Is Crucial
“Innovation is key. Only those who have the agility to change with the market and innovate quickly will survive.” Robert Kiyosaki “Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent.” Bill Gates Change is happening...
Teal is the Trend. What Color is Your Organization?
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist “Management is, above all, a practice where art, science, and craft meet.” Henry...
Is My Business Agile?
“I submit that there must be a commitment to, practice of, and execution of professional common behaviors and the presence of highly communicated standardized organizational expectations – without which there are no supports upon which the Agile/SAFe bar can be...
Get Your People To Bring Their A-Game
“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”
– Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist
Bridging Differences For Diversity & Inclusion Excellence!
“We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion.” — Max de Pree, American...
Recalibrating Your Business – A Focus on Shifting Company Culture Pays Off
Many companies claim to focus on creating a supportive and effective culture. But just what does that look like in the real world? KolbeCo Marketing Resources offers one example. When he finally arrived home, Scott Kolbe made a direct line to the fridge to grab a...
What’s Love Got to Do With It?
Whether we want to associate love with our businesses or not, the presence of love or the lack of it, plays a powerful role in our ROI. It affects our profitability, health, employee engagement, teamwork, customer satisfaction; all of what makes a business successful....
You Make Sense & Deserve Compassion
Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always. Unknown What if you knew every reaction (and even what you fear are over-reactions) you experience is based on legitimate reasons and deserves caring attention and understanding...
Do You (Really) Believe in Win/Win?
“Lead the life that will make you kindly and friendly to everyone, and you will be surprised what a happy life you will lead.” Charles M. Schwab When most people are asked if they believe in and want win/win, they answer with the obvious, “yes.” The challenge is that...
Top 10 Problems Facing Leaders
More than ever, your people are key to the success of your business. When they are adaptable and courageous, they help you overcome problems quickly and competently. The following are some of the top problems often faced by business leaders and their staff:...
Walking the Talk
“It is difficult to inspire others to accomplish what you haven’t been willing to try.” Confucius “It is my responsibility to do what inspires me, in order to inspire others to do what inspires them.” Tsepiso Makhubedu The holidays are a time we gather...
Do You Have Faith In People’s Goodness?
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. Always pray to have eyes that see the best in people, and a heart that forgives the worst.” Martin Luther King, Jr You may be surprised to discover your answer might too often be...
Do You Control or Develop Your Staff?
“If you are building a culture where honest expectations are communicated and peer accountability is the norm, then the group will address poor performance and attitudes.” Henry Cloud Your greatest asset is a team of committed employees. When you are...
Teach them to Fish
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Maimonides The Dilemma Many systems and strategies of the past are no longer effective. Schools were originally designed to cultivate conforming, compliant factory...
Realize the Gravity of the Situation
Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments recently made a landmark decision to take a pay cut from $1M to $70K annually in order to pay each of his employees the same. His decision has sparked controversy. What Kind of Workplace Culture Do You Want? As a people, we are at a...
It Just Got Real
When Beethoven looked at the piano keys, he saw a symphony. When Michael Jordan saw a basketball, he saw greatness. When I meet people, I see powerful sublime human systems. I see the unseen, the narrative that is more powerful than the surface. The real deal! And...
Help People Conceive, Believe, & Achieve
The difference between an idea and a commitment is the difference between knowing about a new tool and using it in your everyday life as a new habit and way of operating. The greatest challenge many of my clients encounter as they improve their workplace culture is to...
Conducting Business From The Heart
When I speak of heart in this article, I am referring specifically to our heart’s purpose, inspired from within, deeply stirring us, leading us to take actions that matter most to us. In my work with clients, I find that many don’t have a clear idea about their...
Are You Personally Responsible?
You may wonder: what criterion determines if a person is personally responsible? Personal responsibility IS synonymous with authentic freedom, empowerment, creativity, accountability, and alignment. It always brings about positive results. Without personal...
What is Social Interest? Does it Matter?
Think of people you know and admire a lot. What qualities do you like most about them? How do they make you feel? Chances are they are people who banish inferiority feelings in others and cause a positive experience instead. They have social interest. “Inferiority...
Are You Building Capacity for Change?
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Jack Welch What is capacity building and how does it affect your ability to make positive changes? One of the most perplexing...
Are you Running Your Business from Fear or Freedom?
“Live your life like you use your GPS. Set a course for your destination, make sure your vehicle is in good shape, trust you’ll eventually arrive and be content with the next instruction without knowing what’s after.” Judy Ryan, CEO LifeWork Systems In my work, a...
Power Over? Power Under? Power Within!
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” Nelson Mandela I was born and raised in Ferguson, MO and recent events there have provided an opportunity to write on beliefs...
Could Your Head Be Buried In The Sand?
