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Latest Posts
For Employees
Dealing with a Low EQ Teammate
Do you have a colleague with a low EQ? They lack the emotional intelligence that supports self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and good social skills. It can be perplexing, draining, and exasperating...
Why Your Message Might be Misinterpreted
Have you ever shared a message and been surprised by the receiver’s reaction? Maybe you said something you thought was innocuous, but the person responded by taking offense. Or you...
How to Communicate Better
You might think you’re doing a great job communicating with your colleagues, but do you know that your messages are landing as intended? There are myriad reasons why attempts to...
Stop Trying to Sound Strategic!
I know, I know, you’ve been told that you aren’t strategic enough, so now you’re trying to reach a self-imposed quota for using big words and making references to The...
Are You Using the Right Virtual Collaboration Tools?
Are you collaborating virtually more often these days? How are you finding it? Are you able to have just as interesting, innovative, in-depth discussions as if you were in person?...
The Pros and Cons of Hybrid Teams
Many teams won’t return to the same office-centric approach that existed before the pandemic drove people to their home offices (and kitchen tables) in March of 2020. Instead, the future...
A Different Take on Psychological Safety
Do you feel safe speaking up in your team? Can you voice an unpopular opinion without fear of your colleague’s rebuttal? Will you disagree with your boss knowing that they...
To Foster Trust, Ask for Help
Do you find yourself working on a team where you just don’t fit in? Or do you like your colleagues well enough but still not trust them for anything more...
How to Improve Hybrid Meetings
Have you suffered through a hybrid video meeting where you’re remote while a few of your teammates are together in person? Here’s my question. Did you at any point:
- Tune...
How to Sell Your Strategic Idea
This post is a part of Strategy Month—my 30-day LinkedIn series aimed at bringing strategy down from its lofty perch and providing the ideas, techniques, and tools to democratize strategy...
Why You Think You’re Listening, but You’re Not
If there were one skill you could improve to become a better communicator, to be liked more and respected way more, to accomplish more, and to waste a whole lot...
Questions to Redirect a Low-Value Meeting
How many hours have you spent stuck in mind-numbing meetings where the conversation is so mired in the weeds that you have to amuse yourself by coloring in the holes...
When Not to Apologize
Last week I wrote about good and bad apologies , which got me thinking about what behavior necessitates an apology and what doesn’t. Apologizing (when done well) sends a very...
How to Have an Uncomfortable Conversation Remotely
Do you have virtual teammates? Well, not virtual humans (at least not yet), but real people who work with you in a virtual office rather than a physical one? Working...
10 Tips to Prevent Misalignment from Destroying Trust
You’d be surprised how many trust issues on teams aren’t actually trust issues. Well, that’s not totally fair. They’ve become trust issues, but they didn’t start with team members backstabbing,...
How to Receive Feedback
I gave a speech last week on the importance of feedback to a high performance organization. It was clear that many of the audience members were uncomfortable with the thought...
Read the damn pre-read people!
I was talking with someone this morning about the sorry state of meetings. We spend so much time in the weeds and waste a precious opportunity to have valuable conversations...
5 steps for better presentations
There are almost infinite posts in the blogosphere about how to give better presentations. If you want good ones, try www.PublicWords.com by Dr. Nick Morgan. Today, I’m dedicating this space...
Working in a regional office
“We regional office people never know what’s going on!” I’ve heard versions of this statement many, many times both inside the organizations I have worked in and from people in...
One trick to turn a useless meeting into effective communication
How often do you meet with your team without actually communicating with them? For one team I worked with recently, that kind of meeting was commonplace. Now they were offsite...
Virtual Teams and How to Give Feedback from Afar
Every time I give a speech these days, I get at least a couple of questions about how my techniques apply to virtual teams . Given that my team at...
How to Accept Positive Feedback
Positive feedback is rare and precious and you need to make sure you treat it as such. It’s rare because we tend to take good behavior for granted. There are...
