A lesson in creation, leadership, and life. A good friend of mine told me how he went to a poetry workshop recently. My friend is not a poet. He’d actually never written a poem in his life. He was a nervous about attending the workshop. Here’s what the instructor asked him to do. She asked my… Read the full article...

Delivering negative feedback is hard — especially when you’re seen as a “the positive person” on your team. Here’s how to start doing it more regularly. “I need to right the ship.” A member of our online leadership community in Canopy, admitted this a few months ago. He shared how he’d long delayed giving critical feedback, and… Read the full article...

Ugh. Firing someone never gets easier — but keeping these tips in mind can make it go as smoothly as possible the first time around. I’ll never forget the first time I fired someone. She was the first employee I’d ever hired at Know Your Team. And she was someone I’d looked up to since I was 19.… Read the full article...

Culture isn’t meant to be measured. Here’s why, and what you should measure instead. “How do you measure company culture?” Someone asked me this recently. My answer: You can’t. And you don’t want to. Why? Because culture, technically defined, is the artifacts, espoused values and beliefs, and basic underlying assumptions that people have. And that can’t… Read the full article...

Based on data from 2,000+ people, I wrote a guide to one-on-one meetings for managers and employees — and it’s finally live! 🙂 Dear manager or employee who cares about their team’s success, You hold one-on-one meetings. But are they working? Over the past four years, I noticed how almost every person I talked to did not know the… Read the full article...

Stop saying these words — you’re wearing your employees thin. You’re doing it again. You don’t mean to, but it’s happening: Your words are damaging your team. Small, off-hand remarks color how an employee thinks you value their work. Comments seemingly innocuous to you are in fact infuriating to your team. You may have started to notice… Read the full article...

You have a needy employee. What do you do now? “I think I’m going to have to let someone go.” I was at lunch the other day with an executive who admitted this to me. I asked her why. “She’s in my office every five minutes, asking me for help. I don’t have time to answer… Read the full article...

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution — but there are best practices. Here are 5 recommendations from leaders all over the world on how to hold a well-run company-wide meeting. “Does my team think this is a waste of time?” The thought slips into your mind as your prepare for your all-hands meeting. Whether it’s the first all-hands you’ve… Read the full article...

I’m tired of gimmicky ways to praise your team. Here’s how to commend your team for a job well done, meaningfully. My third grade teacher Ms. Mullens had a bulletin board of star stickers in her classroom. On the board, she’d place a star sticker next to your name if you’d cleaned out your cubby,… Read the full article...

Employee motivation isn’t as mystifying as it should be. Ask these questions to get to the bottom of it. “What really motivates employees?” A CEO asked me this recently, quite skeptical of the deluge of books and articles on what influences employee engagement and performance. It’s managers! It’s career opportunities! It’s learning and development! It’s employee… Read the full article...

I share a few of my favorite latest leadership tips from CEOs, founders, and executives featured in our Heartbeat interviews. “What do you wish you’d learned earlier as a leader?” Every two weeks, I ask this question to a CEO, founder, or executive I admire in our interview series, The Heartbeat. The answers are sometimes… Read the full article...

Four best practices to help you work well with your boss when you don’t see them face-to-face all the time. “What does her Slack message *really* mean?” It’s easy to second-guess yourself when your boss pings you. You want to have a good relationship with your boss — but it’s not always the most natural of things. And… Read the full article...

A short 3-question quiz to give your team so you can avoid common leadership mistakes. Feel that? It’s your faint intuition that, as a leader, you’re not hearing the full truth. No one seems to tell you the complete story when someone decides to leaves. No one breathes a word about any leadership mistakes you… Read the full article...

When the boss speaks, people listen too much. Here are two phrases to counteract this common leadership pitfall. Watch the ears perk up. The boss says something, and folks become extra attentive. It’s not a leadership mistake they’re making on purpose – it’s the unintentional by product of being the boss. All of sudden, someone… Read the full article...

You’ve just been promoted Now what? Here’s what 1,000+ leaders across the world had to say about what a new manager should do during her first 2 weeks on the job. A friend of mine was recently promoted to being a manager for the first time. It’s a slightly terrifying thing, for those of you who… Read the full article...

