The Modern Manager

We all have moments when we get in our own way. Our conscious mind is saying “this is what I want” but our subconscious mind is saying “actually...I don’t think so.” This result is a confusing mess of self-sabotaging behaviors.  David Neagle is the founder of the multimillion-dollar global coaching company Life Is Now, Inc, helping thousands of entrepreneurs, experts and self-employed professional...

Delegation is a critical skill for any manager, but did you know it’s also a mindset? Many of us have had less than ideal experiences delegating in the past, making us weary of trying again. It’s almost impossible to delegate successfully if deep down, you don’t believe it will work out. It’s time for a shift in mindset. In this episode, I talk through three common fears around delegating (which I...

Being a manager is tough. Being a new manager is really tough, even if you’ve done it before in another company or with another team. There are a few things you can do to start off strong whenever you’re taking on a new managerial role. But we can all learn from these lessons whether you’re brand new or have been with the same team for years.  John Murphy is the author of 10 Key Traits of Top Busi...

Fear is one of our most natural instincts. At its best, fear drives us to make good choices that preserve our safety and security, but at its worst, it inhibits us from taking risks and moving forward. After surveying more than 4,000 people, seven patterns of fear emerged. Knowing your fear pattern, and your colleagues', can help you all achieve your goals.  Ruth Soukup is a New York Times bestsel...

It’s that time of year again, when many of us begin thinking about what we’ve accomplished and where we’re headed - in business and in life. Using a structured process to help you reflect on the past year and plan for the next year creates a sense of accomplishment and momentum to move you into the future.  Doing it as a team helps build relationships, increases morale, and offers opportunities to...

How often does your team talk about goals (or impact or accomplishments)? And how often do you talk about your values?  Too often team or organizational values are meaningless words on the wall (or website). Unless we intentionally take steps to bring these values, the beautifully crafted inspirational values will likely never become core to the culture.  In this episode, I talk through various st...

Do you ever find yourself doing anything but what you should be? Are you highly creative, imaginative and loving? Does it ever seem like you’re too empathetic? These are just a few characteristics of a highly sensitive person. Note: Being highly sensitive is not the same as being highly emotional. HSPs are more attuned to the world around them due to how their brain is wired. As you’ll soon learn,...

“Winners never quit and quitters never win.” Oh yah? Says who?  Dr. Stan Robertson is an author, coach and speaker, and has come to be known as “the quit doctor” because of his relentless determination to heal the world of the stigma and shame associated with the concept of quitting. Dr. Stan and I talk about why quitting has a bad rap, when to quit and when not to, and how to quit successfully be...

A rockstar manager does more than make sure timelines are met and goals accomplished. They know how to get an individual or team to do the best work of their lives while finding satisfaction or meaning in the process. As this week’s guest learned, it’s not about being nice, but instead about how to be authentically yourself while enabling people to accomplish more than they ever thought possible....

In his book Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business , Gino Wickman says you have to have “the right people in the right seats.” Team values help ensure you have the 'right people' by making explicit the way the group expects people to act and interact. By doing so, you are able to elevate 'how work gets done' to the same importance as 'what is accomplished.'  In this episode, I explain what team val...

Respond, don’t react. Easier said than done. When our emotions take over, our logical brain shuts down, increasing the possibility we’ll say things we don’t mean or make poor decisions. Yet we have more control over our emotional response than you might think. Ron Shuali holds a Master of Education and has spent over 15 years presenting in the  education marketplace. He is a best selling author, t...

Meetings are one of the essential tools that managers use to get work done. While meetings are prolific, they’re only a tool to accomplish some larger purpose. How we design, structure, and engage people in these gatherings is critical.  Lindsey Caplan has been gathering people for over 15 years - first to entertain, as a comedy writer in Hollywood, then to educate for companies like DreamWorks An...

