Are You Safe? | Why Trust Is So Important

People do what they do for a good reason, but remember–it is for their reasons and not yours. Are You Safe? There is an overwhelming body of scientific evidence pointing to the importance of trust and psychological safety. Interestingly, Google conducted an extensive study on what makes for effective teams. The study was named after…

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You Can’t Motivate People

Carrots and sticks don’t work. Organizational Psychologists refer to this as extrinsic motivation – motivation that comes from outside of yourself.  The approach is seductive in that it often works in the short run, but is rarely sustainable. As soon as the reward or punishment is removed, the desired behavior disappears. People are hardwired to…

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The Accountability Myth

I frequently hear leaders talk about the difficulty of holding their people accountable. Holding someone accountable is an elusive goal. Even if you can hold someone accountable in any given moment, who has the time, energy and bandwidth to hold someone else accountable on an on-going basis? The only person you can effectively hold accountable…

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If You Want to Be Heard, Shut-up and Listen 

One of my favorite sayings is that Conflict and Communication Rarely Coexist. People don’t generally disagree, they just think they do. The latest findings in neuroscience suggest that when I am trying to convince you of my truth, at a subconscious level the listener hears me saying that they are not as smart as me.…

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