HUMANERGY'S LEADERSHIP BLOG
LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS THAT WORK IN THE REAL WORLD
Explore our library of practical tools, tips, and stories. Drawn from decades of coaching leaders and teams.
Explore Humanergyâs leadership blog for proven tools, strategies, and insights to help leaders and teams thrive.â
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Can we be your hero?
Humanergy is in the process of transitioning to new software to manage data about our clients and friends and all the information we need at our fingertips. We're moving to BatchBlue, and so far...
Creativity: Not just for the artsy anymore
Buzz phrases like "thinking outside the box," "paradigm shifting" or "find a new perspective" can be categorized as creative thinking. I used to think that creative was not a word that applied to...
Flour power: Capacity is capacity
It seemed simple. Get all the things done on my to-do list. No problem. My list seemed doable, because I was only saying "yes" to doable things. Meet with a co-worker to put together a report. Take...
Act strategically. Eat the frog first.
Mac Anderson's book, You Can't Send a Duck to Eagle School, quotes Brian Tracy's book, Eat the Frog. They restate an old saying, If the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is eat a...
How to disagree well
In theory, healthy disagreement at work seems like a good idea. We want a variety of opinions and perspectives. So why is it that disagreement so often results in hurt feelings, frustration and...
Presentation paranoia?
You're having that nightmare again. You're in third grade, about to go on stage to recite your poem, and you realize that you have no recollection of the words...and you're in your underwear. Many...
Impact forecast: A tool for strategic action
In the last posting, we laid the groundwork for thinking and acting strategically. Now it's time to put the pedal to the metal and turn our actions into ones that produce strategic success....
Think and act strategically
Are you finding it hard to get out of the details of your to-do list to focus on thinking and acting strategically? If you spend your time just trying to fight fires, you're not spending time on...
Resilience: Bounce back in a crisis
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet," said Helen Keller. Leaders today should be full of character, given the challenges we face. What helps some people weather the storms, while others...
There must be a misunderstanding
There must be some kind of mistake," (Genesis - it was a band, for you youngsters - from their 1980 hit). Whether you're a GenY or Baby Boomer, you've experienced the frustrations of...
If you want loyalty, get a dog
Marketing folks have a saying, "If you want loyalty, get a dog." Customer loyalty, it seems, is a myth. Is employee loyalty a thing of the past, too? Nope. But too many leaders focus on loyalty at...
Never waste a good crisis
"Never waste a good crisis" is one of the tips given by Bill George in a recent article titled, Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis.* This thoughtful piece stimulated thinking about some of the...
Feed high performance
At last, it's time to transition from shoveling snow to caring for our lawns and gardens. (On behalf of those of us living in the northern U.S., can I just say, "Whoopee!!!!"?) Just as even a small...
Creating a culture of ownership
Tired of all the news about our tough economic climate? There are some bright sides to the gloom. One is the fact that every (smart) person in your organization recognizes that his or her financial...
“People who enjoy meetings…
...should not be in charge of anything." Or so said Thomas Sowell. A quick perusal of on-line quotation sites gives you a gauge of how people feel about meetings. Quotations on the subject are...
Build relationships now
Sue is a busy, no-nonsense leader. She doesn't have time to (as she refers to it) chit-chat. Not a big fan of water cooler talks, Sue doesn't actively avoid her direct reports and peers. She just...
Putting SUCCESS in succession
Change is in the air. Is it the smell of spring coming early? Nope, it's change, and it's in the form of succession. Leaders come and leaders go, whether we plan for it well or not. How do you as...
Can we be friends?
We used to think of Facebook as something for teens and college students. Whoa, were we wrong! More and more professionals are using Facebook as a means of not only finding old friends, but making...
Reality and hope
We've been hearing a lot about hope lately. The tragedy is that so many of us don't feel hopeful right now. Think of the brutal facts on the news, in our quarterly 401K statement or our paycheck (if...
Are you ready to be coached?
It seems like everyone these days has a coach - maybe a life coach or a career coach or a business coach (or all three). More and more of Humanergy's work involves coaching people to improve in...
Are you a sponge or a filter?
Today I'm going to be a sponge. When someone is communicating with me, I am going to soak in every nuance of the message. What do I sometimes (usually?!) do when I'm "listening?" Continue my...