Depending on your industry, it is really tough to hire good employees right now. But are you letting your fear of losing a mediocre employee keep you from having direct conversations about performance?

This question comes up far too often in my coaching conversations. How would the performance of your business be transformed if you had a culture of feedback?

One client told me, “At the end of every one-to-one check in, I ask my staff what feedback they have for me and everyone always says that they don’t have any. They all say things are great. Yet when the employee surveys came back, a percentage of the team ranked me low in terms of leadership”.

This is not an uncommon issue that I hear from directors and managers, but I have four steps that will help you.

Are you hearing that your team doesn't feel appreciated? Even though you feel like you put effort into saying thank you, they are always hungry for more. Do employee engagement surveys indicate dissatisfaction? Even though there are all kinds of employee recognition programs in place. For acknowledgment to really stick, it must be grounded in a concrete experience or activity.

I was recently asked how a leader could get quiet team members to speak up more in meetings. The truth is, change doesn’t begin with the quiet team members, but with you.

The secret to encouraging engagement and participation rests with you and your skillfulness in 5 specific areas.

When you are ready to accelerate employee engagement and genuine accountability, there are three steps that you can integrate into your management style. Once you integrate and master these steps, you will be cultivating a workplace culture accountability.

Even in healthy conflict, if what you want to express is left unsaid because you’re not comfortable saying it, it simmers and eventually boils over. The outcome can be far worse than if it had been discussed immediately. And over time, those simmering, suppressed thoughts can be misdirected and come out sideways as sarcasm, blaming, shaming, gossip, manipulation, avoidance, or other unproductive communication behaviors. And this is what turns a potentially healthy conflict into an unhealthy conflict.

When you are able to ask great questions, people become motivated, connected and empowered by the sharing of their ideas and knowledge. When your staff comes to you needing help, instead of simply providing answers, I have 7 questions you can ask which will foster critical thinking and proactive problem solving.

We can no longer expect people to passively accept unskilled leadership. The NCD process is a way to develop leaders and managers who are effective because they understand how and why to communicate and collaborate. They understand the value of empowering their staff, and managing their own emotions.

When your amygdala senses that any of those things are risk, it activates the most primitive parts of your brain to react with fight or flight. Even when the most evolved and empowering next step would be to seek understanding. If you want to not suck at difficult communication, the solution is to develop a practice that allows you to manage yourself and become adept at hacking the primitive reaction.

Why unanswerable questions are so challenging for managers of people and businesses, and the solution for answering those questions.

One of the most pressing challenges that I am hearing about involves employees being resistant to necessary changes. Especially from employees who are not normally resistant. Let's talk about how you can speak your truth about staff’s disruptive behavior with empathy, compassion, with a focus on the good of the whole.

Holding space is one of the most important skills for managers who want to develop the skillfulness of their staff. It is nuanced, requires practice, and also requires a significant level of self-awareness.

Giving employees an opportunity to have their voice heard, especially when the dialogue is challenging, is critically important for retention. When employees feel heard, building a culture of trust is easier.

When employees feel they have no voice, they are more likely to say nothing, then resign or miss work. Both of these consequences have significant costs in terms of dollars, time and success.

There’s a popular theory that success requires individuals to become experts in a specific niche. The truth is that with the complexity of the challenges facing organizations and the advancement of artificial intelligence and automation, the way to stay relevant and valuable is to be a curious learner and develop knowledge in a range of topics.

To successfully manage people, you must actually know some really great questions. When you are able to ask great questions, people become motivated and empowered by sharing their ideas and knowledge. Here are 7 ways you can activate problem solving in others right now.

Urgency is a strong energy that gathers momentum as it moves. Like a flowing river, as urgency builds even the most tranquil conditions become choppy and chaotic. But you can turn that around for even greater organizational success.

Today I want to tell you about one of my absolute favorite sayings: Grace is in the space.

This isn’t just a catchy phrase to me. Grace is in the space is actually part of my operating system. It’s a tool, and it’s one of the mantras I use in my Navigating Challenging Dialogue trainings and events.

When I was working in a leadership position, I grew frustrated with the drama and chaos of misunderstandings and bad communication. I experienced how traditional leadership skills were failing the mission and goals of my organization.

There had to be a better way, an easier way, to manage people and achieve our goals.

Many people experience an excess of strife by constantly responding to the shoulds in their life. Have you noticed how “should” statements are often used to convince us something is “the best,” when they really just restrict and minimize us? Here’s a few ways to turn those “shoulds” around.

It’s true, more than ever, that employees who resist or fear change are becoming obsolete — regardless of what position you hold. Being adaptable is having the ability to be flexible to be flexible in handling change, multiple demands, and reworking ideas or approaches — and it’s extremely valuable to businesses.