Quick Hits

Rick Alcantara started this conversation off by saying he doesn’t think this is a valid question because they aren’t mutually exclusive. He believes you can be both naïve and cynical at the same time. Further into the conversation he mentioned the word “rational” that could be a middle ground.   Laura Agafitei brought in the idea of healthy skepticism. For her that means being open to learning why...

Brandon Mahoney started this conversation off by saying he uses this as a tactic to end a conflict. It allows him to feel like the better person for being willing to walk away and perhaps sacrifice to make the other person happy.   Chelle Shapiro agreed. She will intentionally take herself out of a conversation to keep it from escalating; particularly if the other person is really not interesting...

Elissa Hecker started this conversation by saying, yes. Some bad bosses do know and they don’t care. And on the other side, there are bad bosses who don’t realize they are bad. They could be insecure, overcompensating, or want to be everyone’s friend.   Pascal Derrien thinks that some bad bosses are in denial. They may have become a boss as social posturing, for status reasons, and don’t really ca...

Catarina von Maydell started us off by talking about environments that normalize “toughness” with sayings like, “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.” Plus blaming and shaming – If you can’t handle it, that is your fault.   Rick Alcantara agreed adding that there can be a mentality of just grin and bear it because people don’t feel like they have an opportunity to go somewhere els...

Todd Karges started this conversation off with a yes. And adding that it is even more important for leaders to create an environment where innovation and creativity can thrive. That means allowing space for learning, outside the box thinking and failure.   Jennifer Watson talked about a survey that showed what employees want and need is psychological safety. The ability to screw something up and k...

When I was little my dad used to say, “You want fair? Go to Turlock in August.” That’s when and where the county fair was held each year. That was his way of saying life wasn’t fair and that was too bad.   Dr Bob Choat started our conversation off by talking about culture and how, depending on where you are and what biases you have, fair might be seen differently.   For Lisa Howard two words came...

This panel has decades of combined experience running a host of different types of teams.   Kevin Wash started us off. His expertise is in sales for international property development. From his point of view, you can share the goal numbers and where the company is along the path to achieving that goal. It is a very clear metric and not overwhelming at all.   Brandon Mahoney went next. He is a mast...

Bonnie Sussman-Versace started us off by saying she has looked at this topic a lot over the last few years and she thinks it is both and neither at the same time. Some people seem to get to a certain point in leadership development and get stuck. Other people just seem to be naturals at it.   Daisy Cedeño loves the humanity in this question. Science is about have a theory, structure and the eviden...

Sara Oblak Speicher started us off by sharing that things she perceived as unjust, like an athletic coach being harder on her than her teammates, used to cause her to feel resentment.   For Bill Haase resentment is how he feels about making a bad decision and the cost associated with that decision.   Catarina von Maydell liked the idea of connecting resentment to the choices that we make and she t...

Oh what fun this conversation was! By the end I felt so inspired.   James Lee started us off by sharing that he traveled internationally by himself for the first time recently, going to Dubai.   For Todd Karges his new thing was meditate.   Cole Galloway was up next and he told us that he made a decision a few years ago to do new things all the time. He orders something he’s never had at restauran...

The easy answer to this is “ask questions.” But about what? I’m pretty extroverted and can carry both sides of a conversation if I need to. But I wondered how other people keep a conversation flowing. Enter my wonderful panel:   First off, we learned that Kevin Wash has a game he plays (yes really!) to see how much he can learn about someone without telling them so much as his name. (Side note – I...

Joey Robert Parks started us off by saying he tries to keep an open mind and look for counter-arguments to his existing opinion.   Jim Tam came in next to say that it feels like someone is being lazy when they say “do your own research.” Or maybe they don’t really know the answer. He believes it takes a very secure person to challenge their own biases and keep an open mind.   Lisa McDonald pointed...

The conversations I’m posting yesterday and today were born out of the discussion: How should anger be expressed in the workplace? https://youtu.be/q8uPMUPGvgY   After we turned off the recording for that conversation the panel started talking about how hard it is to express anything in a dysfunctional workplace. We didn’t all have time to record again right then so we came back together to create...

