Building a Leadership Pipeline: How to Overcome the Key Challenges

5 Minute Read

Building a leadership pipeline can feel like staring down an impossible mountain. You have ambitious, talented employees who are hungry for growth, but translating that potential into a steady, reliable pipeline of future leaders? That’s where things get challenging. You’re not just filling gaps in skills—you’re setting the stage for your organization’s future. It’s the difference between a team that’s ready for whatever comes next and one that stumbles when things shift.

Imagine this: your high-potentials are energized, applying new skills every day, and they can see a clear path ahead. They’re not just here for today’s tasks—they’re invested in tomorrow’s possibilities, actively shaping what’s next. But reaching that vision means navigating some very real challenges. From securing the budget to keeping employees engaged, to making training stick, building a pipeline is about overcoming roadblocks and transforming them into stepping stones toward a resilient, future-ready organization.

Building Trust in Business Teams: 4 Key Ways to Strengthen Your Foundation

5 Minute Read

Trust. It's one of those words we throw around, especially in business, but do we really stop to think about what it means? We tend to talk about trust as something you have to "earn" or "build" over time. But if you think about it, we give trust to people all day, every day, without even realizing it. You step into a crosswalk trusting that the car coming at you is going to stop. You board a plane trusting that the pilot knows exactly what they’re doing. You trust the doctor prepping for your surgery has everything under control. And yet, when it comes to our teams, we treat trust like it’s some monumental task—like it’s fragile and needs constant attention. But is it really that complicated?

It’s All a Matter of Perspective

3 Minute Read

Perspective is a funny thing. Consider this all-too-familiar scenario: You’re driving to work behind an SUV that abruptly stops before an intersection. No turn signal, no warning. Just stops in the middle of the street. How inconsiderate! You could have wrecked! So you lay on the horn, angry and flustered, yelling a few choice words. We know what it feels like. Your morning was off to a bad enough start already. You probably feel frustrated, like nothing else is going to go right.

But what you couldn’t see was that there was a smaller car ahead of the SUV. That car was the one actually turning. And it DID have the turn signal on. The SUV was simply waiting for the car to turn. Now, how do you feel? Glad you honked and yelled for no reason? Or embarrassed that you acted without having all of the information?

Too Little Too Late...

3 Minute Read

Recently, a client had a key employee resign unexpectedly, and they were left scratching their heads wondering what went wrong. They had big plans for this employee in the future. In fact, they had discussed this during many of our leadership team group sessions. When the employee put in his resignation, it felt a bit like a punch in the gut. The leadership team felt that they had invested so much time into this employee. They asked us to conduct an exit interview in hopes of learning from the situation, so they don’t repeat the same mistakes.

During the exit interview, the employee reported that he felt like he had plateaued in his current role. And he wasn’t sure what career path the company had in mind for him. It made our hearts sink a little because we heard the leaders of the organization discuss the plans for his future. But they quickly discovered that they never clearly laid out that plan to the most important person: THE EMPLOYEE!

Leadership, Retaining Employees, TrustMarch 16, 2020career development, developing employees, employee career pathsComment

Organizational Culture: The Alka-Seltzer Method

3 Minute Read

More and more companies today have come to understand that employees are demanding that the company they work for fit their values and beliefs about how employees and coworkers should treat each other. They look at a company’s philosophy about customers and their beliefs about social causes. And most importantly, they look at organizational culture. And if the company doesn’t fit the mold, the employees go elsewhere.

Some companies have not spelled out what behaviors support their specific culture. And this creates confusion for employees. For other companies, there is no connection between what’s documented and what’s actually happening. New recruits may be told during an interview about the mission and how people interact but once hired, find that isn’t how people really act day-to-day.

Company Culture, TrustJanuary 21, 2020Alka-Seltzer, behavior, company culture, corporate culture, culture, employee culture, organizational cultureComment

Leading with Compassion: A Requirement of Leaders Today

4 Minute Read

The word compassion holds many meanings, and it’s hard to define. Here’s what we know. Compassion consists of three main elements: recognizing or noticing when others are struggling, understanding and feeling for the person that is struggling, and responding or having the motivation to act and help relieve the struggle. Compassion takes empathy one step further with that final element: having the motivation to act.

