humans at work

Featured Post on Lead Change Leadership Blog: Don’t Let Your To-Do List Override Your Good Sense

December 8, 2011

By this time you’ve heard story after story of Black Friday gone wrong.  Shoppers with a laser focus on “making the season bright” allowed themselves to be willing to hurt another to achieve their prized purchase.  What a way to start off the holiday season wrong on so many levels… read remainder of post at [...]

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Are You Believing in Your Own Vast Potential?

December 6, 2011

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.
- Martin Luther King Jr
I was going on as usual the other day about my belief in the vast potential of human beings.  And [...]

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Are You Doing Too Much Heavy Lifting?

November 18, 2011
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I’ve been struggling a lot lately with feeling like I’m not doing enough.  I’ve been busy doing work and traveling, but I also have my eye on writing and creating some new stuff.
Last night I showed up at my coaching call with no agenda.  I was a little too burnt.  All I knew was that [...]

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Managers: Now that Halloween is Over, Loosen up That Mask

November 1, 2011
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Halloween is always an interesting season for me.  Young and old get into the spirit of having fun, dressing up maybe, pretending to be someone else.
I wonder if when adults dress in costume, whatever the occasion, we aren’t actually revealing more about ourselves than we realize.  And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.   I [...]

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Don’t Be a Victim of Perpetual Inbox Obsession

October 11, 2011
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You probably know people who believe that there is an expectation in your organization that you have to be “on” 24/7.  You might even think that yourself.
It’s hard not to.  And at the same time, we know that it is impossible and not even a good idea to be available and ready for input all—the—time.
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In [...]

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Humans: Are You Getting More Respect Than You Need?

September 13, 2011
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Many years ago a colleague leading a training class asked us this as we started, “Who here can say they are getting more respect than they need?”  Can you imagine a world where that was the case – getting more respect than you need?  Is that possible?
And in my singularly focused way, can you imagine [...]

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Treating People at Work Humanly – part 57 (She Just Won’t Get Off the Subject…)

August 23, 2011
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Yes, I said “humanly,” not humanely.  Humane treatment to me means the minimum standard, such as providing breaks, water and bathrooms.
No, I’m challenging you to take it a step further and go beyond biological needs, to higher-level human needs, such as the need to be seen, to know somebody has your back, to know there [...]

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Human Capital. How Inspir…zzzzzzz

August 9, 2011
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We as managers often use the term, “Human Capital,” without a second thought.
A financial term, I understand the need for it and yet it puts us in a potentially harmful mindset, objectifying those who are employed to get work done —also known as human beings.
Not only can objectifying be harmful from a human dignity standpoint, [...]

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The Truth Will Set You Free (But First it Might P*ss You Off)

August 2, 2011
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You might be familiar with this, when suggesting to your peer leaders that, as a collective, you should  acknowledge the truth of a difficult message, what you hear is: “We don’t want to be negative.”  As if employees won’t notice this is bad news…
If it’s employees’ emotional reactions you are trying to minimize, I’ve got to [...]

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Leaders: What Severus Snape Can Teach You About Your Employees

July 26, 2011
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[Spoiler Alert!!!  Caution, this post refers to secrets revealed in the last book and movie of the Harry Potter series.]
Given the final installment of Harry Potter (HP) is out on film, you might have noticed all these posts about what we can learn from HP about anything from leadership to personal finance to travel.
But, having [...]

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What We Can Learn about Leadership from Celebrity Fashion Choices – Part 1

July 12, 2011
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One of my friends said my blog posts are most interesting to her when I mention clothes (see “She Had Me At, ‘I Got Rid of All My Business Suits“), so I took that as a challenge and came up with a connection between fashion and leadership.
Making use of some of the best-known style choices [...]

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What Farm Kids Know About Leadership

July 5, 2011
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I grew up on a farm.  Yep, that’s me at the left, at 5-years old, working with my father.  Notice the stripe-on-stripe outfit.  I dressed myself that day.  And that’s not the only thing I did that day…
Farm kids learn responsibility early.
I would say I “added value” as early as age 5.  I knew this [...]

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