The conversations I’m posting today and tomorrow were born out of the discussion: How should anger be expressed in the workplace? https://youtu.be/q8uPMUPGvgY   After we turned off the recording for that conversation the panel started talking about how hard it is to express anything in a dysfunctional workplace. We didn’t all have time to record again right then so we came back together to create...

Oh boy. Trying to please everyone all the time sounds exhausting to me. But Tim Hawkes was keen to have a go at this question because he believes that saying, “You can’t please everyone” is a cop out to not have to bother trying to make a situation better or care about upsetting people.   Stewart Wiggins agreed to a point. He shared an example of giving $20 prizes and people complaining that they...

Well, this was not the conversation I expected to have on this topic. All three of my panelists they use “just kidding” in conversation.   In contrast, I find it inauthentic and rude.   Bonnie Versace shared that she uses it as “benign sarcasm.” She doesn’t mean for it to be harmful or detrimental in any way.   Atif Agha agreed saying some people just think it’s funny or they might be using it to...

Dr Cole Galloway started us off by saying there is no absolute answer to this question. It depends on what the “end” is and it depends on what the “means” were. There are certainly times were winning the battle isn’t worth the damage you caused to win it.   Joe Pici came in with a hard line in the sand. “The end never justifies the means. How you get there is more important than arriving.”   Fallo...

Pity is a strange emotion. Is it the same/similar to empathy? I didn’t think so but one of the panelists suggested that maybe it is. Listen in and see if you agree or not.   Daniel Gramkee started us off by noting the difference between just pitying yourself verses having other people notice that you are.   Alexi Bracey noticed that when someone is feeling pity for you, they mean well but often co...

When I asked, “Is it important to have friends at work?” ( https://youtu.be/9egtuaT11y8 )? This panel unanimously agreed that it is very important.   The question of what if you don’t have friends at work followed so naturally that we had to get together again to discuss it.   Dave Roberts started us of by saying if you don’t have friends at work, you can at least be friendly, collegial and cooper...

Hindsight is 20/20. Monday morning quarterbacking. It’s easy to look in the rear-view mirror and “know” things were going to turn out like they did.   I share a story during this conversation about doing something “stupid” and breaking something that was important to me. I was SO angry at myself because I know better.   Philip Tate started this conversation by saying you have to give yourself some...

Staying informed but not overwhelmed with negative news can be a challenge.   Ed Samuel started us off by saying he uses his faith to help him stay sane in a broken world.   Jim Tam thought that his career was going to be very global, living the ex-pat life, speaking multiple languages. And at first it was very cool working with people from all over the world and learning about their cultures. But...

Before we turned on the recording, we talked about how to word the question. I wondered if we should make gender part of the equation. We talked about how anger can be used for power (Steve Jobs was known to cry to get his way).   In the end, we landed on how to express anger at work. This turned out to be part one of a three-part conversation.   Catarina von Maydell started us off at the beginnin...

Oof. This was a tough one. There was no way we were going to cover something this deep in ten minutes. But we gave it a good try.   Christopher Jerjian started us off by admitting this question stumped him. He thinks it must be about being worth in a specific area because you can’t be worthy of everything.   Fallon Siniscarco said it depends on who is making the measurement. How gets to decide wor...

I recently heard someone give this advice to a group of students, “You have to be able to lead yourself before you can expect to lead others.”   Everyone nodded along like it was sage advice. But I wondered, “what does that even mean and is it true?”   Lucky for me I have a platform designed to asked exactly those kinds of questions.   Kevin Wash answered the second half of the question first with...

It isn’t a secret that the farther up the corporate ladder you go, the less diverse it becomes. I decided to ask three guys who have been at the top of their respective ladders about it.   Dr Cole Galloway, who works in social justice, started us off by talking about mission. If you are looking for leaders who will continue to propagate and manipulate and cultivate a top-down mission, you are goin...