We all have days when little things seem to bother us more than they should or when our emotions take over and we over-react. It’s hard to lead others when you’re feeling unsettled yourself. It’s even harder when you discover your life isn’t aligned with true purpose. Dolores Hirschmann is an internationally recognized strategist, Clarity Coach, TEDx Organizer, speaker, and author. She has over 20...

It’s hard to get into a collaboration groove when a team’s composition is in flux. Establishing solid relationships is critical to generating trust and a sense of good will. Any time there is a change to the team’s membership, there are emotions at play - hopes and fears about what this new person will bring. In this episode, I walk through the approach I use with teams to help a new colleague–whe...

Are you living your values every day? It’s not always easy to do what’s right, to recognize your own biases and mistakes, to put people before profits. But these are things that moral leaders do. And the more you do them, the easier they become for yourself and for others who follow you. That’s moral leadership. Emily Miner leads LRN’s Ethics & Compliance Advisory practice. She helps organizat...

People and businesses are complex. In order for one to thrive, so must the other. Easier said than done. This is Shannon Adkins world. She lives it and helps others figure out ways to run a business that works for its employees and wins in the market. Shannon is a thought leader and CEO at Future State, a woman-owned, employee-owned consulting company with a triple bottom line where people get to...

Working 60, 70, 80+ hours in America has become the norm for too many teams. Yet it seems impossible to get everything done in only 40 hours.  Not for the employees of Wildbit. This week’s guest shifted her organization to a 32-hour, 4-day work week. Over a year into it, they’re seeing more positive results than they could have imagined. Natalie Nagele is the co-founder and CEO of Wildbit, the com...

For many teams, email is the primary form of staying connected, making it critically important but also a major point of stress. Logistically, the most obvious way to make email more manageable is to just have fewer emails coming in. But in reality, this might actually be the hardest thing to make happen because we’re not totally in control of how many emails we receive every day. But, there are a...

Employee handbooks are typically filled with procedural information, legal requirements and company policies. They provide an important function, but aren’t typically fun to read. Nor do they incorporate concepts for how the team will work together to build a positive environment in which people thrive and great work gets done.  Building off the idea of an employee handbook, this week’s guest crea...

Very few people are eager to add more meetings to their calendar, but what would happen if you scheduled a weekly check in with each of your team members? That’s what this week’s guest did. Chris Zaugg has been leading people for over 40 years, and according to his own reflection, had made LOTS of mistakes and had a few victories. He has trained people in leadership principles and communication al...

Ah, Millennials. This generation may be the most broadly stereotyped, yet often misunderstood. As managers, we may be Millennials ourselves trying to figure out how to manage and build relationships with older peers, or we may be struggling with how to manage this unusual cohort which seems to “know everything,” and “demand autonomy.” What is really going on with Millennials and what does it mean...

Email overload plagues almost every manager. After feeling frustrated with myself for missing important emails and watching my inbox slowly tick up, I decided to take a new approach to managing my inbox. I set out to learn more about various approaches to email management and then try them out. In this episode, I share with you the various practices I learned and the impact I’ve noticed on my own...

I typically follow the 80-20 rule when considering the challenges that managers face. About 80% of a a manager’s role and the challenges they encounter are the same regardless of the setting. But that 20% which is different can be drastically different. So what might we all learn from building culture in a retail setting? This week’s guest is Lorean Cairns, Co-Founder of Fox and Jane Salons, Skin...

What’s the tone of your team? Do you assume people want to work hard, learn, grow, and achieve results? Or do you feel like you’re constantly trying to motivate people to take ownership over their work? Do you set the bar high and support your colleagues to be successful? Or do you set average expectations and focus on compliance? This week’s guest, Bob Dusin, is the co-author along with Sue Bingh...

Flexible work hours, greater autonomy, freedom, virtual teams, work from anywhere… These are growing in popularity but not always easy to implement. To successfully manage a team “at a distance” (whether that be geographic or just being more hand’s off), you need solid systems and colleagues with the right skills to succeed in that environment. This week’s guest, Carissa Reiniger, is the Founder &...