Tag
psychological safety
The Feedback Sandwich Is Broken: What Leaders Should Do Instead
I was sitting in church this weekend when my pastor asked a question that stopped me mid-note-taking. “When you’re about to get good news and bad news,” he said, “which do you want first?” He asked the congregation to raise their hands. Overwhelmingly, people wanted the bad news first. Then he made a claim that...Read More
What a Power Chain Taught Me About Leading Organizational Change
Organizational change rarely fails because leaders choose the wrong strategy. More often, it fails because organizations mistake discomfort for failure. Every meaningful transformation creates resistance before it creates results. Ironically, I learned one of the best lessons about leading change while sitting in my orthodontist’s chair. Eight months into braces, I thought I knew what...Read More
When “Communication Problems” Are Really Resistance to Change
Leaders tell me they have a communication problem more often than almost anything else. Sit with the details for a while and a different picture usually shows up. What they have is a problem with change, and communication is taking the blame. I notice this faster than I used to, and I think it’s because...Read More
Why Trust Matters More Than Talent in High-Performing Teams
Your team is keeping score. Not on productivity metrics or quarterly goals, though they notice those too. They’re tracking something more fundamental: whether you do what you say you’ll do. Whether your words match your actions. Whether it’s safe to tell you the truth. You can see it in the small behaviors that shift when...Read More
Gossip vs. Venting: How Leaders Build or Break Culture
Every workplace has talk. The water cooler conversations. The internal chat messages. The hushed exchanges in hallways, breakrooms, and parking lots. The real question is whether that talk is strengthening your culture or slowly poisoning it. Here’s what most leaders miss: venting and gossip are not the same thing. And when you don’t understand the...Read More
From Conga Line to Cohesion: What a Dance Party Taught Me About Leadership and Human Behavior
When I step on stage as a keynote speaker, my goal isn’t just to motivate people; it’s to move them. Literally and figuratively. Sure, most keynote speakers aim to inspire reflection, and that’s important. But I want my audiences to experience something — to feel it in their bodies. Because what we feel, we remember....Read More