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Leading comes with a myriad of challenges and obstacles. There are numerous reasons for and catalysts of the downfall of a team or group of employees. But what about when the largest factor in a team’s disfunction is the leader themselves? What are ways leaders sabotage their own teams and how do we avoid these behaviors

When it comes to corporate investing, oftentimes managers think about things like business intelligence and analytics or updating technology by way of cloud computing or data management infrastructure, but one of the most important and overlooked investments for any business is their people. Considering businesses with high retention rates, great satisfaction and engagement survey results, and overall desirability, there’s a common thread among them; team building.

With job creation on the rise, the increased need for new managers follows. Unfortunately, in recent data collected by the Harvard Business Review, the average age of first-time managers is 30, while the average age managers are receiving leadership training is 42. This time gap can lead to workplace complications and a greater sense by employees that managers aren’t in tune with their staff and the best practices for the business.

With new technologies entering the marketplace almost daily, it’s hard to keep running any business the same as it was run even two years ago. Change is inevitable and happens more rapidly now than ever it seems.  For every industry out there, change may take on a variety of forms.

That magical time of year is around the corner; the holidays. It can be a hectic time of year for everyone, managers included. Beyond juggling your own holiday happenings, you become a one-person act for juggling the holiday needs and stress of your entire team.

As previously discussed in The Impact of Change in The Workplace, change can be difficult in the workplace for both employees and managers. While change can bring about positive progress in a company, overcoming the stress, anxiety, and resistance can be a hard summit to climb. A good manager/leader will need tools to help lead their team to the other side of change.

As written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in Frankenstein, “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” And yet change is inevitable. Not only in our day to day lives, but also in our workplaces. While some changes bring about positive progress, some changes at their onset, can seem negative and overwhelming.

DiSC assessments are a great tool to help good leaders understand not only their employees’ personalities and conflict styles, but also their own. Each of the DiSC traits has a specific reaction to communication when moving from normal conversations to conflict conversations.

Conflict in the workplace is a normal occurrence. It is the expression of that conflict which determines whether it is constructive or destructive. In The Root of Conflict, Part 1 we discuss the main causes of workplace conflict; poor communication, differences in personalities, different values, and competition.

While conflict is inevitable, a good manager will know how to spot the signs of conflict before it gets out of hand and be well-versed in tools to combat and stop conflict in its tracks. As discussed in Part 1, there are four main types of conflict in the workplace. A good manager can learn to spot the tell-tale signs to determine if communication or personal value differences is the cause of a workplace conflict with some solid preparation. Once a manager can determine the type of conflict they...