The Leadership Room

A common misconception is that silence equates to agreement. Another is, if people don’t speak up, they must have nothing to say. You can feel it in a meeting within a couple of minutes. In some rooms people lean in, talk freely, challenge ideas respectfully, imagine liberally, disagree safely and the conversation and outcomes get better for it. In others, the leader does the talking, participants remain disengaged and quiet, insights, suggestions, questions, all remain uns

I have experienced working for a micromanager and I know firsthand how disengaging it is, especially for a seasoned, self-motivated and highly productive professional. Micromanaging screams “I lack confidence in me and you” and is the quickest path to disengaging your talent. Leaders who hire well, train and equip for success, stay interested and engaged but trust their talent to deliver, unleash the powerful talents of their employees and set the stage for greatness throug

Mission statements are common. Every organization has one, usually posted somewhere near reception, usually written by a committee. Ask the person at the reception desk underneath it what it means for the work they're doing right now, and you'll likely get a polite shrug. That's the gap. It's a line-of-sight problem: not every employee can trace what they do today to something that matters. That’s a missed opportunity at elevating a person’s sense of worth and a lost chance t