You might be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with leadership? I can’t fix every person’s problems.” Our answer: It has everything to do with it. Human beings are born with a compassionate instinct at our core. In fact, research by David Rand at Harvard University shows that with both adults and children, our first impulse is to help others, not to compete with them.

Communication, Leadership, TrustOctober 30, 2019business leadership, compassion, leading teams, Leading with empathy

Transforming the Employee Evaluation

How to hold people accountable without ruining relationships.

4 Minute Read

Picture this scenario: People at work are unengaged. You can feel your direct reports whispering about you around the water cooler. Sometimes you feel walked on. And your team thinks that they can get away with anything…because you won’t do anything about it. Does any of this sound familiar?

Having crucial conversations with your team is hard. We know our employees have good intentions. But sometimes, they make mistakes, or we need to correct performance issues. And holding them accountable for missing the mark can be extremely uncomfortable.

You're not my boss! - How to deal with your micromanaging coworker.

3 Minute Read

Every company has one. The micromanaging coworker. You know who we’re talking about. The one employee that has his hands in everything. He’s the go-to for all the questions you have. But also a bit of a control freak. Things that aren’t his job easily become his job, because he can’t let go. He checks up on your work and he’s always questioning what you’re doing. Sometimes, you might even start to wonder how he has time to do his own job when he’s spending so much time trying to do yours. And here’s the worst part…You don’t even report to him! Therein lies the dilemma. How do you keep your working relationship intact, yet still be firm enough to set your boundaries? It’s time to deal with your micromanaging coworker.

Confessions Of A Recovering Micromanager

Company Culture, Leadership, Our Thoughts, Retaining Employees, TrustDecember 17, 2018company culture, failure, frustration, management, micromanage, work environmentComment

We're Leaves On A Vine

Building Relationships

Communication, Company Culture, TrustJanuary 31, 2017building relationships, communication, making time, spending time together Comment

Trust Begins With You!

Leadership, TrustJune 24, 2015communication trust, develop trust, Gain Trust, leading teams, trusting environment Comment

Do it Yourself! - Overcoming Micromanagement

Leadership, TrustMay 5, 2015delegate, Delegation, how to deal with a micromanager, micromanage, micromanaging boss, micromanaging coworker Comment

What the Heck?!

Let’s face it - on a daily basis, someone will do something you don’t like. Here's your moment of truth. Whether it’s cutting you off in traffic, not replying to an email within your timeframe, or not following a specific process…it will happen. And when it does, what’s your first thought?

I know…It depends. I hate that response, though it may be true. Let’s talk about when someone cuts you off in traffic. Do you yell at the person? Shake your fist? Or something more drastic? Do you ever think, “What the heck?! Learn how to drive!”Now let me ask you a different question: Have you ever cut someone off in traffic?

10 Ways to Reduce Trust

3 Minute Read

Trust is overrated – we all know it. When we go to work, we’re there to work, not make friends. Who wants to sit around and sing Kumbuya? Who wants things to be all hunky dory? Your job is to make sure things get done – that’s it. So, here are ten ways to show your team that trust doesn’t mean anything to you.

10 Ways to---, Leadership, TrustMarch 13, 201510 ways to, develop trust, Gain Trust, trust communication, trusting environment, what not to doComment

Trust...From the Employee's Perspective

Leadership, Motivation, Our Thoughts, Retaining Employees, TrustAugust 12, 2014expectations, feel valued, relationship building, responsibilityComment

Trust = Team

Company Culture, Leadership, TrustJune 10, 2014body language, frustration, inconsistent communication, keep score, keeping score, positive impact, relationship building, team building, trusting environmentComment

Keep your Cool in Conflict

Communication, Leadership, TrustJanuary 30, 2014change your viewpoint, communication, conflict, keep your cool, take a breath, tipsComment

It's as simple as a conversation...

3 Minute Read

Do you find yourself doing projects yourself because you don’t trust that others will do the job correctly? Team members and managers alike fall into this habit more than you think. What tends to follow are things like enormous workloads, anger at teammates, job dissatisfaction, low morale, and employee burn-out.

Common sense would tell us to confront the people on our team to fix the problem. Right? Well, in reality, many people will avoid this confrontation altogether. There all kinds of reasons why this crucial conversation never happens.