THE MANAGEMENT BLOG
Featured Articles
Most change management strategies are reactionary, but the most effective strategy lies in cultivating a positive, engaged, and high-morale team from the outset.
Dive into the world of difficult conversations and challenging employee responses, armed with tools to make these interactions win-wins for everyone.
Systems thinking is a powerful tool for managers. It helps us move beyond simplistic, linear thinking to understand the complex, interconnected nature of our organizations.
Today, we're diving into the feels – both yours and your employee's – and how to handle them like the emotionally intelligent leader you are (or aspire to be).
Here's the deal: setting clear expectations is not just about making the workday smoother; it's about creating an environment where people can thrive and want to stay.
Adaptive Skills
Today, we're diving into the feels – both yours and your employee's – and how to handle them like the emotionally intelligent leader you are (or aspire to be).
It’s important to keep in mind that when we give someone corrective or critical feedback, it will likely trigger a "fear response" in that person. Here’s how to mitigate that defensiveness.
Four immediately actionable ways (as in, you can do these today or tomorrow) you as a manager can create psychological safety with your team members…and why you should.
Feeling defensive is human. It’s a manifestation of a fear response that takes place in our amygdala fear and triggers our “fight, flight, or freeze” instincts.
Change Management
Articles by Topic:
Most change management strategies are reactionary, but the most effective strategy lies in cultivating a positive, engaged, and high-morale team from the outset.
The true challenge of any training or development initiative lies in keeping the momentum going.
Change management is an art – we must help people work through the resistance so they can accept and embrace change.
Change. We all resist it on some level, whether the change in question is good for us or not. This resistance to change can be the bane of an organization’s existence.
Conflict Resolution
Dive into the world of difficult conversations and challenging employee responses, armed with tools to make these interactions win-wins for everyone.
Engage in heated, free-for-all debates that often lead nowhere or consider using a version of the IMAGO conversation process. This approach ensures that everyone's opinions are heard and understood fully.
When skillfully harnessed, conflict emerges as a catalyst for positive transformations: a forge where creativity is kindled, decisions are refined, and bonds are fortified.
Delve into specific mindsets that individuals and teams can adopt to change their perception of conflict and handle it in a way that yields positive team outcomes.
When team members are able to stay relationally engaged in the midst of conflict (regardless of outcomes), they tend to walk away feeling respected and empowered, instead of drained and angry.
Effective Meetings
It sucks to consistently have critical job duties get pushed into the evenings and weekends because you’re spending a lot of the regular work hours in meetings.
You’re wondering who should be in each meeting, are you? Tough question! The answer to this question is circumstantial. But here’s the thing - big meetings make people sad.
As an agency, we’ve interviewed thousands of leaders and employees, and a common complaint we hear is, “I’m in too many meetings.”
Employees just want to know if they’re influencing, deciding, or neither. They’re usually OK with whichever one it is.
When they’re done right, remote meetings can foster an environment of connection and collaboration where stuff gets done. When they’re done poorly, they can really suck.
Employee Engagement
Remote and Hybrid Teams
Understanding People
Workplace Culture
Here's the deal: setting clear expectations is not just about making the workday smoother; it's about creating an environment where people can thrive and want to stay.
It’s crucial to understand that cultivating a psychologically safe environment does not equate to an unhealthy leniency in terms of behaviors, processes, or outcomes.
Although the idea of “quiet quitting” is now in vogue, it’s not new; many people have been silently skating by for years.
If you want to improve engagement, the best place to start is to improve your leadership culture.
Being a good coach and being a good manager involves a very similar set of skills. In our modern workforce, being a good manager means you have to be a good coach.
Giving and Receiving Feedback
One-on-One Meetings
Dive into the world of difficult conversations and challenging employee responses, armed with tools to make these interactions win-wins for everyone.
Today, we're diving into the feels – both yours and your employee's – and how to handle them like the emotionally intelligent leader you are (or aspire to be).
It’s important to keep in mind that when we give someone corrective or critical feedback, it will likely trigger a "fear response" in that person. Here’s how to mitigate that defensiveness.
Feeling defensive is human. It’s a manifestation of a fear response that takes place in our amygdala fear and triggers our “fight, flight, or freeze” instincts.
We often find that agencies that have experienced positive culture change attribute a large part of their success to the fact that every employee is regularly meeting with his/her direct supervisor.
Growth Mindset
Change management is an art – we must help people work through the resistance so they can accept and embrace change.
These days, self-compassion and “growth mindset” are terms used frequently in the business word, but frequently disregarded as irrelevant factors of performance.
Feeling defensive is human. It’s a manifestation of a fear response that takes place in our amygdala fear and triggers our “fight, flight, or freeze” instincts.
Listening so people feel respected, showing up non-defensively, controlling our emotional impulses and owning our mistakes – these skills are vital to the health of our relationships.
We're sitting on a planet spinning around in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and our time here is SO brief. The least we can do for ourselves, for others and for the world is find the beauty and the richness and the pleasure in the dailyness of life.
