Quick Hits

Are you walking around to get to know your employees and find out how you can help them be successful or are you trying to catch them doing something wrong so you can punish them?

Your answer will make or break the success of your team.

When I worked in corporate I had several bosses I dreaded coming towards me or having their name show up on my phone. They were never in touch for a positive reason. 

After having a conversation with Tom Brush, Glady Baradaran and George Rotsch, I can say with certainty - Don't be that boss.

To connect with the panelists, please visit their LinkedIn profiles:

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on various subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com 

Does transparency fall along the lines of "I'll be honest with you" in that it makes you wonder what they are trying to distract you from by trying to make you feel like they are being forthright? 

Jonathan pointed out that transparency can go too far into nudity or the naked truth. You don't have to bare all your dirty laundry in striving for transparency.

This conversation with Don Oblazney, Alvaro Peralta and Jonathan Gaev MSE, PMP highlighted the grey area of "transparency" and how too much is awkward and too little is dishonest.

What does transparency in business mean to you?

To connect with the panelists, please visit their links below:

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on various subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com 

Anxiety is both a good thing and a bad thing. Too little and you have no motivation to get off the couch. Too much and you are too overwhelmed to get off the couch.

The spot in the middle is ideal. But how do you get there and then not let it tip over into too much?

I got to talk to Walker McKay, Heather Markel and Greg Burton about exactly that. It is always fun to hear other people's perspective on "everyday" things.

How do you notice when the pressure in your life has gone beyond being useful and then what do you do about it?

To connect with the panelists, please visit their LinkedIn profiles:

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on various subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com 

Trust is a deeply ingrained part of being human. To survive as a species we had to trust those close to us to survive. We also had to not trust those who wanted to steal our food or even kill us. How do you tell the difference? 

I wish there was an easy answer and I could say I always get it right. Neither is true. I asked Jonathan Gaev, Don Oblazney and Alvaro Peralta how often they actively think about if they can trust someone.

The truth is, we very rarely think about it until after someone has proven themselves to be untrustworthy.

This is another topic that we could certainly have spent more time on. I want to hear more about how to handle it when you realize someone isn't trustworthy.

To connect with the panelists, please visit their links below:

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on various subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com 

They look the same - employees doing their thing. The difference is in the "boss" being available if employees need support. But how might upper management be able to tell what is going on?

James W Haile Jr, C.P.M., Marques Ogden and Royce Gomez-King have different backgrounds making them a great panel for this discussion. They shared experience in what has worked and what hasn't when it comes to giving employees autonomy (or not).

How do you know if employees have autonomy or if they aren't getting the leadership they need?

To connect with the panelists, please visit their LinkedIn profiles:

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on various subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com 

There are lots of people who happily give advice. I don't know about you but I have certainly taken feedback to heart only to learn later that it was uniformed, had an agenda or was just plain wrong.

I asked Heather Villa, PMP, Mohan Ananda and Robert Bailey how they decided when to take feedback and when to let it pass by.

How do you decide if the feedback you are getting is valuable or not?

To connect with the panelists, please visit their LinkedIn profiles:

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on various subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com 

It seems like this should be straightforward. Surly we can define and recognize bullying easily. It turns out it is much more complicated than it looks. Who gets to decide when something is bullying? The person being bullied? A by-stander? 

When bullying is researched they use clear definitions. But in everyday life, things get blurry.

Philip Tate, APR, Francisco "Frank" Galindo, MBA and Brett A McCall were kind enough to wade into this conversation with me. Ten minutes wasn't nearly enough for us to talk through the nuances of bullying.

Weigh in in the comments. When does something become bullying?

To connect with the panelists, please visit their LinkedIn profiles:

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on various subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com 

It seems like conversations where the discourse is both deep and kind are rare. Too often people are talking AT each other rather then TO each other and, as Kevin pointed out, just waiting for the other person to stop talking so they can speak.

I asked Kevin Wash, Tracy Martin, Ziz Abdur-Ra'oof, and Bill Lindquist what they thought an honest debate was and how humans might get better at creating and engaging in them.

The conversation touched on many aspects of the human condition, why communication often doesn't work and what we can do to make it better.

Why do you think real conversations where the goal is to understand even if we don't agree are so rare these days?

This conversation ended up being five people instead of four. Creative discretion on my part. Do you have an opinion on whether four or five panelists is better?

To connect with the panelists, please visit their LinkedIn profiles:

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on various subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com 

During this conversation we realized there are at least three different types of apology. The emotional apology - I'm sorry I hurt you. The end the problem apology - I'm sorry you feel that way. And the customer service script apology - I'm sorry this is happening (but there is nothing I can do about it). 

Regardless of the type of apology, humans are pretty awkward about it. In many situations saying, "It's okay" is simply not true. But saying "Your apology is worthless" is also not the right answer.

With all that messiness in mind I asked Heather Markel, Simon Coles and Brian Bielawski (apologies for his audio - this is a "warning" apology - as in, I know it is bad. I can't fix it. But I think the content is valuable enough to post it anyway.) how they handle professional apologies.

The conversation was enlightening and too short.

To connect with the panelists, please visit their LinkedIn profiles:

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on various subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com 

#apology #apologize #sorrynotsorry #sorry #customerservice

Several weeks ago I had a conversation with an all male panel about bullying (https://youtu.be/CmH-ljUzhVw) and I made the promise that the next time I had an all female panel (which happens VERY rarely) I was going to ask the same question.

This conversation with Helena Bouchez, Diane Helbig and Yvonne Gamble is the result. The most interesting difference is that the men spoke almost exclusively about what they do when someone else is bullied. The women talked about if they were bullied and I had to ask what they do if someone else is being bullied.

Listen in and then we would love to hear what you think. 

To connect with the panelists, please visit their LinkedIn profiles:

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on various subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com 

 #bullying #bullyingawareness #bullyingprevention #bully #superwoman