Asking TO Help Instead of Only Asking FOR Help (and Why It Matters)

Recently, a friend told me a story about the unexpected joy she received one day while she was out running errands. She wanted to stay anonymous, so we will call her Charity. One afternoon at work, Charity left the office to take care of some shopping for work. It was a lovely day, and she […]

Two Ways to Make Sure Your Employees Aren’t Wasting Time at Work

Our team was wasting two hours of time after each training. That means with the 90 trainings we did in 2017, our team wasted a total of 180 hours. That’s almost a month of wasting time! What happened? After every training, we had a process of sharing all the training photos on our Facebook page […]

Should you be friends with your co-workers?

Not long ago, someone posted online, “If your only friends are your co-workers, then you have no friends.” I started thinking about different jobs I’ve had, and the office dynamics attached to each of them. And while my co-workers weren’t my only friends, I most certainly considered them friends. Some things can’t help but be […]

Using the Consistency Principle to Nudge Someone into Participating

Leading up to the national elections last year, I received a series of text messages on my phone. Most of the texts were informational regarding polling locations and deadlines. One text, that came the day prior to election day, caught my eye because it asked me if I was planning to vote tomorrow and asked […]

Why Your New Year’s Resolution Will Fail Without “Ego Minimization”

Pretend for a moment you promised your 5-year-old niece that you’d bring your famous peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies to the holiday party on Saturday. But you get home from work, and you’re exhausted. Do you hunker down and do it anyway? Of course, you do! You can’t disappoint, those big brown eyes and that […]

3 Reasons Your Team Thinks You’re Not a Morning Person (and How To Fix it)

6:00AM, Monday morning, that dreadful and loud alarm you set on your phone the night before starts screaming.  You immediately wake up feeling exhausted and dead, and you hit the snooze button, so you can get those extra few minutes that you “need.”  6:05AM hits, your alarm goes off again.  Still feeling exhausted and dead, you […]

Making Meetings Matter – Our 5 Favorite Meeting Activities

“Welcome to this week’s meeting. I would like to begin by doing an icebreaker.” *Audible groan and visible slouching in seats.* Meetings. Nearly every professional has them, some dread them, most do them wrong. Below, you will see our top 5 favorite icebreakers meeting activities to lighten the mood and build community on your team […]

How to Support a Team Member During a Big Life Event

It’s Wednesday morning and Melissa walks into the office. “Sabina, why are you staring at me?” -twitch– unintelligible string of words – “proofread crossword. Travel Tom, ring bearer gift” – twitch– Somehow, some way, she understood me. This is what happens when your wedding is four days away, and your team is the best ever. […]

Are You the Player, the Coach, or the Owner of Your Team?

My day started off by prepping for an upcoming monthly financial team meeting. Then I went into one-on-one meetings with my direct reports. Lastly, I finished my day by speaking at a leadership conference. To effectively perform each of these activities, I needed a different set of skills and mindset. As the leader of a team […]