The Danger of Keeping Negative Nellies on Your Team
Devin ran a real-estate management firm and his team was very close. They celebrated everything from birthdays to anniversaries together. From the outside, you’d assume they were the perfect team, but danger was just under the surface. Devin was actually running a team that was about to rot from the inside out, all because of […]
The Four Big Myths of Dance Floor Theory
Dance Floor Theory is an engagement system that can be used by any team or organization to better engage their employees or members. We use dance floors as a visual representation of engagement within an organization. In the middle of the dance are the most engaged dancers. We call them 5s. The least engaged dancers […]
Using State Management on a Team of Zombies
To say we were all exhausted would be an understatement. After nine almost 16-hour days, managing 150 high school students, even the Energizer Bunny would probably tap out. My 20-person staff had one more day of the 10-day program. I needed the team to show up with the same amount of energy they had on […]
When Employee Engagement Goes Too Far – Scary Sixes
Robyn works at a large cosmetics company where meetings happen every day, all day. Others on the team describe her as loud, excited, and never-ending. In meetings, there is often no reason for Robyn to answer questions, but she does anyway. Many times, the questions aren’t related to her job, and she doesn’t even have […]
Apply Two Hat Theory for Better Customer Service
I don’t usually show annoyance in my face, but the flight attendant on a recent flight was so oblivious to how she was treating me, that I couldn’t help myself. It all started on a six-hour flight from Seattle to NYC. Within an hour of taking off, I finished the water in my canteen. I […]
Good Leaders Don’t Waste Downtime – 4 Things to Do in December
In August, we spoke at 28 different events. In September we spoke at 13, and in December we spoke at 0. Some might look at December and think of it as a chance to exhale from the never ending travel and speaking that happened in the Fall. But as the CEO of Swift Kick, I […]
The Failed Promise of Open Office Spaces
Innocently enough, a co-worker of mine recently asked me about a meal replacement shake I was having for lunch. While I was explaining the finer points of the ingredients, another co-worker overheard our conversation from her desk in our open office space and chimed in. Moments later, another co-worker made a sarcastic comment about my […]
Swift Kick’s 3 Steps To Creating A Culture Of Connection
A core value of Facebook is “Move Fast.” “Moving fast enables us to build more things and learn faster. We’re less afraid of making mistakes than we are of losing opportunities by moving too slowly. We are a culture of builders, the power is in your hands.” A core value of Apple is “Saying No.” […]
3 Signs Your Team Culture is Rotten
The team had nicknamed their boss “Lunch Box” so they could talk trash about him in the company chat room without him noticing. As if that’s not sad enough, what’s even sadder is that Lunch Box didn’t even know his team had nicknamed him Lunch Box. Sometimes he’d jump in on the conversations, thinking they […]
7 Ways To Stay Engaged With A Virtual Team
I pulled over in the middle of nowhere on I-80 next to a herd of cows because it was the only WiFi signal I was able to find for the last 40 miles. I tethered my phone to my laptop and dialed into our team’s daily 10:10am huddle. In looking at myself in the reflection […]