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Happiness, joy, excitement, and optimism are not emotions that come naturally to those of us who operate from a fixed mindset. This mindset runs a system of automatic negative thoughts that lead to anxiety, depression, stress, and

Did you know that 70% of people surveyed report experiencing prolonged periods of self-doubt that negatively affect their work, relationships and quality of life? And despite best efforts to get rid of these negative thoughts and feelings, they

Do you keep adapting your behavior to please others and to be what others expect you to be?
Do you worry about what people will think of you if you assert yourself or ask for what you need?

Do you often have the feeling that you don’t know what you’re doing despite having done it before? Do you think it’s just a matter of time before someone will realize you aren’t who they think you are and expose you as a…

Mental health is the capacity for each of us to feel, think and act in ways that strengthen our ability to enjoy life and deal with its inherent challenges. It is often described as how we feel and act — our behaviors, mood, and attitude…

What benefit is it to the organization if short-term goals are met, but a leader’s behavior contributes to employee unrest, sabotage, or high turnover with loss of skills and knowledge? Leaders must be aware of how their behavior…

Much of what we read about employee motivation suggests that this is the job of leaders and managers as though employees are incapable of doing so themselves. The assumption that people are naturally unmotivated has…

Dysfunctional behavior is a part of everyday life in the workplace. In most cases, it is enabled by leaders and managers who are not sure of how to handle employees when they don’t…

Autocratic Leaders follow traditional approaches to growing their business and managing employees to ensure success. They enjoy deciding how things should be done and work hard to achieve their goals.

Leaders with the self-protective Caretaker Persona are those whose dominant or second function is Extraverted Thinking, which resides in the left rational brain. This function has a predominant need to be in…

Leadership behavior can be predicted based on a leader’s Striving Style or MBTI type. With the Striving Styles, you can also identify the function of the brain that will be used to decide and gather information and the…

People with a narcissistic persona become leaders because they feel entitled to a place at the top. They don’t always have the skill or competence to lead, but their ever-present self-interest and survival instincts cause them to be…

Social or Supportive Leadership approaches lead by helping and supporting employee and team members’ development. People who use this approach to leading are empathetic and people-oriented. Unlike the more task-driven…

Avoidant Leadership is when a leader wants to achieve their business objectives without engaging with others or drawing a lot of attention to themselves. These independent people want to be left alone to do their own thing and are afraid that if they…

Permissive Leadership is a style of leadership that is hands-off in nature, where decision-making authority is delegated to employees. Also called Laissez-Faire Leadership, it has its roots in 18th century France…

There is nothing unusual about a top-down leadership model, as it has been used in businesses and organizations since the Industrial Revolution. Hierarchies are simplistic models for organizing and leading people…

These are challenging, complex times. Uncertainty, fear and feelings of helplessness are causing many leaders to resort to self-protective behaviors rather than leading from their strengths and competence. Many leaders…

We all think that change for the sake of continuous improvement and development should be something that everyone jumps on board with because, hey, it is in everyone’s best interest after all…

Leaders today spend a lot of time trying to figure out why they can’t get the level of engagement and performance from employees that they require despite their best efforts. Their energy and…

Employee entitlement is on the rise, and while this attitude is most noted in people between the ages of 18 to 35, everyone can operate from their own sense of entitlement. Entitlement arises from our fixed beliefs about our behaviour and what we are…

There is a type of organizational narcissism that exists because functional leaders are allowed to focus solely on themselves and their own agenda. They create silos and treat them as their domain to rule over, where employees work in…

Our effectiveness as leaders is a direct result of showing up human and using our position and personal power to make choices that are aligned with the priorities of the business and people…

Are you feeling disempowered in your role as leader or manager? Do you find yourself angry at employees who you give autonomy to only to have them fail to meet your expectations? Do you prefer to work on your own and get annoyed by all…

The main reason we discovered for this dichotomy is leaders are increasingly permissive and indulgent of employees instead of effective at…

There has never been a time when emotionally intelligent leaders were more important and relevant than right now. The ability to create a sense…

It’s not uncommon for leaders to get stuck in their comfort zone, stopping growth and innovation in their organization. While they present an image of being growth oriented and promote the notion that…

Autocratic leadership and the abuse of power is caused by the failure of leaders to develop, which causes them to resort to the overuse of power and control to lead. The abuse and overuse of power can only stop when a leader…

If you’re frustrated as to why your employees haven’t come to you with new ideas despite you’re repeated encouragement to innovate, you’re not alone. Many leaders have jumped on the “innovation” bandwagon without…

How many articles have you read promoting the idea that there is an archetype or avatar for the “great” leader? There are numerous articles — What are the Characteristics of a “Great” Leader?, Top 10 Qualities of a “Great” Leader, and How to Become a…

Ever wonder why you find yourself at the mercy of your impulses during the holidays? Why you find it so easy to say “yes,” to buying things you don’t have money for or eating and drinking beyond…

Leading during the holiday season can feel as though you are swimming upstream, especially when we, as leaders, don’t hold our employees to “business as usual” behaviors. But you can’t afford to just go…

When I facilitate conflict management or issue resolution workshops, inevitably the majority of leaders participating agree they “hate conflict.” And as we all know, we humans rarely do anything we…

Do you sometimes feel you are doing more of your employees’ work than they are? Or have you stopped delegating to employees so as not to meet their groans of displeasure? If so, you’ve likely been so…

Does your boss suffer from the Peter Pan Syndrome? If you’ve never heard of it, think of all the qualities of Peter Pan. Doesn’t take responsibility; not there when you need them; wants to have fun; doesn’t take issues…

Apparently, it has fallen out of fashion to give employees expectations for performing a task and giving corrective feedback when they go off course. One of the most common ideas we hear from clients in our…

While it’s important to demonstrate the appropriate empathy and caring for an employee who is struggling, and support them when there are real situations such as health and family crises, it doesn’t mean that…

Dysfunctional behavior is a part of everyday life in the workplace. In most cases, it is enabled by leaders and managers who are not sure of how to handle employees when they don’t behave the way the leader…

Let’s face it. Leaders don’t set out to be dysfunctional or to create chaos and employee disengagement. Yet it happens as a matter of course, with little being done to challenge or change it. It’s easy to recognize because you hear the…

Have you noticed the trend in business to let employees off the hook when they fail to meet their commitments on time; refuse to do aspects of their job; or insist they do something their way despite your directions? Many of us are trying so…

If you’ve ever had the experience of asking someone a question and had them react as though you’ve accused them of something, or made a matter-of-fact statement and were met with tears because of your insensitivity, you know…

There are many reasons why it is challenging to work for leaders with a narcissistic self-protective persona at the best of times. They are image-driven, with a need to have others treat them as though they are wonderful, smart, competent and amazing leaders at all...

A leadership crisis has been created over the last decade because we’ve been brainwashed into believing that leaders have to take care of employees the same way helicopter and snowplow parents take care of their children. Don’t let them…

Unfortunately, the reality is that despite investing time and money into these systems, most organizations only see minimum returns and in many cases, no results at all.