From icebreakers to arguments, here are some of most frequently missed things we forget to do as leaders to encourage our team to be more engaged. Meaningful work, open communication, a sense of direction In our heads, we seem to know a lot of what helps maintain employee engagement. However, in practice, keeping our team engaged… Read the full article...

Beer taps and foosball tables aren’t signs of a strong company culture — honest communication and rigorous + respectful debate are. Here’s how to build a culture of the latter. Culture, at its core, is not what we outwardly say or show. Culture is rooted in our basic underlying assumptions — what we truly believe, even when we choose not… Read the full article...

Being a first-time manager is daunting — so I asked our members how they support their own newly promoted managers. When you hire or promote a new manager, you hope they’ll be great. After all, they were a wonderful, all-round employee. But being a wonderful, all-round employee unfortunately doesn’t guarantee that someone will be a great manager.… Read the full article...

Are you struggling with how to unlock honest feedback from employees? Here are six ways to get the employee feedback you need to hear. Feedback is critical to getting great work done. When you get honest feedback, it helps you make better decisions, it helps employees do their best work, and it helps you be a… Read the full article...

When it comes to delegating, invite your team into both the thinking and the doing. Do you consider yourself “a doer”? That person who enjoys doing the work, fine-tuning the details, meddling in the weeds of how it’ll all work? Then you probably have trouble delegating as a leader. I know I do. For so many… Read the full article...

As a busy leader, you may be wondering how to fit 1-on-1s into an already packed schedule. Here are some best practices selected our online community for leaders. A frequent question I receive when it comes to having one-on-ones with employees is: With whom and how often? Everyone? Direct reports? A cross-section of employees from different… Read the full article...

I share a few of my favorite latest leadership tips from CEOs, founders, and executives featured in our Heartbeat interviews. Every few weeks, I have the opportunity to sit down with CEOs, founders, and leaders who inspire me. I’m continually surprised by the lessons they share — as well as the humility and introspection required to share… Read the full article...

Our most popular recommendations for team-bonding, regardless of the distance separating your remote employees. Believe me when I tell you that I adore running a remote company. It’s enabled me to hire and work with folks I could’ve never have hired locally. It’s helped me work with fewer distractions and greater focus. It’s given me… Read the full article...

If you’ve always struggled to give negative feedback to your team, this is for you. “I love giving negative feedback at work,” said no one ever. Unless you enjoy causing people to be angry, upset or hurt — chances are you don’t like giving difficult feedback. We squirm, postpone, or avoid having to relay hard truths,… Read the full article...

From our online leadership community in Canopy, we gathered the best tips for sharing knowledge effectively across your team. A few years back, one of our Canopy members posed a question. He asked: “How to do you share knowledge across the team?” As a team or company grows, it becomes harder to share knowledge in the organization… Read the full article...

Here are some of the most counterintuitive leadership mistakes I’ve fallen victim to. Making a mistake as a leader is never fun. You unintentionally embarrass a co-worker in front of the team. Or you brush off what you thought was a minor issue only to watch it balloon into something huge weeks later. I’ve been there.… Read the full article...

If you’re busy as a leader, you’re doing it wrong. The best leaders seem to be the busiest. If you’re busy, you’re getting a bunch of stuff done: You’re tending to your team, you’re making stuff happen. Being busy as a leader is a good characteristicRight? Well, quite the opposite. Being busy as a leader is… Read the full article...

Compiled from 4 + years’ worth of data, advice, and insights Over the past four years, I’ve written a fair share about how to be a good leader: I’ve offered leadership tips in our blog, pulling personal examples of what I’ve faced and learned. I’ve compiled leadership advice from our online community what’s been working (and… Read the full article...

Specific questions that’ll help you get the actionable feedback you’re looking for. Most of us run some sort of employee survey in our company But how often is it that we learn something surprising from them? Or how about something actionable? Our research has shown you will get more honest, actionable feedback when you ask specific… Read the full article...

A better company culture can start with you – not just the CEO. “Culture starts from the top,” it’s often said. But is that really true? Surely, it is easier to influence company culture when you’re at the top. As a CEO, founder, or business owner, people are already looking to you for example and guidance around… Read the full article...