Rumors at work can be surprisingly destructive. Rumors undermine the confidence of an organization, both within and without; encourage infighting, backbiting, and other HR department fever dreams; deep six morale; make strategic hiring like extracting wisdom teeth; scare off would-be investors; and tank stock prices. What start as whispers can build to whirlwind force. Because […]
Archive for Leadership
How to Dial Down Workplace Drama
Leaders build momentum. But nothing kills it faster than office gossip and departmental wrangling. Based on decades of experience in corporate leadership, we’ll show you four solid strategies for dialing down the theatrics so you don’t waste energy on needless conflict. When we’re done, you’ll have a clear strategy for creating a high-trust team that […]
Fire Drama Queens
And Other Ways to Improve Team Morale
Drama queens (and kings!) are bad for business. They disrupt your workplace by gossiping, backbiting, exaggerating every situation, justifying their bad behavior, and blaming others for their failures. Their behavior and their very presence compromises the teamwork that you and your colleagues need to succeed. Seventy-eight percent of respondents said that they spend 3-to-6 hours […]
Don’t Yank the Chain of Command
Why It's Necessary for Organizations, and When to Make Exceptions
A chain of command, or command hierarchy, is the relationship between personnel in terms of responsibility and authority. It’s a ready-made structure for delegation of authority to accomplish the organization’s mission. That’s true in most large organizations and broadly applicable, though examples here will be drawn from my experience in the military. In the military’s […]
Allow for Pushback
When You Want Your Team to Disagree
We’ve all been there: a project manager or supervisor asks you to do something you disagree with for some reason. Perhaps the assignment in question takes up too much time or maybe the proposed strategy doesn’t work with the overall mission. In any scenario where employee and supervisor are in disagreement, the situation is ripe […]
How to Conquer a Chaotic Calendar
3 Steps to Protect Time for Your Biggest Priorities
As leaders—especially leaders who have busy families—the calendar can spiral out of control very quickly. It doesn’t take long before you’re dropping important personal or family events. As a top executive and mother of four, Meg has mastered the art of taming a chaotic calendar. In this episode, captured live at the Achieve Conference, she […]