Do you ever feel like you’re managing your manager? If so, it’s not necessarily a negative. If you’re contributing significant value to your organization and taking on more and more tasks that your boss is typically responsible for, then your leadership skills will be naturally showcased. But if your boss is a bit difficult to work with and you find yourself managing them more than they manage you, then it’s time to manage yourself up and out of their leadership. In this article, we’ll share three tips on how to lead yourself in managing up so that you can grow in your leadership and also three tips on managing up when your boss is difficult to work for.

In this modern age of the influencer, we’ve witnessed the flourishing of the online personal brand—replete with ring lights, filters and clever editing. And we all do the same, offline, in our daily lives. It’s called impression management, a term coined by sociologist Erving Goffman.

Most everyone cares about what people think of them, the impression they make and the impression they leave. And it’s healthy to be self-aware, but if you care too much about what others think of you then there will be unintended consequences in both your life and leadership. In this article, we’ll share four consequences to consider for a leader managing their impression and also some tips for creating an authentic and inclusive organizational culture without impression management.

Your brain’s amygdala: responsible for processing information and emotions. Its function impacts your beliefs, thoughts and feelings—and can sometimes lead to emotional triggering—known as the amygdala hijack. When you feel yourself responding reactively (and often irrationally) to a situation, you are likely experiencing an amygdala hijack to a stressor. And that’s totally normal—you’re human! But it’s key to learn what triggers you and how to mitigate your fight-or-flight responses as you grow both as a person and leader.

We’ve all seen leaders, either firsthand or in the news, who fail to get their amygdala hijack under control and end up acting in a manner that results in negative and sometimes even tragic consequences. That is why it’s so important to understand the core executive functions of your brain and how they influence you. In this article, we’ll share how you can strengthen your brain’s executive functions and also how you can apply them to the self-leadership of your beliefs, thoughts and emotions.

Unlimited snacks and expensive coffee beans are disappearing from breakrooms everywhere—the perk-cession is here. In the midst of growing recession fears and the frustration of increasing inflation, personal and professional budgets are being tightened. And those perks can be a tell-tale sign of what’s to come, or at least people may think they are. As a leader, it’s vital to keep your mindset in a healthy and positive place so that you can effectively lead your team through this economic downturn. In this article, we’ll share three ways leaders can creatively innovate during the perk-cession and also three things they can learn.

No one wants to be fired by their family. That’s just awkward. And when an employee leaves, their manager shouldn’t act like one of their kids is abandoning them. That’s just unhealthy.

Instead, leaders should promote a culture of belonging—one where employees feel safe, accepted and valued and also receive opportunities to both grow and risk. And employees should have the bandwidth and initiative to build rich, full lives outside of the office. A job shouldn’t be requiring so much of an employee that it feels impossible to do so—if that’s the case, then a toxic culture red flag is waving.

In this article, we’ll share tips for leaders to build healthy organizational cultures where community is encouraged both in and outside of the office, and also, we’ll speak to the individual employee with recommendations on how to establish a healthy work-life balance that allows for a full and well-rounded life.

Have you ever been told you’ve missed a deadline when you, in fact, remember sharing or uploading the file? Have you ever felt like a failure at work even though your annual review indicates otherwise? Or have you ever felt self-doubt take over and limit you from doing your best work?

Well, if you answer, “Yes” to the above questions, then you may very well be experiencing gaslighting in the workplace. Gaslighting occurs in relational dynamics when someone begins manipulating another—and it’s not excluded from the office. In this blog post, we’ll share four steps to lead yourself through and out of gaslighting in the workplace.

What makes an organization transparent? And how does a company gain that sort of reputation? Well, it always starts with the top—the leadership. At Building Champions, we believe there are four questions your employees are subconsciously asking of you, their leader. In this article, we’ll unpack those four questions, and how by answering them you can create a high-trust environment where transparency is championed—so that your organization becomes known as a healthy, high-functioning and transparent company.

The world needs courageous leaders—especially courageous women in leadership. Women have innate strengths and unique skills that foster cultures of inclusivity, respect and productivity. There needs to be more space at the table for female leaders and we want to encourage women leaders to take up that space. In honor of Women’s History Month, we’ve launched our newest offering for Women in Leadership. We coach, celebrate and believe in women who want to make a positive and lasting difference in the lives of those they lead, love and serve. And, in this article, we’ll share five ways a courageous woman leads.

Most of us remember the Great Recession of 2007 – 2009, but your Gen Z (and even some of your Millennial) employees won’t have experienced firsthand this sort of shake-up in the business world. Many Millennials graduated college during the Great Recession, moved back home with their parents and struggled to find work. Some of your employees will remember losing their homes and some their businesses. If a recession does hit 2023, the people you lead may struggle with triggering memories from the last recession. In this article, the last in our how to lead during a recession series, we’ll share how you can proactively prepare your organization for a recession and how you can successfully lead through it.