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I Loved the Idea. That Was the Problem.
When a compelling vision becomes a leadership blind spot Several years into an executive leadership role, I became convinced that our organization needed to broaden the way we served our community. Our existing programs were strong, our teams were effective, and our staff had built meaningful relationships throughout the community. But I saw an opportunity…
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When the Playbook Stops Working
What a Crisis Taught Me About Adaptive Leadership There are moments in leadership when the playbook simply stops working. The COVID-19 pandemic was one of those moments. Across sectors, organizations were forced to respond to rapidly changing conditions, shifting consumer and community needs, operational restrictions, and significant uncertainty. Some organizations paused or closed their operations,…
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When a Name Change Isn’t Really About the Name
Years ago, while serving as the executive leader of a local organization affiliated with a larger national network, I found myself caught in what started as a branding discussion. It turned out to be a much bigger lesson about leadership, decision making, trust, and the difference between asking for input and actually being open to…
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Part 7: Less Heroic Leadership, More Human Leadership
WHEN WORRY COMES TO WORK A Seven-Part Leadership Series What Leaders Can Actually Do About Workplace Anxiety After all the theory and research, executive leaders eventually arrive at the practical question. What do we actually do? When I first wrote about leadership and workplace anxiety, I approached that question from the perspective of someone trying…
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Part 6: The Relationship Advantage
WHEN WORRY COMES TO WORK A Seven-Part Leadership Series How Good Leadership Can Lower Workplace Stress If relationships matter, the next question is whether research gives us any reason to believe they actually change how workplace stress is experienced. It does. The evidence does not allow us to say that strong Leader-Member Exchange relationships treat…
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Part 5: From Stranger to Partner
WHEN WORRY COMES TO WORK A Seven-Part Leadership Series How Leadership Trust Develops One Interaction at a Time Trust rarely arrives because someone has a leadership title. It develops through experience. Leader-Member Exchange theory provides a useful way of thinking about that development. Graen and Uhl-Bien (1995) described three stages in the development of a…
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Part 4: Leadership Is Experienced Through Relationship
WHEN WORRY COMES TO WORK A Seven-Part Leadership Series Why Leader-Member Exchange Still Matters Organizations spend a great deal of time talking about leadership. We talk about strategy, vision, competencies, accountability, performance, influence, culture, and results. Employees often experience leadership much more personally. They experience whether their supervisor answers the question. Whether the leader listens.…
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Part 3: What If Work Is Part of the Problem?
WHEN WORRY COMES TO WORK A Seven-Part Leadership Series Looking at Workplace-Related Anxiety Through a Leadership Lens We often talk about employees bringing stress into the workplace. Sometimes we need to ask whether the workplace is creating some of it. Research into workplace-related anxiety has explored situations where anxiety becomes specifically associated with work itself.…
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Part 2: When the Unknown Feels Loud
WHEN WORRY COMES TO WORK A Seven-Part Leadership Series What Anxiety Can Do to Thinking at Work Have you ever worked with someone who was highly capable and normally dependable but suddenly seemed unable to make a relatively straightforward decision? Perhaps they repeatedly asked for reassurance after expectations had already been explained. Maybe they overprepared,…
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Part 1: The Workplace We Create Around Anxiety
WHEN WORRY COMES TO WORK A Seven-Part Leadership Series Why Anxiety Belongs in the Leadership Conversation Stress and anxiety are not unusual experiences in the workplace. They show up in boardrooms, offices, job sites, virtual meetings, team conversations, performance discussions, organizational changes, and ordinary Monday mornings. For some people, anxiety is temporary and connected to…
Obportum Perspectives
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Reflections on leadership, relationships, and navigating organizational complexity.