Several years ago, I had a new leader join the HR team. In our first meeting, he sat us down for a super-casual, get-to-know-him talk. He gave us his background and bio, and when he got to why he was hired to lead our team, he said, "I was brought in to blow shit up." He then proceeded to tell us how he would blow said shit up and what his vision for the future was. I pulled him aside a few days after the meeting and told him, gently, that we had built all the shit he was planning to blow...

I'm sitting in a hotel room on a family vacation as I write this. My kids are in kids' camp, and my husband is waiting for me on the beach. I've avoided my computer successfully for five consecutive days, so I'll keep this short so I can get back outside! Time off isn’t just part of your benefits package; it's intended to give you a reset in multiple ways. It has measurable, research-backed benefits for performance, decision-making, and leadership effectiveness. And yet, some studies show...

I've been seeing this a lot in the classrooms I've been in: a manager has a team member who is underperforming (for various reasons, in various ways) and they address it, but nothing changes. They address it again, maybe this time with some consequences (like "we'll have a more serious conversation about this if it continues"), and it continues. They have the serious conversation, and it still continues. Morale is starting to tank because the rest of the team sees them getting away with...