Stop Micromanaging Your Top Talent, Build Accountability With Engagement Levels
If you’re still treating your top performers like they’re on probation, don’t be surprised when they start looking for another job. Just ask Netflix. During its rise from DVD-mailer to streaming giant, Netflix built a culture known for two things: unusual autonomy and intense accountability. Their leadership philosophy, called “Freedom and Responsibility”, meant managers were […]
U.S. Employee Engagement Just Hit a 10-Year Low
If Half Your Team Is Showing Up but Checked Out, You Don’t Have a Performance Problem, You Have an Engagement Crisis I was talking with a senior leadership team recently who kept asking the same question:“Why aren’t people going the extra mile anymore?” They weren’t alone. Across industries, leaders are watching motivation stall. Projects move […]
Too Much Togetherness Is Killing Team Productivity
When the group broke out in a fight over who got the green kayak, I knew it was bad. At one point in my life, I ran an academic and life skills summer sleep-away camp. You know, the kind with friendship bracelets, ropes courses, and a suspicious amount of bug spray. The kids would show […]
Your Team Needs To Act More Like Vampire Bats
No, I’m not telling you to ask HR to start putting pints of blood in the break room. Stay with me.. Vampire bats have a bizarre survival strategy that’s surprisingly relevant to your team. In the wild, if a bat fails to feed one night, it doesn’t just cross its wings and hope for better […]
Would You Spill Your Feelings to a Robot? Your Team Might Already Be Doing It
Turns out, the most empathetic ‘person’ on your team might be a chatbot. I was recently working with a company exploring ways to support employee mental health as a way to increase employee engagement. Their HR lead put it bluntly: “Our EAP (Employee Assistance Program) is a ghost town, and no one wants to be […]
The Hidden Cost of Tight-Knit Teams: How to Fix a Bounded Culture
Does your team feel more like Cross-Fit or Alcoholics Anonymous? I was working with a leader named Cara who ran a high-performing, close-knit team at a SaaS company. Her people loved each other. Their Slack was chaos in the best way, custom emojis, inside jokes, birthday gifs, and more gifs. It was the kind of […]
How to Break Up Office Cliques Without Breaking Your Culture
The one rule we had to repeat every year to our staff was, “No summer camp love connections!” This was part of a 10-day summer program I helped run for high school and college students. We trained the staff on how to help the students connect, but never too much. Why? Because if two students […]
What a Litter Campaign Can Teach You About Employee Engagement
“Don’t mess with Texas” didn’t just fight litter—it sparked a movement. Back in the early 2000s, 95% of Texans could instantly recognize that slogan. It wasn’t just a clever tagline. It was cultural. It was tribal. And it worked. Within one year of launching the campaign, Texas saw a 29% drop in roadside litter. Six […]
How I Helped a 100% Remote Company Build a Stronger Team Culture
Company culture didn’t die with the office—leaders just stopped trying. I was brought in by a CEO who ran a fully remote company and was in full-on “culture panic mode” because people were quitting without much of a reason. “We’re getting the work done,” she told me, “but the team feels… off. Disconnected. Like everyone’s […]
11 Creative Ways to Celebrate a Birthday via Zoom: Building Human Connection in a Digital Workspace
When our team closed our physical office during the COVID pandemic and first transitioned to remote work, our birthday celebrations became an afterthought as a quick message in the group chat or a shout out during the virtual daily team huddle. Overall it lacked the kind of love, care, and appreciation that came from in-person […]