Leadership & Development

In many organizations, development is still treated as a privilege for the few. Executives get leadership coaching, personality assessments, and bespoke training. Meanwhile, the rest of the workforce, the 80% who actually power your culture and customer experience, are left to figure it out on their own. That’s where disengagement, turnover, and stalled performance take root. Consider this: research from Gallup shows that 70% of team engagement is influenced by the manager. Yet today, managers are among the most disengaged employees in the workforce. When development stops at the leadership tier, you create a vacuum—managers without tools to lead effectively, employees… Read More »Why Self-Directed Development Works at Every Level, Not Just for Executives

Like so many people over the last few years, I recently enjoyed binge-watching the television series The Bear, a fictional dramedy that follows Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (played brilliantly by Jeremy Allen White), a fine-dining chef who returns home to Chicago to run his family’s Italian beef sandwich shop after a personal tragedy. It has all the ingredients (pun intended) you would expect from a series that explores the artistry, pressure, culture, and personal entanglements of those building a life—and a business—inside the kitchen. Watching The Bear, I was both entertained—and a bit rattled. The heat, the chaos, the nonstop demands—those… Read More »Escaping The Bear Mentality: How Self-Directed Learning Boosts Career Growth & Helps to Prevent Burnout

Imagine yourself at a job interview, and the interviewer asks you this question: “At our organization, we rely on daily, in-person meetings to check in on tasks and progress. How does that align with your style?”  The truth? You prefer asynchronous, email check-ins to daily, in-person meetings.  So, how do you respond?  Do you say that style works for you because you need the job and you are willing to adapt to the new situation? Or do you answer honestly and say that is the opposite of what you prefer?  Your response in this situation speaks to a subtle yet… Read More »Self-monitoring Psychology 101: Finding a Balance Between Adaptability and Authenticity

When Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985, the company’s once-thriving profit margins took a nosedive. Within a year, Apple found itself on the brink of insolvency, losing over a billion dollars. When Jobs returned, he swiftly turned the company’s fortunes around, implementing a robust management structure and cultural norms that still define Apple today. As another expert put it, Jobs had to “revamp” the company.  The cost of failed CEO succession is simply too great to ignore. We’re talking nearly a trillion dollars annually for the S&P 1500 alone. Yet companies often make critical mistakes in CEO succession planning, from… Read More »7 Big CEO Succession Planning Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

Everyone remembers Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors, in the movie “Groundhog Day”. Phil finds himself trapped in a time loop; he’s forced to relive the same day – February 2 – repeatedly. Over the course of the time loop, and movie, Phil transforms from self-centered and cynical into a more empathetic and proactive person, ultimately making a life decision that Phil, at the beginning of the story, would probably have never made. Although life is never like it is in the movies, there’s a larger question at play – do our personalities change over time? Or even – do we… Read More »Can You Really Change Your Personality? Understanding the Three Factors That Can Shift Your Personality