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Leadership lessons often come from unexpected places. Some recent events reminded me why we must talk to people not about people. The Valerie Bertonelli Incident Last week, you may have heard about a social media incident that involved Valerie Bertinelli. In case you don’t know, Valerie is an actress, television personality and perhaps most famous for being the ex-wife of Van Halen guitarist, Eddy Van Halen. She currently hosts the cooking shows Valerie’s Home Cooking and Kids Baking Championship on Food Network. Long story short, someone had posted a negative comment online telling her she needed to lose weight. In response, she posted a video sharing that comments such asRead More →

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In: Decision Making, Operations Leadership

Over the past 5 years I have had the opportunity to volunteer at two different animal rescue organizations. They both have the same ultimate goal, which is to save the lives of animals. However, their volunteer executions plans are vastly different. This is because one leverages a generalist approach, while the other leverages a specialist approach. What is the difference? In her May 2020 article, “Deep or wide: Should you become a specialist or generalist in your career?”, Sharlyn Lauby did a great job describing each option.  Per Lauby, “Generalists are competent in several different areas or activities within a profession. Consider an accountant who’s knowledgeableRead More →

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In: Communication Best Practices, Operations Leadership

As a leader do you feel like you are “on” all the time while at work, or interacting with employees or customers? You should. Leaders must operate as if he or she are living in a fish bowl. Everyone on the outside can look in and watch you. Every interaction with every colleague, employee and customer, matters and has a spill over effect.  Whether you leave a positive impression or a negative impression, that effect will be shared with others…verbally, electronically or even on social media. Being “on” means that you are consciously thinking about your words, behaviors and body language. When you are “on”,Read More →