Managing Made Simple

Right now in the workplace, change is the only constant, and it's requiring managers and team leaders to be intentional about how they show up for their teams. But what this looks like in action is often easier said than done.  In this episode, I'm joined by Farah Bernier, HR Executive & Central Ops Executive in Tech, where we talk about the challenges leaders and managers are facing...

Bringing people together from different professional background can get your team thinking in new ways and innovating better than ever - but it can take an adjustment period that's important for managers to be aware of and support.  In this episode, I talk about the importance of the context team members bring from previous industries and roles, how to celebrate and leverage qualities that he...

We all want to be better managers - but *how* to do that is easier said than done.  Wouldn't it be awesome if someone made you a list of things to do that will improve not only your effectiveness as a manager but the performance of your team as well? I thought so too.  That's why I created the Thriving Team Scorecard, a list of twenty things you can do THIS MONTH to up your game as a man...

Back with another Ask Me Anything (AMA) episode, answering three questions you've submitted over the past few weeks.  In this AMA (first aired as a LinkedIn Live), I dive into three questions:  - How do I know if my report is venting vs needing help? - What do I do if a team member isn't meeting expectations? - What was one of the hardest situations you've had to navigate as a peopl...

You know that feeling when you're talking to one of your team members and you can see it's just going in one ear and out the other? Or how about when someone says they totally get something and the result looks completely different than you expected?  These disconnects, so common on teams and yet so frustrating actually can be avoided by understanding one thing: the enneagram.  On this e...

As managers, we're trained problem solvers, making it oh so tempting to jump in with solutions when a team member is stuck or needs help.  The problem is, when we jump in too quickly, we prevent our team member from learning from a setback, trusting themselves solve problems, or bringing their own creative ideas to a situation.  In this episode we talk about how to stop ourselves from problem...

We've all been there: we have that employee who we know isn't happy, but we have so much on our plates already that it's hard to know what to do about it.  In this situation you have two options, work to fix it, or work to support that person in finding the next thing, and that's what we dive into in today's conversation. Tune in and you'll be so much more setup for s...

What do the importance of personal development, finding a sense of purpose in our work, and the sad reality that impostor feelings never quite go away have in common? These are three of the many topics I dive into with my guest Rachel Smith on today's episode.  In our conversation, we cover: - Making time to check in with your teams and making feedback a two-way street - How a focus on person...

One of the most common things I hear from managers is that you want to build an inclusive team, you know it's important, but... you don't quite know how to do it.  In this episode, I share 3 concrete "must do's" for having an inclusive team, with specific examples of how to bring these to life so that you create an environment where not only people feel like they can make...

When motivation is low and it feels like our team members aren't bought in, it can make us dread managing because we worry that this lack of motivation is going to slow things down or potentially result in losing team members. The good news is, this can be a moment to reignite a sense of purpose in your team members, which can shift people's mindset from disengaged and job searching to b...

As managers or business owners, the ultimate goal is to hire great people so we can both learn from them and step out of the way and let them step up as leaders; but it can often take a few tries and lessons learned to get there.  In today's episode, I talk with Audrey Saccone, Founder and CEO of Audrey Digital, a digital design team about how to create a strong culture when managing a remote...

Working in some of the most influential organizations in the world, on teams shipping some of the most cutting edge projects - do you want to know the #1 differentiator between teams that excelled and the ones that struggled? An ownership mindset. The ownership mindset is a quality that allows small business owners and entrepreneurs to scale, and managers in the corporate world achieve even the to...

Thought feedback was hard enough when you have to give it to your team members? How about giving it to your own manager or to an executive in your management chain? Thanks but no thanks? Same. This is something that can make us start to sweat just thinking about it, but fear not, because In this episode I share a 5-step framework for delivering feedback up the chain.  And for business owners or fo...

Want to build more influence as a leader? Start with your story. In today’s episode, Alex Street, Storytelling Coach joins me to discuss the power of storytelling in motivating our teams, building a stronger sense of purpose across our organizations, and becoming a more influential leader. Yeah… storytelling is THAT powerful. We cover why storytelling is such an important leadership skill and how...

Today we're making feedback a lot more fun! I promised we'd be talking about feedback a lot on this show ;) Why? Because feedback is one of the most important skills for managers, but more than that, because feedback needs a rebrand.  Feedback is such a tough issue because we tend to think of it as all of the bad stuff - the things we did wrong or messed up.  But that's not actually...

We're all feeling a little stressed right now, and for many of us, that has our Sunday Scaries firing on all cylinders.  But fear not, in today's episode, I share three ways to deal with and hopefully prevent burnout as a manager: 1- Adjusting expectations 2- Managing up 3- Asking for help In the episode I talk about why each of these strategies are important and how to do them, even if...

As managers, we have to make decisions all of the time. But this doesn't mean the process is easy.  In this episode, I'm joined by Abby Davisson social innovation leader and author of the book "Money and Love" to discuss how we can make the whole process of making decisions easier as leaders and managers. In the conversation, Abby shares the 5 C's framework for making deci...

Meeting overload is something we’re all struggling with right now, but have we really taken action to do something about it? In this conversation, I talk with Megan Karsh expert in facilitation about frameworks for managers to apply to run effective meetings, resulting in a better use of everyone’s time, and achieving the intended outcome of the meeting. We also delve into specific tools you can d...

Showing appreciation goes deeper than just saying thank you, and if you've been finding your efforts to recognize your team members falling flat, this is the episode for you. In this episode I dive into the importance of understanding your team members' appreciation language, and three ways to meaningfully recognize your team members to create higher motivation, engagement, and better re...

As if all of the work on your plate wasn't enough.... now two of your team members are in a conflict and now you have to deal with it. It's tough and it can trigger those Sunday Scaries, or let's face it, everyday scaries.  But the key here isn't to avoid it, it's to reframe it ;)  In this episode, I share three strategies for supporting your team members through a conflic...

We've all heard about the importance of empathy in the workplace, but have we actually internalized what this means? In this conversation, I talk with Kerri Jacobs, creator of the Leading with Empathy program at Google about the signals the key signals team members look for to know they feel valued by their manager, how leaders can display and model empathy on their teams, the power of recogn...

We consume information all of the time, but how much of that are we actually internalizing and learning? In my conversation with Abbie Mirata, Learning & Development Executive and Founder of The Intrapreneur Project, we discuss the importance of investing in learning in your organization, how to create a culture of learning and development in your team, and the power of "intrapreneurship&...

Feedback is both one of the most important skills to master as a manager... and one of the toughest.  But in trying to make a tough situation easier, we sometimes make the mistake of assuming how the situation will go before before we enter the conversation - allowing ourselves to bias the situation.  In this episode, I talk about three pitfalls to avoid when giving feedback to a team member and w...

As managers, founders, or small business owners, our teams are always coming to us with questions. But with so much uncertainty right now and so many questions we can't necessarily answer, this can be a source of Sunday Scaries. The good news is there is a way to answer and still engage with our teams when we don't have all of the answers, and in this episode, I share a simple three step...

When we've been managing for a long time, it can be easy to fall into the trap of telling and directing, but the truth is, there is nothing more powerful than a thoughtful question.  In this conversation with Albert Shum, former Corporate Vice President of Design at Microsoft, we discuss how thoughtful questions empower teams, the importance of having a principled approach to leadership, and...