Blog | Team Effectiveness
All Topics • Conflict • Teamwork • Accountability • Meetings • Feedback • Personal Effectiveness • Toxic Work • Hybrid Work • Strategy • Connection
Latest Posts
For Employees
The Return to Office Fight is About Control not Productivity
I’ve had many conversations about returning to the office lately. In fact, I’m writing this post in a café in Ottawa while waiting to give a speech about it. I’ve...
Why People Don’t Want to Return to the Office
Are you reluctant to return to the office? Is your team? I know many people who are. One of them is helping to craft their company’s Return to Office program....
How to Strengthen Connection on Remote and Hybrid Teams
Are you finding that your virtual team is productive but not much fun? Are you spending hours with your teammates each week but still feeling like you barely know them...
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?...
Building Trust in Remote and Hybrid Teams
Trust is critical to the efficient and effective operation of any team. Research suggests that trust enhances productivity, proactivity, and optimism. But is that equally true for virtual teams? It...
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 Make Yourself Feel Better
How goes the roller coaster? This is week four of isolation at our house and I’m becoming more and more interested in emotional regulation (not a coincidence). So many of...
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...
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...
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...
For Managers
Drama Detox: How to Reduce Emotionality on Your Team
We’re talking about drama this month. We began by defining what constitutes drama and considering why being dramatic can be rewarding. Next, we got tactical about what to do when...
Leaders Do Not Understand Prioritization
If you want to see me turn red and blow steam out my ears like a 1970s cartoon character, just sit me in an audience with a group of leaders...
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...
Is Emotional Intelligence Really That Important?
Can I be candid with you? I sometimes roll my eyes at the term “emotional intelligence.” Sure, I believe there are traits, skills, and behaviors that contribute to people’s ability...
Improving Team Alignment
If you want a high-performing team, everyone must be aligned. But often, I find that teams make a cursory effort to get on the same page and then run off...
Trust the Process
Here's a conundrum I see frequently. You're completely dependent on your colleagues to do their work (well and on time), but you're too busy to keep tabs on their progress....
Building Trust in Remote and Hybrid Teams
Trust is critical to the efficient and effective operation of any team. Research suggests that trust enhances productivity, proactivity, and optimism. But is that equally true for virtual teams? It...
Toxic Team Dynamics
Is your team dynamic toxic? Does it detract from your ability to get the job done? Is it ripping you and your colleagues apart? Or just ripping you apart? Maybe...
Too Many False Alarms
Since the advent of nuclear weapons, there have been several incidents where false alarms might have caused a cascade to global thermonuclear annihilation. One such episode was triggered by a...
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...
Dysfunctional Behavior in Disguise
When introducing change to your team, it’s completely normal that you’ll face some unpredictable reactions. Heck, it’s completely normal that you’ll HAVE some unpredictable reactions. Volatility in the face of...
Do Teams Decide?
What is the most important role of your team? Why do you come together? I ask those questions of every team I work with. What is the organization counting on...
Keep or Ditch?
Last week, I facilitated a business strategy session online using MS Teams. This is the kind of session that most leaders would traditionally have said needed to be in person....
Getting Your Team Unstuck
You’re stuck on a toxic team. You’ve been trying to keep your head down and get along with everyone, but you can’t take it anymore. You’re done with the passive-aggressiveness....
The Role of a Team Leader
If you’ve read my book or heard me speak , you probably know my story about how cross-functional teams aren’t like rowers (members aren’t all pulling in the same direction),...
Hey Leader, It’s Not About You
Is there a risk in leading from strength? I’m starting to think so. I’ve worked with hundreds of team leaders over the years and almost all of them have been...
What Teams Can Learn From Olympic Athletes
I get to work with some amazing teams, but this spring, serendipity handed me a seat on a flight beside the Canadian Olympic synchronized swimming team members . They take...
Get Liane’s free tools & resources
Get access to Liane’s free tools and resources you can use to reduce drama and increase productivity.
Subscribe to get her latest ideas delivered to your inbox.
For Coaches
9 Signs You Might Be Creating Drama on Your Team
When I first began this series on drama in the workplace, I invoked Cy Wakeman’s definition of “arguing with reality.” We talked about all the ways your hapless colleagues might...
Drama Detox: How to Reduce Emotionality on Your Team
We’re talking about drama this month. We began by defining what constitutes drama and considering why being dramatic can be rewarding. Next, we got tactical about what to do when...
Leaders Do Not Understand Prioritization
If you want to see me turn red and blow steam out my ears like a 1970s cartoon character, just sit me in an audience with a group of leaders...
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...
Is Emotional Intelligence Really That Important?
Can I be candid with you? I sometimes roll my eyes at the term “emotional intelligence.” Sure, I believe there are traits, skills, and behaviors that contribute to people’s ability...
Trust the Process
Here's a conundrum I see frequently. You're completely dependent on your colleagues to do their work (well and on time), but you're too busy to keep tabs on their progress....
Toxic Team Dynamics
Is your team dynamic toxic? Does it detract from your ability to get the job done? Is it ripping you and your colleagues apart? Or just ripping you apart? Maybe...
The Role of a Team Leader
If you’ve read my book or heard me speak , you probably know my story about how cross-functional teams aren’t like rowers (members aren’t all pulling in the same direction),...
What Teams Can Learn From Olympic Athletes
I get to work with some amazing teams, but this spring, serendipity handed me a seat on a flight beside the Canadian Olympic synchronized swimming team members . They take...