Welcome to Leadology's
Courage-Sparking Corner 

A roundup of content and interviews dedicated to helping you awaken the leader within. 

Improve your manager-employee conversations with this hack
Team Management, New Managers Carrie Skowronski Team Management, New Managers Carrie Skowronski

Improve your manager-employee conversations with this hack

At Team Leadology, we know firsthand just how tempting it can be to cancel those touch points with your team members. We know you think canceling will give some time back to both you AND your employees… but in reality, the cost of postponing 1-on-1s is so much more than the benefit of receiving an extra 30 or so minutes it frees up on your calendar!

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Help Employees Find Happiness at Work
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

Help Employees Find Happiness at Work

Finding happiness at work has been a struggle for many of our readers. According to recent studies, new employees are experiencing lower levels of engagement and inclusion than ever before. If you’ve been feeling a bit disconnected at work lately, you're not alone.

In this article, Team Leadology breaks down what it means to be happy at work and how you can spot the employees who need a little help finding it! Read on to learn our simple solutions and take away an actionable strategy that actually works.

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Don't Be a Feedback Scrooge this Holiday Season and Give the Gift of Feedback
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

Don't Be a Feedback Scrooge this Holiday Season and Give the Gift of Feedback

The holiday season is a time for spreading joy and cheer. And what a better way to do that than by showing appreciation to your hard working team. Careful that the “busy-ness” of the season makes you forget about the importance of positive feedback. As a leader, it's crucial to remember that recognition is not just a once a year thing, but a year-round practice that fosters motivation and productivity. When you acknowledge the wins, improvements and resourcefulness of your employees, you create a culture of recognition.

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Leadology’s Forbes features that will help you improve manager effectiveness at your company
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

Leadology’s Forbes features that will help you improve manager effectiveness at your company

Over the past decade, we've helped countless clients to reduce suffering at work and increase job satisfaction. Through our Leadology newsletter and blog, we've shared the insights and tools that can make a real difference in your professional and personal life. Now, we’re sharing our best advice as recently picked up by Forbes!

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Going Without Recognition? Why You Should Expect Gratitude in the Workplace
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

Going Without Recognition? Why You Should Expect Gratitude in the Workplace

With Thanksgiving already just around the corner, one thing is cutting through all of the noise of travel plans, meal preparations, and Black Friday shopping: gratitude. 

While this time of year offers frequent reminders to express our thanks to the most important people in our lives, we recognize that the workplace is an area in which we aren’t always eager to show the same amount of love. In this article, Team Leadology weighs in on why providing recognition to your employees is so crucial, and just how to go about it!

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3 Pitfalls You Should Avoid in the Workplace: Manager Edition
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

3 Pitfalls You Should Avoid in the Workplace: Manager Edition

Before we dive into the 3 pitfalls you or your managers might be making and should avoid in the workplace, let’s discuss how to recognize whether managers are falling into these habits and why that’s a problem. 

We’re hearing managers express that they are shying away from tough conversations, canceling meetings to give back time to their teams, and taking on more in an effort to help manage their employees' workload. These are only a few of the many examples that our managers are currently dealing with on a daily basis.

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How to Build a Team of Self-Reliant Superstars
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

How to Build a Team of Self-Reliant Superstars

You’ve probably already seen these kinds of employees in action within your own organization–– they’re efficient, proactive, and easy to work with. They’re no stranger to taking initiative and owning their part, especially due to their solution-focused mindset.

It’s important to remember that while many employees can bring these qualities to their role from the very start, they can also be encouraged and fostered among teams with the help of workplace leadership.

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Tips for Managing an Employee Who Always Makes Excuses
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

Tips for Managing an Employee Who Always Makes Excuses

If you’ve engaged with our socials over the past few weeks, you know that we’ve been simmering on the topic of manager effectiveness–– namely, how it’s changed over the years and what it now looks like for workplace leaders in 2023. We even had the opportunity to hear from a greater portion of our community through a recent Instagram poll, where managers from all over shared their insight and experiences on the subject, particularly when faced with managing employees who are prone to making excuses about their work.

