Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*.

I am from Brazil and I would like to let you know that since January I’ve been listening your podcast and I think it’s fantastic. Even though I’ve had great experiences in leadership, your podcasts have been changing my perspective. Don’t you think that instead of considering someone as a leader we should recognize people who have good human relations? Because of this skill, people start to follow you, but on the other hand, you are still learning and you also follow someone.

We have two departments which have been merged in November last year but the new team are still not working together – they seem to be stuck in their old teams. We have tried team building, changes their seats etc. and yet they are not integrated. I know it has not been that long since November, but how would you handle this case?

I have recently had the wonderful experience of listening to your podcast and now I am hooked. I’m writing to find out what you would recommend as a wonderful organization to join for leadership development. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.

Until last year I used to be at the top of the organization and was always directly linked to directors or owners. Today I find myself in an intermediate position as the second manager.

I’m a hard time dealing with this, because sometimes I feel that my manager does not want to solve the problems and likes to go to others, but people who are neither managers nor knowledgeable are dealing with the situations.

Talking to a trusted person, she told me to put aside and learn to manage. How can I discover the technique to be managed and at the same time influence within the organization?

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