The following is a guest post by Marlene Chism.

Drama in the form of negativity happens for many reasons and not just because of personalities, or because of women bickering and gossiping at the water cooler. Often negativity exists because the structures currently in place do not support the massive changes taking place in the business. In other words the business is growing and changing and there is a need for increased structure to support and manage the change.

Yet another reason for negativity is due to our natural and biological response to change. The brain craves certainty, and when you feel uncertain, the almond shaped structure in the brain called the amygdala releases chemicals into the blood stream that you experience as fear, anxiety and doubt.

What leaders often forget is that employees feel the most uncertainty because they are the last to hear about the changes, and they had very little, if any, input regarding how to implement and navigate through the upcoming changes.

Leaders constantly tell employees to “embrace change” when the very changes they ask them to embrace are changes that threaten their sense of security or well being, at least from their perspective.

Providing consistency while navigating change can improve workplace relationships, increase trust and reduce negativity. Here are four ways to reduce drama by increasing consistency. Click here to continue reading »”4 Ways To Reduce Workplace Negativity By Increasing Consistency”

A few weeks ago, one of my readers left a comment on my blog asking why are there so many silos present in today’s organizations. Since replying to my reader’s query, I thought this would be a good topic to address as a follow-up to my previous piece where I shared a number of actionable steps organizations can implement to garner greater success from their collective efforts.

Now before I discuss how leaders can break down various internal silos that might be present in their organizations, let’s first look at why these silos are created in the first place.

Essentially, internal silos are created out of fear that if a mistake is found or some form of failure is encountered, the organization’s leadership will be interested primarily in finding someone to take the blame. As such, the various teams will isolate themselves to ensure they won’t get lumped with those who are within the leadership’s current focus of finger-pointing and blame.

The other reason silos take hold in organizations is because of that desire we all have to maintain a sense of familiarity; a ‘comfort zone’ that serves to provide feelings of order and consistency in the face of today’s fast-paced and ever-changing marketplace.

Within teams or departments, there is a given set of informal rules, a ‘way of doing things’ that creates this comfort zone because of its relative predictability. When teams have to co-ordinate with other teams or divisions, they find Click here to continue reading »”5 Strategies To Free Your Team From Organizational Silos”

I’m delighted to present a new feature here on my site: a new podcast series called “Leadership Biz Cafe”.  Through this new podcast, I hope to invite business leaders and leadership experts to join me in conversations about their ideas and insights on the challenges and opportunities to be found in today’s increasingly competitive and global market.

For my first episode, I welcome Guy Kawasaki, the best-selling author and former Chief Evangelist at Apple, to the guest chair.  Guy is the co-founder of the popular online content aggregator Alltop.com (you may have noticed the site badge in the sidebar of my site) as well as one of the founding partners of Garage Technology Ventures.  Earlier this year, he released his latest book called “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions” which recently made the New York Times bestseller list.

I had the opportunity to get an advance copy of Guy’s book and after reading it, I invited him to be the first guest on my new podcast series which he graciously accepted.

During the podcast, we discuss a number of topics including:

• What does enchantment mean and what’s the first step to take to become more enchanting
• How we can develop more trusting and beneficial relationships
• Why trying to be influential is not the best long-term strategy
• The 3 steps every leader can take to enchant their employees
• Why employees need to enchant their boss (one of the unspoken truths many of us don’t like to admit)

It’s a great interview and Guy and I even shared a few laughs along the way.  So I’d like to invite you to check out this first episode of the “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast and please let me know what you think of the show by leaving a comment below.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this new addition to my site and what topics you might be interested in hearing more about in some of upcoming shows for this new series.

Click on the player below to listen to the podcast:

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Links mentioned during the podcast:

Visit Guy Kawasaki’s website to learn more about his book.

Buy Guy Kawasaki’s book “Enchantment” on Amazon.com (or Amazon.ca for Canadian readers)

A few days ago, my oldest daughter came home from school with a bit of a dilemma. She got back her latest math assignment and noticed that one of the problems she had solved correctly was marked as incorrect because her answer wasn’t rounded up to the second decimal point. As it wasn’t stated in the problem’s instructions that the correct answer needed to be rounded up to a given decimal point, my daughter was confused as to why her response was marked wrong and asked me if I could look it over to help her figure it out.

Looking over her assignment, I saw that my daughter not only solved the problem correctly, but she was right that the problem didn’t ask students to round up their answer. So, I told my daughter that all she had to do was point this mistake out to her teacher so that she could correct the grade she got on her assignment. However, my daughter felt uncomfortable with the idea of talking about this mistake with her teacher and asked me if I could bring it up instead.

Given how my daughter has a really good rapport with her teacher, I was a bit puzzled as to why she was so reluctant about discussing this with her. As we talked about it more, it became clear that her hesitation arose from feelings of discomfort over having to tell her teacher that she had made a mistake in marking her assignment.

Now one of the things my parents taught me was the importance of showing respect and appreciation for our teachers given how they help to build our knowledge and understanding of the world around us. Naturally, this is an attitude I want instill in my children as well. However, I also want them to feel comfortable with approaching authority figures to point out when errors are made.

To help encourage my daughter to deal with this herself, I made her this deal – that she try to talk to her teacher about this error and if she finds herself struggling, she can give her teacher a note I’ll write to explain what we discussed. Although not exactly thrilled, my daughter nonetheless accepted this approach to resolve her dilemma.

Of course, it’s not just children who can struggle with having to point out mistakes being made by others, especially when it’s an authority figure like a teacher or parent. Employees can also feel uncomfortable bringing to the attention of others problems or mistakes they see being made, particularly if those responsible for them serve higher up in their organization.

But this is where leaders can make a difference by providing Click here to continue reading »”5 Questions To Figure Out How Well You Manage Mistakes”