Healthy Teams
Most change management strategies are reactionary, but the most effective strategy lies in cultivating a positive, engaged, and high-morale team from the outset.
Engage in heated, free-for-all debates that often lead nowhere or consider using a version of the IMAGO conversation process. This approach ensures that everyone's opinions are heard and understood fully.
When skillfully harnessed, conflict emerges as a catalyst for positive transformations: a forge where creativity is kindled, decisions are refined, and bonds are fortified.
Delve into specific mindsets that individuals and teams can adopt to change their perception of conflict and handle it in a way that yields positive team outcomes.
When team members are able to stay relationally engaged in the midst of conflict (regardless of outcomes), they tend to walk away feeling respected and empowered, instead of drained and angry.
We have found that there’s not a more effective, broad-reaching, morale- and relationship-building practice than intentional, regular, scheduled one-on-one meetings with employees.
Any time a group of research subjects are asked what they want or need from their manager/boss at work, some version of “caring and respect” usually comes out on top.
We often find that agencies that have experienced positive culture change attribute a large part of their success to the fact that every employee is regularly meeting with his/her direct supervisor.
Performance Management
Psychological Safety
Top 15 Management Skills
Dive into the world of difficult conversations and challenging employee responses, armed with tools to make these interactions win-wins for everyone.
Systems thinking is a powerful tool for managers. It helps us move beyond simplistic, linear thinking to understand the complex, interconnected nature of our organizations.
Today, we're diving into the feels – both yours and your employee's – and how to handle them like the emotionally intelligent leader you are (or aspire to be).
Here's the deal: setting clear expectations is not just about making the workday smoother; it's about creating an environment where people can thrive and want to stay.
Being a good coach and being a good manager involves a very similar set of skills. In our modern workforce, being a good manager means you have to be a good coach.
Power Differential
It’s important to keep in mind that when we give someone corrective or critical feedback, it will likely trigger a "fear response" in that person. Here’s how to mitigate that defensiveness.
Four immediately actionable ways (as in, you can do these today or tomorrow) you as a manager can create psychological safety with your team members…and why you should.
Here are some things to consider that could help keep both the work relationship and the personal relationship not only possible, but also healthy and enjoyable.
Most organizations fail to prepare non-managers for the challenges associated with moving from being a peer to being a manager. Here are some hints to guide you through your first weeks following your promotion.
One of the only contexts in which we as adults consciously enter into relationships characterized by actual “authority” (where one person is “superior” to the other in rank and decision-making control) is at work.
It’s crucial to understand that cultivating a psychologically safe environment does not equate to an unhealthy leniency in terms of behaviors, processes, or outcomes.
In a healthy leadership team all leaders, from supervisors to executives, are singing off the same sheet of music with best-practice leadership and management behaviors.
It’s important to keep in mind that when we give someone corrective or critical feedback, it will likely trigger a "fear response" in that person. Here’s how to mitigate that defensiveness.
Four immediately actionable ways (as in, you can do these today or tomorrow) you as a manager can create psychological safety with your team members…and why you should.
These days, self-compassion and “growth mindset” are terms used frequently in the business word, but frequently disregarded as irrelevant factors of performance.
When they’re done right, remote meetings can foster an environment of connection and collaboration where stuff gets done. When they’re done poorly, they can really suck.
Some of us have been managing remote teams for years, but for many this is a brand new experience. Here are some quick and easy(ish) practices and tips to help you set your remote team up for success.
If you want to improve engagement, the best place to start is to improve your leadership culture.
Managing others well involves a specific set of best-practice, tried-and-true management skills. We’ve narrowed them down to what we call “The Top 15 Management Skills” based on years of observing managers and following the research.
Some of us have been managing remote teams for years, but for many this is a brand new experience. Here are some quick and easy(ish) practices and tips to help you set your remote team up for success.
Most effective in motivating employees aren't rewards or compensations made by the company at-large, but rather encouragement and recognition initiated by managers or supervisors.
There is a style of management that can better guide and encourage people to successfully and efficiently perform their jobs: MACRO-managing.
Building trust and respect in the workplace is a layered, complicated, and nuanced process. A great starting point is teaching your team to recognize the differences in the way people show up and the qualities (and otherwise) each behavior style brings to the workplace.
Systems thinking is a powerful tool for managers. It helps us move beyond simplistic, linear thinking to understand the complex, interconnected nature of our organizations.
Today, we're diving into the feels – both yours and your employee's – and how to handle them like the emotionally intelligent leader you are (or aspire to be).
Here's the deal: setting clear expectations is not just about making the workday smoother; it's about creating an environment where people can thrive and want to stay.
The true challenge of any training or development initiative lies in keeping the momentum going.
It’s crucial to understand that cultivating a psychologically safe environment does not equate to an unhealthy leniency in terms of behaviors, processes, or outcomes.
Most organizations fail to prepare non-managers for the challenges associated with moving from being a peer to being a manager. Here are some hints to guide you through your first weeks following your promotion.