How many times have you delivered something - an email, a report, a simple task that someone offhandedly asked you to do on the way to the bathroom - and not quite gotten it right? Recently, I was working with a colleague who asked me to come up with a different way to present some concepts to our client, and I took that to mean he wanted a visual. I went to Canva and put together a couple of options for attractive visuals and 45 minutes later, when I was done, I learned th

The other day, I did some momming worthy of the Golden Globe for Best Parenting in a Comedy Series. My daughter had done something kind of stupid and impulsive and was mortified by her own behavior. My husband and I agreed that punishing her for what she did would just compound her embarrassment and shame, and so we decided to help her process her feelings instead. (And, of course, there was no screen time.) In that moment of parenting, I was intensely focused on the prese

Many moons ago, I was leading a learning and development team that was part of HR. Our jobs were to get up in front of a room full of skeptical people and share leadership, communication, or interpersonal skills, and so, in my mind, we had to look the part. For as long as I had led them, my team had dressed fairly conservatively (for our industry, at least), and it was never an issue. And then one day, one of my trainers came in wearing something that looked to me like a ba

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

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

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

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

I was running some leadership training recently when a senior leader told me his greatest strength was that he ran his business like a...

If you're anything like two of my favorite people in the world, you may be stymied by a confident, emotional, successful person needing a...

In his oldie-but-goodie 1995 book ‘Supermotivation’ , author Dean Spitzer describes 8 desires which drive our inner motivation. While...

I spent a lot of last year calling my insurance company about a large sum of money they owed me. And every time I called them, the...

Tip number eight of eight - use a predictable template when giving feedback. I've learned and taught a lot about feedback over the...

Tip number seven (of the eight ideas I originally shared ) is to prep your feedback before you give it. Now you might be saying, "Kate,...

Tip number six (out of the eight I originally outlined ) is that to make feedback useful, it has to be delivered while there's still time...

Tip number five (out of the eight originally shared ) is to make sure that giving feedback is not a rare occurrence. When we think about...

Imagine you're about to give some unpleasant critical feedback to someone who is definitely going to have a hard time taking it. What's...

Tip number three (out of the eight I originally outlined ) is that to make feedback useful, it needs to be specific and not a vague or...

Let's say that you want to give your direct report some feedback on the meeting they just ran. You have the idea of the behavior you...

When I was acting, I got a lot of feedback that really wasn't helpful. "You're too tall for this role." "We need someone older." "We...

When I first started managing people, I knew I was going to have to give feedback. I was nervous because the only real first-hand...