October 11, 2021

The 3 R’s of Leadership ~ Reflection, Relationships & Resiliency

I’ve often written about the slow death of command and control leadership – envisioning the demise of that mindset as the prevailing force in organizational life. It is slow going – isn’t it?  At least it feels that way to me – even as an “observer” in my role as a consultant. The power issue hangs over us.  Although there […]
February 19, 2021

Collaboration: The Emotions You Need to Do It

Succesful collaboration is built on a high level of emotional literacy. Without the capacity to generate and sustain certain feelings, our ability to collaborate with others is not possible. By the time we reach adulthood and enter the workplace, our emotional repertoire has become habituated. Emotional habits are then fueled by our thinking process which is often fixed into patterns. […]
February 5, 2021

Why Neuroscience Should Change the Way We Work~ Pt.2

Since Part 1 of this article was published it has consistently remained in the blog’s top  10.  I’m grateful for the response and I’ve been inspired to write more about the fascinating, emergent world of neuroscience. While I am a very informal student of the science, what I’ve learned has reshaped the way I approach my work.  As I wrote […]
August 11, 2020

Leadership and Emotional Contagion

“Employees are not emotional islands. Rather, they continuously spread their own moods and receive and are influenced by others’ moods. When they work in groups, they literally can catch each others’ emotions like viruses, a phenomenon known as emotional contagion. ” Wharton @ Work, University of Pennsylvania There has been an important finding in neuroscience that should impact on how […]
April 26, 2020

The Self-Aware Leader

  My Google search for leadership turned up 499,000,000 results. It’s a well-covered topic with every nook and cranny explored.  What more is there to say? There is general agreement that leadership models are changing dramatically. But to be sure, the old command and control leadership paradigm is still at work. There’s more talk than ever about We cultures, but […]
February 11, 2020

Why Neuroscience Should Change the Way We Work

Photo by Rohan Makhecha on Unsplash Most organizations and their leaders take pride in updating their systems with the latest technology and equipment. They devote significant resources to ensure their employees are using state of the art processes and materials. Most organizational leaders would agree that without constant upgrades, they would be trying to achieve success with their hands tied behind their backs. […]
June 27, 2019

Emotional Intelligence, 20+ Years On Part 2

Continuing the conversation started in Part 1 of this article – several key questions keep surfacing.  One is the often unspoken tension between EI (Emotional Intelligence) and what is typically thought of as “therapy.” For anyone who has been involved in a therapeutic process, it’s immediately clear that learning and applying EI principles is very different from being “in therapy.” […]
March 1, 2019

What Does Your Work Mean to You?

Every day countless words are dedicated to writing about the economics of work.  The conversation about the future of work is a perennial “hot topic.”  But when it comes to exploring the meaning of work, the search engine slows down.  It’s a challenging task because what we call work has changed dramatically in the last generation. Just as when the […]
February 6, 2019

Emotional Intelligence is over 20 years old – what have we learned?

In 1995, Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ by Daniel Goleman was published. The introduction of Emotional Intelligence (EI) generated excitement and hope. It’s time to look at the progress and future of this work. As a student of psychology and social systems, EI (Emotional Intelligence) had immediate resonance with my experience and offered some of what I believed […]