On a recent business trip, I binge-watched season five of Scandal . I'm not wild about all the acting and the plot twists and turns so much I have whiplash, but the thing that struck me over and over again in the series is how nobody is held accountable for their actions . (Well, that is, unless they get shot. Then there's some accountability.) I won't ruin the plot, but there is a threat that the president will be impeached for doing something bad (that we all know he di

What's that smell in the air? Leaves falling? Pumpkin-spiced everything? The NYC Marathon runners prepping for the big day? No. It's the approach of Appraisal Season. Review Time. Annual Feedback. And if you haven't had good documentation all year, you're going to be feeling the pinch of bias and forgetfulness when it comes to reviewing your employees' performance over the last year. To help with that, here are some valuable tips for reviewing the documentation you've c

Before diving into this post, ask yourself: Where do you need to be more influential? Is it at work, with your manager, stakeholders, or direct reports? Is it at home, with your spouse, partner, or kids? Or is it in your community, with your friends, neighbors, or fellow members of an organization? No matter where you need to be influential, it's important to know who you're trying to influence and what matters to them . You, like my father, may get all jazzed up about

We've all worked with someone who, for reasons we can't understand, just doesn't do the things they're supposed to do. The filing piles...

In every conversation, there is a WHAT and a HOW . The WHAT is the content, or the topics being discussed or decided in the conversation....

I've been working with several leadership teams recently who are struggling with all kinds of challenges, but the number one problem I've...

In her insightful book on women's sexuality,  Come As You Are , Emily Nagoski addresses the complex emotions that can develop between two...

Every year on my birthday, my mother tells me the story of Mrs. Jordan, the babysitter she arranged with to take care of my two-year-old...

You may have heard a lot about having a growth mindset recently. It's good for business! It's good for parenting! It's good for...

I'd like to get this question a lot more than I do. Because if I did, I'd be able to tell people what happens in a coaching session, how...

On my daughter's eighth birthday this summer, I had a revelation. I was chatting with a fellow mom about all the memories we...

What happens to you when you've had a rough day, you sit down to process it with another person, and that person starts jumping in with...

The other day, my older daughter was mad at my younger one because she told her to take her plate to the kitchen. "YOU'RE NOT MY...

I recently facilitated two separate conversations between teammates (at two different organizations) where trust had been broken. I...

I sat down to play a card game with my daughter the other day, and she literally made up the rules as we went along. She was emphatic...

I'm guessing you can relate. It's summer, and my kids are on vacation. They think I'm on vacation, too, and abandoning the computer is...

I work with a fabulous organization called Wildfire Strategies , and our fearless leader, Steve Salee , has written an article that has...

I was working with a team recently on building respect and we discovered (unsurprisingly) that we didn't all define respect the same way....

Brene Brown put it well: “Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.” I've experienced this firsthand: Many years ago, my boss gave me feedback...

I've been working on a webinar about boundaries and how important it is to set boundaries both at work and at home. There are seven...