When each member of a team is equipped in their role to execute successfully while in alignment with their teammates, the team will meet its overall goal. But before a team can execute on key initiatives, they must first be setup for success. The team structure and organizational systems you establish are so important because they provide a support network for the team to achieve its desired outcomes with both efficiency and effectiveness. In this article, we’ll discuss the power of teamwork and the four key areas of team performance: team strategy, execution, goal setting and results. 

No matter your role, it’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day job functions and focus only on the urgent and immediate tasks—but, as a leader, you can’t forget about planning for the future. Developing leadership capacity should be a focus area of every company. But we know that when you’re running hard, it’s difficult to devote limited time and resources to a forward-thinking task. That’s why fostering a coaching culture is vital to your organization’s overall impact as it’ll give you the clarity needed to see your people as a top priority. In this article, we’ll cover the five core areas of leadership capacity to help your organization intentionally develop its leaders and best position itself for future opportunities—while fulfilling its vision along the way.

Effective communication is a skill to develop and a key component of self-leadership. According to workplace research, the productivity of teams with effective communication increased by 25% while 28% of employees considered poor communication to be their reason for missing deadlines. So not only does miscommunication impact team productivity, but it also impacts the performance of individual contributors. And for a leader to engage their team in productive, meaningful and collaborative work, they must first communicate in a way that is clearly given and clearly received. In this article, we’ll unpack the five focus areas of effective communication for a leader.

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.