Healthier Teams Relieve Sunday Night Blues

Business burnout depression frustration

I’ve noticed a particular challenge that the leaders and managers I work with face. I call it the Sunday Night Blues. It begins with mild anxiety on Sunday afternoon. It is not debilitating, but it is draining. The prospect of Monday morning is looming. Your full inbox is waiting. An unresolved conflict demands closure. An unhappy …

Read more

Leading Millennials in the Workplace: Embracing the Next Generation

How to lead millennials and iY generation employees

“How do you manage these millennials?” Questions about leading millennials in the workplace are rarely asked without a tone of frustration. Established leaders are frustrated with the perceived lack of strong work ethic in the post-collegiate labor pool. The approach to work ethic for baby boomers is vastly different from the approach of millennials and the emerging …

Read more

Empathy: Walk a Mile in My Shoes

Effective leadership, empathy

The Power of Empathy in Leadership During a recent leadership development meeting with a client team, the word empathy kept coming up in our conversation. It came up as a necessary, yet clearly deficient, component in their approach to leadership. Would your team members say that you understand and appreciate what they are feeling? Among this particular team, there …

Read more

Recognition: The Key to Employee Engagement

leadership, organizational development, team building, employee engagement

Every recognized national resource agrees: the statistics for employee engagement nationwide are staggering. And, not in a good way. Published average figures for employee engagement show 70% of all workers are disengaged. And, up to half that population is “actively” disengaged. This group is actually working against the stated vision of your team while continuing …

Read more

Listening to Improve Performance and Engagement

Improve Your Leadership by Listening

Listening well may be the simplest key to improving your team’s engagement and performance. Value is Conferred by Listening Most of my clients can easily rehearse the idea, “people only feel valued to the degree that they feel heard.” In the pursuit of creating a culture where people feel valued above process and product, we …

Read more

Trust: The Art of Thinking Small(town)

Build trust in your organization

I live in a small town in rural South Carolina. Most of my client work is in the larger regional markets of Charleston, Charlotte, and Asheville. I love coming home to Hartsville. Matters of business, politics, and religion are still hashed out over bad coffee and good sausage. It is not unusual to find executives from Sonoco …

Read more

Core Values: Clarifying Values for Your Organization

Core Values: Create Your Team's Core Values

What are the core values around which your team aligns? Can you easily rehearse the behaviors that you and your team have agreed to expect from each other? If you can’t quickly and clearly define your core values and behaviors, don’t sweat yet. You aren’t alone. Most of the teams I work with initially balk at …

Read more