“How would you describe the kind of manager you most like to work for?” asked Steve. He was interviewing applicants for an administrative assistant role on our team. The role reported directly to me. Steve and I had worked together for many years at this point and he had a really good sense of my …
I found myself in an interesting conversation a few months ago with a fellow trainer. They shared with me that while they love what they do, they have good and bad days just like anyone else—and that sometimes, on the not-so-good-days, showing up the way we want to or feel we should in the classroom …
The introduction to the facilitator manual for Master My Stories suggests that facilitators should not feel bad “if participants don’t give up all their stories by the end of the session. Your goal should be to help people question their assumptions. You want them to assault their stories with questions. You want them to remain …
Music is a big part of my training experiences. Anytime I’m laying out the flow for a training design, or stepping in front of an audience, I have a song playing in my head. Setting the tone, driving the pace, bringing everything together. I’ve used music as a pre-session and break filler, and even, on …
Years ago I joined an organization and discovered a character who worked there. He was an interesting blend of wisdom, mischief, creativity, and crazy. You know that type. I’d find him engaged in some strange activity, or distilling some semi-absurd piece of advice, and think, “What in the world??!!?!” I’d walk away and invariably the …
We work in a three-generational workplace. Each generation is different and we often struggle to dialogue well across generations. What tips do you have to bridge this gap in our crucial conversations? First let me compliment you in attempting to proactively seek ways to bridge this “generational gap.” Many people have just assumed that the …
Oh, the Vegas Rule. What a simple little phrase: “What happens here, stays here!” Being raised in Nevada, I always enjoy a solid reference to the state of my heart (feel free to join me in the first verse of “Home Means Nevada” if you’re a Nevadan at heart, or take a short Google field …
We’re full steam into Lesson 4 on STATE My Path. In my experience, participants are eager to put everything together into a formula that will permit them to speak up in tough situations. We’ve thought the issue through, planned and practiced, controlled our emotions and focused on what we really want so we can be …
The Style Under Stress Test asks participants to pick a specific person or situation where they have a hard time staying in dialogue, and then directs them to answer all the questions in regards to that specific person or situation. The results of the test are not a measure of personality i.e., scoring high on …
When people outside of work find out that I spend a lot of time teaching groups, they often ask about the more challenging situations I encounter. “What are the biggest pitfalls? And how do you recover when you run into these problems?” I tell them, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Some time ago, …
