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Bullies in the Workplace
This isn’t a great blog post for me to write today, but Sammy Teusch’s tragic experience is one that I and I’m sure many of you can relate to. You see, as a child I too was bullied relentlessly from kindergarten to middle school. In fact, it only ended because my mother transferred me to another school. Although I loved learning and had a great relationship with my teachers, I hated going to school. I didn’t talk about it much, but a group of kids made my life miserable every single day. But I’m not writing this to discuss my childhood. Today, I want to talk about the bullies that…
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The Purpose-Driven Journey
My very first office job was at a small project management consulting firm in Atlanta, GA. The firm provided week-long in-person workshops to prepare project managers for the PMP certification exam. They had a team of 10 project managers who traveled across the country to deliver corporate training sessions, and I’d been hired as an Assistant/Receptionist. The best thing about this job was the down time. I immediately took to project management. I didn’t have the experience to qualify for the PMP, so I read the PMBOK instead. I loved helping the PMs edit training materials and would sit in on classes when they were held locally. They were all…
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Embracing Fluidity: An Agile-Oriented Approach to Life
I was first introduced to the concepts of “agile” in 2007 as a newbie in the product management world. A small recruiting software company in Florida had poached me from a competitor to help expand their product offerings with the addition of a new performance management solution. Seeing as how we were given less than a year to accomplish this, the company decided to pilot a new software development methodology with our team, agile (Scrum, specifically). So off to training we all went and got certified. We returned and for 8 months we worked together in a tiny room to make it happen. And it did… …just in time for…
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The Empty Suit a.k.a. The Innovation Killer
There’s a particular employee persona that in my belief poses one of the greatest threats to innovation. They are eloquent and persuasive but pay attention long enough and you’ll begin to notice a lack of depth or substance to anything they’re saying. Oftentimes being a “remix” of someone else’s idea wrapped in a buzzword sandwich. They are the smooth talkers whose delivery style is designed to mask the void of meaningful content. The Empty Suit Empty suits often excel in the art of buzzwords, appear easy-going, and can navigate organizational politics with superhero levels of adeptness. However, beneath this is a lack of knowledge, experiential insights, and often, any genuine…
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Failure – The Best Teacher
Today, I want to discuss my first and most significant failure and how it was the best-worst thing that could have happened to me professionally. Not to brag, but in general, I have always had a fairly high success rate with whatever I’ve chosen to pursue… Enter Pino Napoli. My husband always had a desire to own his own business and as his partner and wife, I have supported that decision. Prior to our marriage, we agreed to live as though we had only one income and save the rest for our business endeavors. For ten years, we visited businesses for sale across the country and considered franchises or real…
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Creating a culture centered around collaboration and communication will pay off dividends in the future.
There is no quick and easy way to build a culture. It takes time and effort, and everyone needs to be on board. EVERYONE. Determine who you are as an organization. What is your value proposition within the organization and to your external stakeholders? Create something your people can understand and get behind. Step 1: Drop the buzzwords and develop something real and it all starts with making sure the actions and words of your leadership team reflect your commitment to collaboration and communication. How is this done? Hands-on leadership development. It is dangerous to assume that everyone knows how to communicate effectively. So, train your people. Communicate expectations. Role…
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Problem Solving + Initiative – The Dynamic Duo of Competencies
Today I would like to discuss what I call the dynamic duo of competencies: problem solving and initiative. When these two particular competencies are combined, something magical happens. It reveals potential performance and/or development gaps that can pose a significant impact on the health and culture of an organization. I will explain my thinking by way of a simple scenario. Scenario: An employee recognizes they are experiencing difficulties performing their job duties. Employee Proficient in both Problem Solving & Initiative The employee researches professional development opportunities offered by the company or a 3rd party provider, gathers the information, meets with manager to discuss their knowledge gap and offers their recommendations of how…
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Problem Solving requires Clarity
I wrote this shortly after our first Florida relocation many years ago. —— Is there gum in your key? – post from 2009. My husband and I recently moved from Georgia to Florida. I was so excited at the prospect of warm weather and palm trees! Since we have two cars we decided to leave at different times. I would go first and take our puppy and he would come the next day. Unfortunately, I had to work on moving day and didn’t leave until that afternoon. I also thought it would be a good idea to invite my mom along for the ride and then fly her back the…
