Articles for category: Leadership

The Future of Training is Engagement

Think back to the best training session you ever attended. It could be one you attended, one that was held internally or maybe even one that you gave. What made it so special, what made it resonate with you and your team that when you left you all felt committed to take action and make something happen. What was the secret sauce in play? Now before you book your next training, hold it accountable to that bar, don’t let it waiver, it must hit or leap over that bar that you’ve set. Because you know you, you know your team

May 15, 2017

Greg Thomas

It doesn’t need to be your Idea

Anyone can come up with a good idea… even a semi-good idea… But can they execute on it? Can they put in all the work to make it happen? Can they deliver something so incredible that at the end of the day no one remembers the idea, but they remember the end result and the deliverable? Don’t get hung up on whether you thought up the next great idea of the century or if you are working on an idea someone else had that doesn’t want it anymore. Do get hung up on whether you turn it into something meaningful.

May 9, 2017

Greg Thomas

People vs Process Managers

People Managers worry about the people, the culture, the team, the what and the how of what they are delivering. Process Managers worry about how and when of what they are delivering, the methodology, the steps and the outcome. We are all one or the other, depending on the project sometimes we are both sometimes we flip between projects on which one we must be. But we are all predisposed to leaning to one side or the other. There is nothing wrong with either – the key is knowing which one you are and assembling a team that lines up to

May 3, 2017

Greg Thomas

The Accidental Exit

I once hired someone to work with me on a few projects but we never had the chance to actually, side-by-side work together during our tenure together. They left before that could happen – I called it the Accidental Exit. Sure we talked, discussed progress on projects and we might have been on the same project but in varying different roles, but we were never in the trenches together for a project. When they left they told me their one disappointment was this lost opportunity on never really working together – being in the trenches together, slogging through the problems.

April 28, 2017

Greg Thomas

The Evolution of the Watercooler

The Watercooler still exists – the forum for idle chitchat that really serves no purpose except to highlight the ups and downs of company politics. We might not physically gather around it anymore and instead do so virtually in Facebook, Twitter, SLACK and other tools that allow us to spend the day messaging on such topics. It’s hard to resist that swirling vortex of negative energy and sometimes we don’t even know we have succumbed to it until it is too late. But there is a way out. The next time you feel it happening, record how long you spent in