Blog
Making people-first decisions at TGI Fridays
In my 27 years with RainmakerThinking, I’ve been able to experience firsthand what it’s like working in a wide range of industries. One of the most challenging and demanding is the restaurant industry. And each of those restaurants—no matter how big or small—is responsible for the livelihoods of so many people. We have been living…
Nine words that help the NBA build better leaders
If you want to talk about an organization that supports top talent and strong values, the NBA is an obvious choice these days. From being leaders in their approach to coronavirus protocols (even though those protocols aren’t always convenient or easy), to supporting players in their expressions of protest (no matter what form those expressions…
How the three part follow-up helps you get better and better at working together
One of the fundamental tenets of go-to-ism is to keep getting better and better at working with others. After all, in today’s high-collaboration workplace, your results are only as strong as the team behind them, right? It’s no longer enough to simply be the technical expert or the best at what you do—your success depends…
Is This the ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ for the Post-pandemic Era?
When I wrote The Art of Being Indispensable at Work, I never intended it to be a career guide for the post-pandemic world. But it might as well be. It’s about how to succeed in the midst of change and uncertainty. It’s about navigating shifting priorities and unclear lines of authority. It’s about how to…
Guidelines for Managing People Remotely
In the midst of COVID-19, a lot of managers are now asking themselves: “How do I manage people working remotely?” First, don’t allow yourself to become so overwhelmed and distracted by the uncertainties—what you don’t know—that you lose sight of what you do know, and what you can control. Don’t become distracted and unavailable when…
Managing Through the Uncertainty of COVID-19
Simply put: all heck is breaking loose. We are all grappling with keeping our businesses and careers, not to mention ourselves, together through the uncertainty of this emerging COVID-19 Pandemic. How are you supposed to deal with such profound uncertainty, especially with so many people now quarantining in place, social distancing, and working so remotely…
When an Employee Has Personal Issues at Home, Focus on the Work
When it comes to managing attitude or personalities at work, the advice I always give is not to let it be a personal matter. Rather, make it all about the work and your working relationship. But what about when it really is a personal matter that’s causing the problem? When an employee has personal issues…
There Are Seven Myths Holding Managers Back
Managers today are under more pressure than ever. It keeps getting harder to manage people, retain the best talent, and develop new leaders. There are key areas of leadership with which many managers are struggling. Yet, the biggest thing getting in the way of most managers is their mindset. Common myths about leadership and management…
Why Is This Generation Gap Different?
With any new generational shift, there is always the hope that the new young upstarts will eventually wise up, settle down and, basically, conform. Anxieties arise as new generations come along with new attitudes and expectations. The current generational shift, however, is about more than the new butting up against the old. Let me put…
Be a Problem Solver, Not a Complainer
Problems are a part of everyday reality in every workplace. That’s true no matter where you work or who your colleagues are. Most of the time, you are probably dealing with problems someone else started. Are you going to be a problem solver, or a complainer? Often when I talk about being a problem solver,…