You’ve probably heard of a team retrospective before, traditionally used within Agile teams at the end of a sprint to encourage continuous learning while creating cohesion among teams by celebrating

It's 5:30pm and you're finally shutting down for the day. You're feeling completely exhausted, yet aren't entirely sure where the last 8 hours went. Your list of complaints has grown

Why is finding focus so important Finding focus in what you do helps you absorb and retain information and improves creativity.  Maintaining focus in a meeting or one-on-one helps you

To ensure a successful strategic planning meeting, you need a well-defined agenda, actively engaged participants, and expert facilitation. These key elements will help you achieve the desired outcomes, propelling your

Why You Should Plan Your Goals: The Importance of Planning Every carpenter know you cut once but measure twice.  There are some actions you just can’t undo, not to mention your time is limited.  We can spend months or years doing things that don’t really matter or worse yet working towards destinations that are counter to where we actually want to go. You may decide you want to write a

With the release of the feature movie, I am reminded of a lesson plan I once compiled based on the book, The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.  At the time, I had just started a new position as chief of staff to the CEO of a small software company. The company had recently been acquired by a Private Equity firm and had merged with another company.  The

Understanding the Layoff Process Layoff's are an unfortunate consequence of economic downturns which impact even the most people-centric cultures. While a necessary evil, layoffs and furloughs, like any other difficult human resource decision, can be handled with grace and empathy or be a massive failure. More often than not, it seems that employers choose to rip off the band-aid rather than lead with empathy when they conduct layoffs, resulting in

How do you earn trust?  This is going to be beyond a few trust falls.  Real trust is built over time.  It can be hard to earn, but also easily lost. So why put in the work to establish trust? As a leader without trust of your employees, you will struggle to achieve a productive workplace.  People stay, are loyal, and put in the extra mile when they feel safe,

As we’ve discussed before, high emotional intelligence is a key factor in achieving professional and personal success. While many resources aim to explain the concept of EI (emotional intelligence) or EQ (emotional quotient), they often provide limited advice on how to enhance these skills. Every individual has their own strengths and weaknesses, whether it relates to their ability to interact socially or handle their own emotions. We are here to

Decades of research shows high emotional intelligence is the critical factor that sets star performers apart from the rest. In fact, EQ is the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace, and strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence.  According to author Travis Bradberry's research in Emotional Intelligence 2.0 Step by Step: 58% of successful job performance is directly correlated to EQ 36% of people can accurately identify emotions