Dear Madeleine, I work as a marketing director at a medium-sized firm and I’m a longtime reader of your column. My company reacted quickly to the warnings about COVID-19 and sent all of us home last week. My spouse is a frontline manager for a larger firm across town that couldn’t send employees home because…
Dear Madeleine, I recently joined a small but global organization as COO. I am tasked with looking at all of our systems and processes and finding ways to streamline, upgrade, and reduce our manual processes and the resulting human error. My problem is that the team I inherited is committed to keeping things exactly the…
As I am about to embark on one of the biggest changes in my life (having a baby!) it got me thinking: Why are some changes in life scarier than others? Contrary to what you may think, I am more scared about coming back to my work role after maternity leave than I am about…
Coaches often are called upon to help people transition to the next thing. Sometimes clients don’t even know what the next thing is, only that it’s time to do something different. And sometimes the choice is not theirs but is being imposed on them. For many of us, it’s not so much the change that…
Successful change leaders demonstrate three common characteristics—courage, patience, and determination. And they make sure all three are in balance through a manageable dynamic tension. For example, courage might mean speaking up and sharing an opinion different from that of the CEO—someone who has more authority than you do. But it needs to be balanced by…
Change is inevitable for most organizations—especially in today’s dynamic business environment. For individuals, change may result in new responsibilities, new roles, or new leaders. When coaching clients through organizational change, we see many concerns surface due to people’s feelings of uncertainty as well as the added stress brought about by the change process. So what…
When your organization and people are challenged with impending doom—I mean, impending change—leaders often stick their heads in the sand and hope it passes. Yes, it will pass, but your organization can take advantage of the transition using the science of motivation and what we know about the way people experience change. People go through…
As we go through life, we experience different personal and professional seasons that influence our daily activities. During each season, our priorities will likely change. Here’s an example. Prior to having my son, my highest priority was excelling professionally. I worked all the time. I devoted 125 percent of my energy to my professional responsibilities.…
Dear Madeleine, I am at my wits’ end. I worked hard in college and graduate school and have what some people might call a “Type A” personality. I take on a lot, I work really hard and I complete my work by the agreed-upon deadline. For the past few years I have been working for…
I like licorice. When I sit in front of a bowl of mixed jelly beans, I automatically grab the black ones. I don’t really think about it. Very quickly I have put 15 black jelly beans into my hand. That’s just the way it is. I don’t consciously ask myself, “Whoa, here’s a yellow one, and…