Do you find it annoying when people say these things in meetings? “That won’t work.” “We’ve tried that before.” “We can’t do that.” “Can we circle back and reconsider X.” “I’m still not sure we made the right decision.” People like this are Blockers and their behavior sabotages meetings. Blockers frequently raise objections and circle

Who comes to mind when you read these words? Aggressive Mean Bully Humiliator I think of a boss I worked for who was extremely forward with his thoughts and ideas. If he didn’t like your idea, comment, or question, he told you so without any social grace or emotionally intelligence whatsoever. It stung. It was

Years ago in a meeting,  one of my coworkers snickered and rolled his eyes at something I said.  I shut down. Why did he do it? He did it because he was allowed to. No one told him to stop being a bully. No one told him was being unprofessional or that his behavior was

I fix broken things: bad communication, disengaged employees, unproductive teams, and leaders that no one trusts. Is my effort futile? Does psychological safety really exist? Yes. Yes, it does. Let’s celebrate one such workplace. My previous coworker (and friend) Becky was assigned a massive project.  The type of project that determined if the organization she

It was an all-day companywide off-site meeting.  Every single employee had to be there. The purpose-- give input on organizational goals and challenges. We were put into random groups of eight persons.  One person in our group came up with what we believed to be an incredibly innovate idea.  So, we put our idea forward,