Feeling seen and valued is vital to employee wellbeing and performance. In her commencement speech at Harvard a few years ago, Oprah Winfrey highlighted how the need for validation is universal: I have done over 35,000 interviews in my career and as soon as that camera shuts off everyone always turns to me and inevitably in […]
Continue Reading
Review your Frequent Five: Do they uplift and support you? Or do they judge you and sap your energy? As children, we are told by our parents to be careful about the friends we make. And when we become parents, we offer the same advice to our kids, explaining how the people they surround themselves […]
Continue Reading
The wisdom of talking to strangers, and how to start a conversation with just about anyone. Frankly, I am quite reticent about striking up conversations with strangers. On a flight for instance, I don’t usually initiate conversations with fellow passengers. I prefer immersing myself into a book or a magazine. If the stranger next to me is […]
Continue Reading
Feedback isn’t a threat – it’s an opportunity for personal improvement and increased organisational trust. We recently concluded our 360 degree feedback process, which was, like most years, met with mixed reactions. Not surprising though; because receiving feedback is always tricky. As leaders, we often think that we are required to have all the answers. […]
Continue Reading
Unlock new perspectives with a ‘learning holiday’. This is the time of the year when many of us take some time off for vacations, to unplug and rejuvenate. Some of us head to the beach to frolic in the sun or the mountains to escape the heat. Some just unwind and chill out. Others visit family members […]
Continue Reading
How can we build a familial sense of caring and loyalty at the workplace? In business, we have colleagues and co-workers. In the military, they call each other brothers and sisters. This observation, pointed out by noted author, Simon Sinek, really resonated with me. One of the things that struck me over the last few […]
Continue Reading
My coaching clients have hard jobs with big responsibilities that generate lots of stress, and many of their spouses and partners have similarly demanding careers. And yet one of the most challenging experiences in their day doesn’t occur at work, but in the first 15 minutes after they arrive home and greet each other. When that initial personal encounter […]
Continue Reading
Fundamental Attribution Error causes you to make snap judgments and assume the worst about people. Think back to the last time a colleague failed to meet a deadline or showed up late for a meeting. In all probability, you immediately judged them: “He is such a slacker. Terrible work ethic!” Now, remember a time you failed to meet […]
Continue Reading
Office friendships aren’t a distraction – they increase trust, productivity, and happiness. The average Facebook user in America spends about 40 minutes a day on it. Estimates suggest that the global average is over 20 minutes or so. That’s a lot of time spent scrolling through updates on people, many of whom you probably haven’t […]
Continue Reading
Just like sales or RoI, it’s essential to measure and track your people skills. We are generally quite good at measuring sales, profits, return on investment, and other such metrics. But what about interpersonal skills like empathy, teamwork, and relationship-building? All too often, we overlook the crucial “soft” side of leadership in the numbers game. […]
Continue Reading