Dear Madeleine, I started a new job about six months ago. My boss warned me about one of my direct reports—he said she was argumentative and difficult. For the first few months I thought she was okay, but now I’m beginning to see what my boss meant. She is hostile in meetings. She agrees to…
Dear Madeleine, I am a senior manager in a large government agency that has been decimated and paralyzed by our current administration. Don’t worry, I am not going to get political. But I do need help, because growth and opportunity have ground to a standstill in our organization and I have a whole team of…
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast we speak with David Novak, co-founder and former CEO of Yum! Brands and author of O Great One!: A Little Story About the Awesome Power of Recognition. For Novak, a large part of the success he had with improving performance at KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell…
Dear Madeleine, I am fairly new to managing a large team in the property management industry. I was a team member for a long time. One of the reasons I was promoted was because I was a work horse. I have a lot of energy and was used to putting in ten- and twelve-hour days…
Confidence is a belief in one’s ability to succeed. It comes from within and must be nurtured. A healthy level of confidence leads to the capacity to overcome fear, which can result in growth and accomplishment. A low confidence level can come from something as simple as a lack of experience and expertise in a…
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast we interview Jen Sincero, author of You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life. Sincero shares how to stop limiting yourself and start focusing on your strengths. Drawing on her own experience of personally trying and evaluating almost every…
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast Chad Gordon interviews Jackie Freiberg, coauthor of Cause!: A Business Strategy for Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness. Freiberg describes how finding your purpose helps organizations and individuals take their performance to a new level. Freiberg shares how organizations need to find their cause if they are going to…
Dear Madeleine, I am currently in an unfulfilling job. I also have digestive health issues that are not being resolved through diet and supplements. I am a creative person and I long to travel. I currently want to leave my job and travel around the world to heal and to write about my experiences—a blog…
Leaders work with coaches to take purposeful action in the advancement of their goals and in the interest of their organizations. But how does this really occur? Certainly not with the coach standing there, bullhorn in hand, yelling at the leader to stay on task. Instead, the coach listens carefully to what really matters to…
Dear Madeleine, I am regular reader and a fan. I’m about to graduate from my grad school program. You talk a lot about the importance of networking. I feel like I’ve been somewhat insulated from the reality and necessity of building a network and was wondering if you could give me some ideas of what…