This week, someone asked me an interesting question: “What if you don’t need any more mentors?” That was a tough question for me because I find huge value in mentorship. I love finding great mentors and, in turn, being the best mentor I can. I cannot imagine my life without mentors or mentees. These relationships…
Too often in the business world (and in many families), we get caught in the blame game. Something goes wrong and we have to figure out who made the mistake and vilify them. This sets up an environment of fear that does not support good teaming, healthy communication, or really anything that we want to…
Communication is one of the things that I believe everyone should get training in. We need to communicate effectively to be successful in our relationships, in our jobs, and pretty much every aspect of our lives. I am not talking about eloquence, I am talking about clearly communicating what you intend to communicate with another…
When you manage others, you are evaluated based on the work your employees perform (by your customers, by your boss, etc.). This can feel like a very risky proposition, if you don’t know how to get your employees to do good work. Here are some of the reasons I’ve encountered that employees don’t perform. You don’t act like…
Stop! You can say No!! It’s been a long time since I’ve written something new. Why’s that, you ask? Well, I’ve been taking care of some basics. But it’s really hard to slow down because it requires me to say “no” to a lot (and I wasn’t always successful). Why is saying “no” so hard?…
When we hate conflict, it can feel horrifying to find an angry, dissatisfied customer yelling at us. In our personal lives, we yell back, shut down, give in, or whatever. But when we’re facing customers, we feel responsible to handle it better. Here are six steps to diffuse conflict in a different way: Take a…