I don’t have enough time to do everything?

How many times have you uttered these words? What about:

I feel overwhelmed?

Values seem to be almost a buzzword lately. I hear all the time about how important culture is, and how organizations need to have values. What I hear less, though, is how to make values a part of the culture (or rather the culture).

I love sharing stories of how DISC has helped people communicate better. Sometimes, we naturally adapt our communication to help the message land better, but DISC gives you a framework for how to do it consciously.

I have spent years working on and with volunteer boards which are the epitome of a high-turnover team. Faced with annual elections which result in new directors, boards face a unique challenge of creating a cohesive team quickly, knowing they face a yearly cycle of change.

Patrick Lenioni’s book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team lays out an excellent framework to identify dysfunctional teams. Work on The Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team flips those dysfunctions into the positive and gives teams a way to move forward productively.

As you reflect on leadership, do you believe any of these to be true?

·         You are either born a leader, or not?

·         You are a leader or a follower?

·         There is a right way to be a leader?

One of the excuses I hear often from organizations is that they can’t afford to invest in leadership training, but I want to challenge that statement.

Patrick Lenioni’s flagship book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, should be required reading for every leader and team member.

Are you a leader?

Do you know how you are doing? Do you ever ask for feedback?

Sometimes leaders feel like they are failing (and sometimes they are).

Have you ever felt like you were speaking a different language than someone else? You understand the words, but don’t get what they are saying? Or maybe, their actions and how they act seems foreign to you?

We hear a lot about the importance of values in a workplace, and there are many organizations who have declared their core values but are they actually part of the culture or are they just posters on the wall.

“Nobody puts Baby in the corner.” Patrick Swayze/Dirty Dancing. That quote always makes me smile, and it make me think about what most people might do with their DISC report after their initial training: put it in a drawer. DISC doesn’t belong in a drawer.

Have you ever walked out of a meeting and thought, “What a waste of time?”

I hear that often and when I dig in deeper, I have discovered that there are a ton of reasons why people think meetings suck.

We are in a leadership crisis.

I say this often (and I truly believe it). But why? How did we get here?

We have a somewhat compulsive relationship with email. I’m guilty of it for sure too.

Why does it matter if my team is strong? I have lots of high achieving people on my team.

Does this sound familiar? Ever heard anyone say that?

Have you ever been asked a question and you didn’t know the answer? Probably, most of us have experienced that situation. How we respond, though, varies.

Have you ever been on a great team? One where you had each others’ backs and you got each other. You may have rocked a project and probably had a great time doing it?

Last week, I was setting up my Facebook Live and the tech wouldn’t work. I kept trying to click through the options and it kept stalling and I was stuck. I skipped one week and in that time Facebook changed the interface. I didn’t know if I was doing something wrong, or if the issues were on their end, but I just felt the anxiety and stress creep up as 8:30 am came and then passed

Do you remember a time when you smiled at someone, and they smiled back? When someone gave you a compliment? When someone paid for your coffee in a drive through lane?