Mutual Accountability Leads to a Culture of Excellence

The development of strong mutual accountability is one of the most significant stages of the cultural development of an organization. Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright describe the stages of accountability and explain how we, as people, are essentially tribal in their book, Tribal Leadership.  The authors developed the book as the result of … Read more

The Backbrief: A Tool For Better Listening

Listening can feel harder to do than ever. There’s always going to be outside distractions. Emails, texts, meetings, presentations, it can seem to go on and on. It can be easy to get lost in a sea of noise. How do we become better listeners? One tool to do so is called the backbrief. The … Read more

The Decision Tree

There’s a reason why “micromanage” is often considered a dirty word. The idea that a single leader can handle every aspect of a task, down to the smallest detail, is truly a myth. Even if someone could handle it all themselves, it would result in the crowding out of other team members. Micromanagement will only create … Read more

Effective Coaching: Two-Minute Leadership video blog

Coaching can be defined as instructing or training another person or group of people. All leaders have a responsibility to coach their team. How do you do so in a way that ensures growth and progress? In this entry in my series of Two-Minute Leadership video blogs, the topic is “Effective Coaching,” and the answer … Read more

Benchmarking Your Culture: Leadership Journey of Discovery, Part 6

How do we know how we measure up? We need a point of reference. To benchmark is to compare yourself against the highest standards. How do we benchmark our organization’s culture to see how it is performing? I describe how in “Benchmarking Your Culture,” Part 6 of my video blog series, the Leadership Journey of … Read more

Your Most Important Meeting

I don’t think I’ve ever been involved with an organization where some, if not all, of the leaders felt the meetings they held or attended could be much more productive.  Most surveys indicate unnecessary and poorly conducted meetings are one of the biggest irritants in the workplace. Even worse, we typically don’t hold the most … Read more