Caveat: Mindfulness should NEVER be proposed as a band-aid for getting people to suck it up when dealing with toxic situations, even though it can help us as individuals deal with those situations in the short term. If you notice somebody doing this, call them on that shit. It’s unethical and speaks volumes about their […]

“Do you see any changes in organizational culture since COVID?” Uh. Yes. 😉 I get asked this a lot – I’m not entirely sure why – and my answer is almost always the same. Yes, there are actually a lot of truly transformational changes, some fantastic, some less so, and a really big one is […]

If you didn’t see our recent update, our #HRDudeLennon has moved on to new adventures as the Executive Vice President of Mischief and Mayhem at a new organization (translation: My daughter moved out, and her cat went with her – this is all positive, btw. ) When this happens in organizations, it’s pretty common for […]

Whenever “new normal” shows up, can it please include comfortable business attire? For probably at least two hundred years but certainly, for as long as I’ve been an adult, the clothes people have worn to work have not been what we’d call “comfortable”. Look, if to be “professional” you need a girdle (or shapewear of […]

(Artist credit: KC Green) You know the drill. You’re in the weekly staff meeting and the well-meaning manager who read the article in HBR about gratitude starts the meeting off with “What’s one word that describes your state of mind?” and everybody dutifully goes through the call-and-response of throwing something upbeat or positive into the […]

I recently had the pleasure of engaging in a conversation about “Leading by Listening.” The need for better, stronger, more effective, less damaging communication (of which listening skills are a key component) has been pretty popular over the last several years, and there are a lot of interesting perspectives on the “best practices” on how […]

I’m a big believer in the power of Results And Relationships. The data tells us that by seeing worthwhile results of the work we’re doing and developing and nurturing strong relationships with the people around us, we’re priming ourselves for success. Today I got to experience both, and it was glorious. I had the opportunity […]

My dad (that “Chief Crankiness Officer” I referenced a few days ago) and I have been talking a lot recently about this happiness business. Not because he wants me to stop pursuing my passion. He’s actually delighted that my siblings and I have all found ways to nurture our souls in professional and personal endeavours […]

Almost every company has a list of core values. Some of them blazon them on their communications, some have them embossed into the walls of their headquarters, and some, well, some put them on paper, but struggle to actually embody those values. The challenge with “Core Values” is that a lot of the time, they’re […]

Ed wasn’t usually the “quiet one” on our team, but ever since his wife passed, we had seen a marked downturn in not only his demeanor but his performance, as well. Our supervisor wasn’t sure how to manage the situation. Unwilling to write him up for poor performance, and equally unwilling to crack open the […]