How to Take Constructive Feedback
“ Feedback is a gift .” How many times have you heard that little gem? I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that not many people ask for feedback...
How to Deliver Feedback
Giving someone feedback can be uncomfortable. Some people even agonize over how (and if) they should share a difficult message with a teammate or a direct report. Unfortunately, that discomfort...
For Managers
Dealing with a Low EQ Teammate
Do you have a colleague with a low EQ? They lack the emotional intelligence that supports self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and good social skills. It can be perplexing, draining, and exasperating...
Why Your Message Might be Misinterpreted
Have you ever shared a message and been surprised by the receiver’s reaction? Maybe you said something you thought was innocuous, but the person responded by taking offense. Or you...
How to Communicate Better
You might think you’re doing a great job communicating with your colleagues, but do you know that your messages are landing as intended? There are myriad reasons why attempts to...
Using Personality Assessments with Your Team
So, your team has just done the DiSC, Hogan, the MBTI, or the Birkman.
You feel seen.
Finally, everyone can appreciate the multitudes you contain. Things will be better now....
The Pros and Cons of Hybrid Teams
Many teams won’t return to the same office-centric approach that existed before the pandemic drove people to their home offices (and kitchen tables) in March of 2020. Instead, the future...
How to Improve Hybrid Meetings
Have you suffered through a hybrid video meeting where you’re remote while a few of your teammates are together in person? Here’s my question. Did you at any point:
- Tune...
How to Sell Your Strategic Idea
This post is a part of Strategy Month—my 30-day LinkedIn series aimed at bringing strategy down from its lofty perch and providing the ideas, techniques, and tools to democratize strategy...
Team Building Exercises for Remote Teams
There’s something missing when your team is separated from one another—something intangible. It’s that sense of where people are at, of how they’re doing. Sure, you don’t ever really know...
Reset Your Remote Management Approach
Updated On:
Oct 26, 2024
(I’ve gone into some detail in this post and therefore it's long. If you want this in a quicker, click-through version. You can check it...
Exercise: Giving Feedback Gently
Occasionally, I focus the blog on sharing the techniques I use to facilitate important conversations among individuals and teams. I inherited this one and I love it so much, I’m...
10 Tips to Prevent Misalignment from Destroying Trust
You’d be surprised how many trust issues on teams aren’t actually trust issues. Well, that’s not totally fair. They’ve become trust issues, but they didn’t start with team members backstabbing,...
8 Quick Tips to Shorten Your Meetings
I was facilitating an executive team meeting last week. Although the meeting had been scheduled as a full day, four people started the day saying that they needed to leave...
How to Draw Out the Quiet People
When I’m preparing to facilitate a session, I always conduct individual interviews with the members of the team I’ll be working with. The last question I ask is, “what advice...
When Feedback Causes Backlash
I love the questions I get at the end of a keynote. This week I got a couple of really good ones. The first was, “How do I handle it...
How to handle someone who talks too much
“I’m trying to chair efficient meetings, but I have someone on my team who always needs to talk it out before coming to a decision. How can I reduce the...
Maybe You Shouldn’t Give Feedback
I have a new speech that I’m working on called “The New Nice.” It’s the culmination of all my work on increasing productive conflict and getting comfortable being uncomfortable. One...
Read the damn pre-read people!
I was talking with someone this morning about the sorry state of meetings. We spend so much time in the weeds and waste a precious opportunity to have valuable conversations...
How to get a juicy conversation
When working with senior executives, one of the most common requests I get is to help create “juicy conversations.” What they mean by "juicy" is deep, probing, uncomfortable, novel, productive...
5 steps for better presentations
There are almost infinite posts in the blogosphere about how to give better presentations. If you want good ones, try www.PublicWords.com by Dr. Nick Morgan. Today, I’m dedicating this space...
Running a great strategic meeting
You spend a huge amount of time in meetings; make it time well spent. I’m in the midst of a series on better meetings. I started with how to split...
