Leadership with Style

If you work in the corporate world, it’s likely you have been affected by a merger or acquisition sometime in your career. Maybe your company has been bought, or your company bought another one, or you have clients that have been through mergers. Regardless of where you fall, mergers are stressful. People worry about layoffs, [...]

Happy new year, everyone! I hope everyone had a happy and relaxing holiday break. Now that we’re in January, you might be making resolutions for the new year. I decided to keep mine simple this year with the following all-encompassing resolution: Let the little things go and focus on what’s truly important. We’re always hearing [...]

We’ve all worked with at least one. The co-workers that are just miserable to work with. You dread meetings with them, you fear you’ll be put on projects with them, and you get frustrated to no end when you are forced to deal with them. Some call them toxic employees. Having worked with a few [...]

I’m convinced most people are not good at communication. There are all kinds of books, blogs, seminars, and therapists floating around about how to communicate more effectively. While it’s certainly an issue in all areas, I’m going to focus on communication in email. To start with, email is a flawed medium. The reader can’t see [...]

Work has been stressful lately. I’m sure I’m not the only one this applies to…I’m pretty sure lots of you are in the boat where fewer people are having to do more work, possibly accompanied by pay cuts or layoffs or just the general overwhelming craziness of it all. It takes a toll on the [...]

I haven’t written much on my blog here in the last few weeks. My house is torn up due to foundation and plumbing repairs, my son was sick for a week, then I was sick several days. Then there’s the usual busy work schedule, getting ready for the kids to start school, and trying to [...]

How often do you reward yourself or your team for accomplishments? Do you take time to acknowledge even the small things achieved, or are you always looking forward to what else you or your team has to do? Celebrating small victories is a crucial part of leading others to a larger goal and keeping them [...]

I’m a manager. Therefore, it’s an unfortunate given that I attend a lot of meetings. In my years of attending multiple meetings a day, I have observed behaviors that if corrected, would lead to much more effective meetings. Some thoughts on how to be a good meeting attendee: Be on time. Common courtesy. Enough said. [...]

The fifth season of Design Star started a couple of weeks ago. After watching episode 2 last night, I was struck by how obnoxious and domineering Nina, the leader of the women’s team, acted. She was a self-appointed leader, but she didn’t act like a leader at all. For those of you who don’t watch, [...]

Go check out my post on manager productivity on the Make Work Meaningful site, a collaborative conversation on the future of work. I’m planning to expand on each of my points in that post here on this blog in upcoming posts.