“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” Isaac Newton You’ve seen it happen to others and you may have already experienced it yourself: shocking setbacks in running your business. They’re shocking because one day...
A Happy Community Works, Plays, & Serves Together
A Happy Community Works, Plays, & Serves. Leaders determine the happiness of their workplace community. When you think of a happy community, you likely picture good team players that pitch in, are positive and manage themselves well, including their relationships,...
How to Transform Your Workplace
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” Albert Einstein “Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.” Gautama Buddha A healthy organization is based on shared responsibility and values, where managers become...
Part 1 of 5 – Gathering Requirements
You successfully started your business and now it’s growing. You may be wondering, “Are we as productive as we could be despite the fact we’re hiring more people?” It’s not enough to run and grow your business. Your ability to sustain wellbeing is key to your...
Part 2 of 5 – Human Systems – What Gets Measured Improves
“I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition.” Bill Gates What Gets Measured Improves Motivated, successful, and contributing. That’s what you need your staff to be to achieve your goals and provide...
Part 4 of 5 – Implementation
“What you want is within your reach. You can flip a switch and your life can become what you want it to be.” Sam Carpenter, Author, Work the System Cultivating Leaders Problems exist in the gap between what you desire to be happening and what is actually...
Part 5 of 5 – Maintenance
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”- Abraham Lincoln My Competitive Advantage Each month, I have provided information on five processes needed to ensure your greatest competitive advantage: organizational...
Get Along. Get Inspired. Get Results.
“Before one can hit a grand-slam home run, it first requires singles, doubles or triples.” Unknown Every business owner sets up their organization with high hopes and a dream of making a difference, yet all the great ideas and intentions to provide quality...
Extraordinary People & Results
“It is not the ultimate achievement that makes you extraordinary; it is what you become on the way to that achievement that people celebrate. Saidi Mdala, Author of Know What Matters Are you experiencing poor relationships? Seeing under-performance and disengagement...
Holding Others Accountable
“The committed heart finds a way. The uncommitted heart finds an excuse.” Unknown Your daughter or son agrees to complete a chore and you arrive home only to find it incomplete once again. You ask one of your employees to contribute an important section of your team...
Your Blueprint for Constructing Success
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David...
From Compliance to Commitment
“You get the best efforts from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.” -Bob Nelson Compliance People used to think of the workplace in terms of the activities and behaviors that employees needed to perform well....
Let’s Break a Rule: the 20/80 Rule
“We all have burdens and we need to learn to carry each other’s burdens, lighten each other’s load.” Ann Romney Improve Your Employee AND Customer Satisfaction Your customer satisfaction is directly tied to your employee satisfaction. Your employee...
Cover Story on Culture Change
“Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed – the culture reflects the realities of people working together everyday.” Frances Hesselbein A Focus on Shifting Company Culture at KolbeCo Pays Off Many...
It Takes a Village
“Everybody in a village had a role to play in bringing up a child—and cherishing it—and in return that child would in due course feel responsible for everybody in that village. That is what makes life in society possible. We must love one another and help one another...
Are You a Leader Others Follow?
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams Your role is THE determining factor in whether you drive and sustain positive change What is YOUR transformation process...
1. Straightforwardness: Dare I Tell it Like It Is?
The most important relationship to manage is with our self. A trustworthy person practices honesty, straightforwardness, respect, receptivity, recognition, keeping commitments, seeking excellence and disclosure, the eight values that build trust. Straightforwardness...
2. Honesty: Don’t Play Others, Don’t Play You!
“When you face a choice between being polite and being honest, err on the side of the truth. It’s better to be disliked but respected than to be liked and disrespected. In the long run, the people we trust the most are those who have the courage to be sincere.” Adam...
4. Disclosure: Will You Show Us Who YOU Are?
“Shame derives its power from being unspeakable.” Brené Brown, Author, Speaker I teach eight values needed to build trust: honesty, straightforwardness, respect, receptivity, recognition, keeping commitments, seeking excellence and disclosure. Disclosure, the...
5. Respect: Valuing Unconditionally
“Respect yourself and others will respect you.” ― Confucius This article on respect is the seventh in my series on the eight values that build trust. I always pair the word respect with mutual because one is not possible without the other. In my work with...
6. Recognition: Why is Recognition Important To Trust?
“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” Fred Rogers I have been...
8. Seeking Excellence: Are You All You Can Be?
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” Aristotle Seeking excellence...
7. Follow-Through: Do I Mean What I Say?
“Intent without action will leave every word that I use to describe my intent as empty and best never said.” Craig D. Lounsbrough Imagine you ask someone to do something and they agree. You count on it, and then come to find they didn’t do it. How are you...
Are You Cultivating Excellence?
