Nice People Can’t be Trusted … or Can They?

It’s suspect to work with someone who is too nice. I worked with someone like this. She wanted to be everyone’s best friend. To her own detriment she avoided sharing her opinion. Yeah, she was difficult to work with. You might be thinking what could be wrong with being nice? It is a fair question.

Look at ME! Look at ME!

It’s annoying to work with someone who demands the spotlight. I worked with someone like this. She acted like she was an expert at everything. Not to mention taking credit for others’ work and hijacking conversations. Yeah, she was difficult to work with. In their book Dealing with People You Can’t Stand, authors Brinkman and

Get Out of My Way!

It’s maddening to work with someone who runs you over because their goals are more important than anyone else’s. I worked with someone like this. He was controlling. He talked over me and others in meetings and rolled his eyes when I made suggestions. Not to mention saying things like, “We don’t have time to

How to Enjoy Conflict

Uncomfortable. Scary. Difficult. Challenging. Time-consuming. Fight. Adversarial. Loud. Exhausting. That is a list of words I heard last week when I asked a team this question - What are two words that come to mind when you think of conflict? Maybe you feel the same. Maybe you are wondering how you could ever enjoy conflict.

Secrets to Motivation (Part 3 of 3)

When you believe you are capable of something, aren’t you more motivated to do it? I remember a college instructor who believed in me. He made me believe in myself. So, I entered a speech competition. I screwed up. I forgot what I was saying in the middle of my speech … then I kept

Secrets to Motivation (Part 2 of 3)

Raise your hand if you want to be micromanaged. I cannot see you, but I bet $1000 that you did not raise your hand. Raise your hand if you don’t care if your work makes a difference. I am confident you didn’t raise your hand this time either. That’s because you have needs. In fact,

Secrets to Motivation (Part 1 of 3)

“Rumor has it you got advisor of the year. Congratulations.” This above was a sterile email I received from my boss in 2008.  No greeting. No signature. No encouragement. It was demotivating. I have never understood why my boss didn’t walk the 50 feet from her office to my office and personally congratulate me. My

8 Traits of a Successful Team

Have you ever been part of an extraordinary team? Have you ever been the leader of one? I have been part of one extraordinary team in my career. Yep. One. That’s it.  I’ve been on good teams, bad teams, and okay teams. But I’ve only been on one extraordinary team. The reason the team was

9 Ways to Describe a Bad Boss

In the 25+ years that I’ve been teaching leaders how to be better leaders, I’ve heard a lot of colorful words used to describe bad bosses. Here is an interesting list of them with definitions from various dictionaries-- Dictator – uses authority in an unjust way Unsupportive – does not care enough to help Micromanager

I Dare You to Mess Up

If you are perfect, stop reading. There is nothing here for you. On second thought, this article is probably more for you than it is for anyone else. Keep reading if you: avoid risk are afraid to fail get annoyed when people screw up have difficulty owning up to your mistakes hold yourself to high