Category: Choices

On the Discrediting of People

The cen­tral means by which infor­mal pow­er is main­tained in an orga­ni­za­tion is all too often through the dis­cred­it­ing and exclu­sion of peo­ple. This cre­ates a tight cir­cle of con­trol and a cul­ture based on gen­er­al­ized per­for­mance anx­i­ety, com­pe­ti­tions, fixed mind­sets, and fears of scarci­ty. Because it’s “cul­ture,” these fac­tors tend to be felt —… Con­tin­ue read­ing On the Dis­cred­it­ing of People

Published
Categorized as Choices

On Soul Sparks: A Postscript

The con­cept of “soul sparks” comes from Jon Mertz’s great new book, Acti­vate Lead­er­ship: Aspen Truths to Empow­er Mil­len­ni­al Lead­ers. Jon defines soul sparks this way: “Soul sparks are those small igni­tions of inspi­ra­tion that fan into big changes, new direc­tions, or fresh works. They come from deep down inside.” At his request, I’m hon­ored… Con­tin­ue read­ing On Soul Sparks: A Postscript

Cowardice at Work

This is a tale of two high­er lev­el man­agers — the first all but ter­mi­nat­ed, shuf­fled into a sec­ondary job with­out an expla­na­tion except the unstat­ed, very real mes­sage, “your time is up — find some­thing else.” By com­par­i­son the sec­ond is offered a dig­ni­fied oppor­tu­ni­ty to leave the orga­ni­za­tion with sig­nif­i­cant feed­back and as… Con­tin­ue read­ing Cow­ardice at Work