National research shows 29% of employees are engaged in excellence. They’re eager, willing, and personally responsible. The remaining 71% are mediocre or actively disengaged… Ghandi, Helen Keller, DaVinci, or simply a neighbor, friend or relative with qualities...
How Do I Deal With That Annoying Person?
“There is nothing so annoying as having two people talking when you’re busy interrupting.” Mark Twain You know that person who cracks a joke at an inopportune moment? Taps their pen on the conference room desk? Stands at your door while you’re on the...
Reasons We Gossip & What To Do Instead
“How would your life be different if…You walked away from gossip and verbal defamation? Let today be the day…You speak only the good you know of other people and encourage others to do the same.” Steve Maraboli, Author, Life, the Truth, and Being Free Most people...
Kinds of People I Need
“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” Harry Truman An important question to consider is, “What kinds of people do I need and want to achieve my mission and...
Courage to be Imperfect
“Those who have a strong sense of love and belonging have the courage to be imperfect.” Brené Brown Why are we the most addicted, medicated, overweight, and indebted society in history? Brene Brown, researcher, author and speaker on vulnerability, worthiness...
The Dysfunctional Bunch
“Creating chaos provides excitement for some people, especially those who are uneasy with silence, those who distract themselves from their own problems by focusing outward, those who feel empty inside and need to fill themselves up with activity, and those who were...
Longing for the Good Old Days?
“The good old days were never that good, believe me. The good new days are today, and better days are coming tomorrow. Our greatest songs are still unsung.” Hubert Humphrey “Why can’t we go back to the good old days when people knew how to behave?!” While I was...
How to Emotionally Handle Terminations
by Julia Paulus (referencing Judy Ryan and LifeWork Systems) SBM, March 2010 Getting fired is obviously difficult for an employee. But firing someone is also hard for owners and managers – probably one of the hardest things they ever have to do. This is especially...
How do I Make All-Stars?
by Julia Paulus (referencing Judy Ryan and LifeWork Systems) SBM, March 2010 My biggest all-star employee just left the company to work for a competitor. He was efficient, virtually mistake-free and energetic. When he left, he took with him a bunch of...
Can a Team-Hater Engage Employees?
by Julia Paulus (referencing Judy Ryan and LifeWork Systems) SBM, March 2010 I don’t like teams. Back in school, I hated classes when we had to do group projects. My group was always the one where a couple of people did nothing and still got the grade. The same...
Game-Changing Appreciative Inquiry
Imagine two scenarios both involving a couple struggling in their relationship and seeking marriage counseling. In the first instance, the couple is asked questions centering on their problems, including their origin and possible solutions. While this traditional...
What Does it Take to Build Trust?
I’ve delivered many team building workshops to corporations, schools and parent groups in which I focus on the behaviors that build trust and those that don’t. One behavior destructive to any team is gossip and part of my program is an invitation to enter a mind trust...
Better to Give Than Receive?
We often hear the phrase, “It’s better to give than receive” but is it true? The truth is, it just feels safer to give. Without equal ability to receive, a relationship is defined and limited by a certain amount of fear and withholding. I discovered the significance...
Keep The End In Mind
In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider very simply is, “What do I want to come of this? What is it for?” The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning of any course of action because the goal is what will determine the...
No I Won’t, You Can’t Make Me!
Power Struggles: Opportunities for Connection Yes, we all know what it is to be in a power struggle, whether it’s with a parent, child, spouse, lover, friend or co-worker. Power struggles are fraught with tension, anger and provocation. The feeling on one or both...
I Want. What Will I Do?
What do I want and what am I willing to do? These are powerful questions that make up the internal dialog of those who have embraced intrinsic motivation; the process of identifying and expressing what one most loves. These are questions of courage, exploration and...
What & Why Emotional Intelligence
We hear a lot of buzz these days about the importance of emotional intelligence (EI). What exactly is “emotional intelligence” and why do we need it? There are 4 main components: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management....
Commitment
“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and...
Vision is Everything
“By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin It’s becoming more popular to talk about the power of our vision and the role it plays in creating extraordinary outcomes in our personal and professional lives. Physicists have proven that...
Organized Chaos on Purpose
As a child deeply in love with nature, living on the edge of a park, and the 5th child of 6, I knew a lot about chaos, the beautiful, free, creative and exhilarating kind. Starting out free to explore, school at age 5 felt like bitter confinement and at times crushing...
Connection: From Chaos to Community
Connection is to humans what water is to fish; a key to our existence and a cornerstone for our behavior. We are social beings and from infancy we make decisions and set goals in response to our social framework. In community, we make interpretations, then decisions...
Dismantling Bullying Systems
(The story in this article may be an example involving students, but the message for the workplace is just as relevant) “As long as victims and bullies see themselves in diametrically opposed positions, (and they will if we don’t focus on the systems rather than...