A basic principle of the language arts is that you cannot define a word by using the word. For example, you cannot define complacent by saying: Complacent means to be complacent. It is equally true that an employee will not accept ownership of a job if the boss will not tolerate ownership mistakes. Leaders know the best people make mistakes ── and “Monday morning quarterbacking” is not a motivational strategy. ─Ken Chapman ─ Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) sums up the importance of attitude: “No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed unchartered land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.” A pessimist constantly avoids responsibility and therefore makes life unpleasant for the rest of the team. ─ Christy Beem ─ Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc.

It’s true no organization ever rises above its leadership. It’s also true our organization can never be anything we do not want ourselves to be. Leaders know if they want excellence, compassion, truthfulness, or courage in the organization’s culture, they must first find it within themselves. ─ Deb Miller

For untold centuries, one of the most important trees in the American food chain and in forests from Maine to Mississippi was the wild American Chestnut tree. Estimates show there were three billion Chestnut trees when the Europeans arrived. In the Appalachian Mountains, twenty-five percent of trees were American chestnut. For wildlife from deer to squirrels the chestnut seemed critical to survival. Then around 1900, some Chinese chestnut trees infected with a blight were imported to New York. The blight spread and killed almost every single American Chestnut tree from forests to front yards including ancient behemoths. Time marched on and wildlife and humankind adapted to life without them. Change is sometimes traumatic, immense, rapid, and unfathomable. In the workplace just as in nature, survivors find ways to adapt and thrive. Effective leaders spend little time fretting over uncontrollable events and much more time finding a path forward. ─ Derek…

Or asked another way… How do I deal with employees who do not follow the rules, but who seem indispensable?     Some companies have one or two employees who march to their own drummer, out of step with the rest of the company and its culture – safety or otherwise. They behave in ways that wouldn’t be acceptable for everyone else.  At the same time, it seems impossible to function without them, so their negative behavior is overlooked and excused. When someone points out the disconnect between company values and their behavior, the response is some version of, “Well, that’s just [Name].”  This phenomenon is so common in organizations that we have given it a name: The Indispensable Outlier.   It’s important to recognize Indispensable Outliers for what they are: Drags on the organization and destroyers of culture. There’s a good reason the qualities of being “indispensable” and exhibiting…

Whitney Tate and Delcia Petersen explore the practical side of Emotional Intelligence as it is most often encountered in the workplace. What is the cost of being 'A Bull in the China Shop' as it relates to EIQ? How do we each avoid being that bull in the china shop in our own workplace, dismissive of competence about it at our own immense personal cost? If Emotional Intelligence is arguably the greatest predictor of success in a leader and in success within any given career, then ...

The Latin phrase age quod agis loosely translates, “Work hard at what you do well.” We’ve all been told at some time or another we should work on our opportunities for improvement. While it’s important to minimize behaviors which may not serve us well, leaders know their strengths and work to enhance them. The great philosopher Dolly Parton put it another way: “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” ─ Deb Miller ─ Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc.

Leaders go the second mile. Going the first mile is doing nothing more than what is required us. Leaders know that it is in the second mile that excellence is achieved. Only the second mile, or third, reveals the best players/employees. ─Ken Chapman─ Ken Chapman and Associates, Inc.

By Ken Chapman, Ph.D.   To listen to an audio version of this article, click here: Ken Chapman and Associates, Inc. · How to Earn Trust: Beyond The Obvious When asked, most people list trust as the “must have” of personal and professional relationships. For most people, it is hard to overstate the value of trust. Telling the truth, accepting full responsibility for one’s self, keeping one’s promises and talking to others not about them are obvious ways of earning trust. But what about the less obvious ways of earning trust?  The less obvious ways of earning trust begin with a particular way of thinking about human interaction. Leaders who earn high levels of trust begin with an attitude which attracts others. It is a way of thinking about people which sees people for who they are: well-intentioned and imperfect.  And, speaking of “obvious” every leader knows this is not…

Dr. Isabel Scarinci, Vice Chair for Global and Rural Health in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UAB, psychologist, and polio survivor, discusses The Power of Thankfulness. How powerful is a genuine sense of thankfulness in our daily lives with co-workers, friends, and family? How does expressing thankfulness change our relationships with others? How can we make authentic thankfulness habitual? What is the science behind gratitude? And how does daily meditation on thankfulness im...