In working with high level clients in Fortune 50 companies to rapidly growing venture-backed companies, it is truth that ‘office politics’ are no myth. They are painfully real and pervasive. In its worst form, I compare office politics to the mean girls from junior high school…..fed by jealousy, insecurity, and competitiveness. And yes, those mean…

Many of you shared with me the paradox you face when trying to say no (when you may actually want to say yes); however, due to resource constraints and other pressing priorities, the answer, at least at that point in time, must be ‘no’. So, how do we do this AND preserve relationships, keep a project…

Most of us have experienced the feeling of being ‘passed over’ for a promotion or caught in the crosshairs of an organizational restructuring. The feeling of being ‘demoted’ can be demoralizing – whether it is real or imagined. And to make matters worse, often individuals buy into the myth that if they do not attain…

The only constant is change. Change and progress are inevitable. Change is vital and necessary. Yes, all these statements are true. Yet, this does not make dealing with the disruption, the ambiguity, the fear, and the concern of how change will effect each of us, easy. Let’s face it – change can be scary, unsettling,…

When I formed Alignment, Inc. almost 10 years ago, the word (and concept) of ‘alignment’ were, for the most part, reserved for body shops and chiropractors! Yet, successful leaders and my senior leader/CEO friends LOVED the concept as they said THAT is what distinguishes successful leaders, organizations, cultures, and strategies. Of course, I could not…

TEAMWORK. Most of us know that true teamwork is the key that unlocks not only the collective potential – yet the individual potential as well. In my business experience, every successful team I was on – or that I led – was 100% attributable to the folks with whom I worked. Period. The rising tide truly …

Recently, I have been engaged with a few organizations and teams who are struggling to build good working environments. We have all heard the adage ‘team work makes the dream work’ and this most certainly is true. Most of us have been members of teams and organizations that were, in a word, dysfunctional. No one was happy. …

I can assure you, each person reading this has most certainly experienced a broken relationship due to the break down of trust. This breakdown could be in the form of a spouse cheating on them or a colleague using information (which you developed or found) as if it were their own with no accreditation to you. It could be someone outright stealing a concept from a keynote or workshop, and using it as if it were their own. Or it could be a so-called friend or colleague saying one thing to your face and calling you a ‘friend’ only to have them back-stabbing you with unflattering commentary or falsehoods behind your back. Let’s face it, trust is so integral to our relationships that we often take it for granted; yet in an era marked by business scandals and a desire for accountability – we clearly need to nurture trust in our professional and personal lives. Where in the world has all the trust gone? And what do we do about it?

As many may know, ABC has a real hit on its hands with The Shark Tank! The stars are a ruthless, shrewd collection of diverse, self-made millionaires who judge, qualify, and either select or ‘de-select’ budding entrepreneurs for further investment. If you haven’t watched it, you will either love it or hate it. Recently, there was an episode focusing on how to capture the sharks attention AND close the deal…..interesting. This blog offers my two cents…..

Nothing like disruption to get the stories going! And when the uproar is about the newspaper business, we get more than the usual number of critics thinking and writing about what it all means. So when Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post, using his personal fortune from founding Amazon, the stories were flying like Angry Birds.