Running a great monthly meeting
Meetings are where team goodness should happen, but meetings these days tend to be awful. I’m in the midst of a series on better meetings. I started with how to...
Running a great weekly meeting
In my previous post , I outlined the ways you can improve your meetings by creating a structure that differentiates meetings based on their purpose. I recommend that you...
10 Questions to Increase Collaboration
I’m on a bit of a roll on the topic of collaboration on teams. This little flurry of posts stemmed from three teams in a row that raised concerns about...
4 ways to stimulate better discussions
I was preparing to facilitate a day-long meeting for a new team leader. He had just joined the organization and was pulling together the team of direct reports he...
An alternative to using ground rules for meetings
Try this at your next team meeting. Rather than having a standard conversation about ground rules, try using this question instead. What could you do (or not do) today that...
Working in a regional office
“We regional office people never know what’s going on!” I’ve heard versions of this statement many, many times both inside the organizations I have worked in and from people in...
One trick to turn a useless meeting into effective communication
How often do you meet with your team without actually communicating with them? For one team I worked with recently, that kind of meeting was commonplace. Now they were offsite...
Virtual Teams and How to Give Feedback from Afar
Every time I give a speech these days, I get at least a couple of questions about how my techniques apply to virtual teams . Given that my team at...
How to end a meeting
In my previous post , I gave you some tips on how to start a meeting to set it up for success. Today, it’s the other bookend—how to end a...
How to start a meeting
It’s been a while since I posted a new Right Words to Say video, but I’m back with a few new answers to questions sent in by members of the...
How to Deliver Feedback
Giving someone feedback can be uncomfortable. Some people even agonize over how (and if) they should share a difficult message with a teammate or a direct report. Unfortunately, that discomfort...
For Coaches
Dealing with a Low EQ Teammate
Do you have a colleague with a low EQ? They lack the emotional intelligence that supports self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and good social skills. It can be perplexing, draining, and exasperating...
Why Your Message Might be Misinterpreted
Have you ever shared a message and been surprised by the receiver’s reaction? Maybe you said something you thought was innocuous, but the person responded by taking offense. Or you...
How to Communicate Better
You might think you’re doing a great job communicating with your colleagues, but do you know that your messages are landing as intended? There are myriad reasons why attempts to...
Using Personality Assessments with Your Team
So, your team has just done the DiSC, Hogan, the MBTI, or the Birkman.
You feel seen.
Finally, everyone can appreciate the multitudes you contain. Things will be better now....
Exercise: Giving Feedback Gently
Occasionally, I focus the blog on sharing the techniques I use to facilitate important conversations among individuals and teams. I inherited this one and I love it so much, I’m...
10 Tips to Prevent Misalignment from Destroying Trust
You’d be surprised how many trust issues on teams aren’t actually trust issues. Well, that’s not totally fair. They’ve become trust issues, but they didn’t start with team members backstabbing,...
How to Receive Feedback
I gave a speech last week on the importance of feedback to a high performance organization. It was clear that many of the audience members were uncomfortable with the thought...
When Feedback Causes Backlash
I love the questions I get at the end of a keynote. This week I got a couple of really good ones. The first was, “How do I handle it...
Read the damn pre-read people!
I was talking with someone this morning about the sorry state of meetings. We spend so much time in the weeds and waste a precious opportunity to have valuable conversations...
5 steps for better presentations
There are almost infinite posts in the blogosphere about how to give better presentations. If you want good ones, try www.PublicWords.com by Dr. Nick Morgan. Today, I’m dedicating this space...
10 Questions to Increase Collaboration
I’m on a bit of a roll on the topic of collaboration on teams. This little flurry of posts stemmed from three teams in a row that raised concerns about...
How to Deliver Feedback
Giving someone feedback can be uncomfortable. Some people even agonize over how (and if) they should share a difficult message with a teammate or a direct report. Unfortunately, that discomfort...