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Resolving Burnout in the Workplace through Strengths
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

Resolving Burnout in the Workplace through Strengths

When in full effect, the challenges of burnout in the workplace may seem insurmountable. But research-backed strategies advise us to return to the basics of strengths-work to weed it out of our organizations. Managers from across the globe are putting this approach into action within our premier leadership development program Activate, which is engaging networks of workplace leaders in purposeful conversations and equipping them with the resources needed to reduce workplace burnout on a mass scale.

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3 Tell-Tale Signs Your Employees Are Suffering From Burnout
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

3 Tell-Tale Signs Your Employees Are Suffering From Burnout

According to the World Health Organization, burnout is characterized by three persisting symptoms: exhaustion, increased mental distance from one’s job, and reduced professional efficacy.

While we may pass these things off as fairly common, Gallup research states that, when left untreated, these symptoms have the potential to make severely burned-out workers 63% more likely to take a sick day, and 23% more likely to visit the emergency room.

The sheer prevalence of burnout in the workplace may actually be contributing to its inconspicuousness and, to some extent, normalization. But the truth of the matter is that burnout is an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition–– meaning, at the end of the day, it can absolutely be prevented with the cultivation of personal work-life balance and the prioritization of wellbeing in company culture.

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How to Foster a Culture of Holistic Wellbeing In Your Organization
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

How to Foster a Culture of Holistic Wellbeing In Your Organization

When our employees' wellbeing suffers, so does the organization at large. While we can imagine what this looks like in the workplace on a practical level, do we understand the true cost of poor wellbeing? Gallup states when compounded over time, burnout has led to a startling $322 billion of turnover and lost productivity costs globally. In this article, Team Leadology breaks down what a culture of wellbeing looks like in the workplace, and how to approach that in your organization.

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Managing Employees with Anxiety: Using Radical Candor to Overcome Difficult Conversations in the Workplace
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

Managing Employees with Anxiety: Using Radical Candor to Overcome Difficult Conversations in the Workplace

If you or someone you know has anxiety, you probably already know that pursuing a straightforward answer to the question of best to manage employees who are open about their own anxiety is tricky. As workplace leaders, it’s vital that we remember that while we’re not mental health experts, we do have the ability to navigate these kinds of difficult conversations with compassion, unique insight, and– radical candor.

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4 Best Practices for Delegation, So You Can Stop Micromanaging Your Team
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

4 Best Practices for Delegation, So You Can Stop Micromanaging Your Team

If micromanaging your team is something you’d like to overcome in 2023, then learning best practices for delegation is at the forefront of your learning and development. Oftentimes, in an attempt to not give employees more than they can handle or take personal responsibility for meeting important goals, managers too often bite off more than they can chew. This “do-it-myself” mentality is not only impossible for even the hardest hustling managers, but it strips away an important opportunity for the overall professional development of your team.

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Employee Burnout and How to Prevent It
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

Employee Burnout and How to Prevent It

When discussing employee burnout, it’s crucial to also consider how your work makes you feel: Energized? Exhausted? A little bit of both?

We’ve been talking a lot about the power of effective recognition on the blog, and we’re interested in the concept that recognition brings the “human" element back to work by setting the tone for the entire employee experience. When organizations get recognition right…

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How to Manage in a Multi-Generational Workplace
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

How to Manage in a Multi-Generational Workplace

Recently I got an Instagram DM with the following question…

“I’m in my 30s. A bunch of my direct reports are in their 50s. Advice on how I can get taken seriously?”

While it may seem daunting to manage someone older than you, it’s your job to help bring out the distinct skill sets each person can bring to the table. Today, we’re sharing how.

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Team Gift Ideas for the Holiday Season
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

Team Gift Ideas for the Holiday Season

With the holiday season in full swing, I’m sure you’ve already begun crossing friends and family off of your gift-giving list. However, by the time you get around to selecting the perfect presents for your boss, favorite colleague, or entire team, you may be a little stumped as to what to get.

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How to have effective meetings, so you can stop canceling your 1:1s
Team Management Carrie Skowronski Team Management Carrie Skowronski

How to have effective meetings, so you can stop canceling your 1:1s

In theory, 1:1 meetings are a chance for managers and employees to have an open, honest conversation about how they’re feeling, and how they view their positions within the company. If used correctly 1:1s can be one of the single most important tools a manager has at their disposal to help boost the performance and morale of their team.

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