Defining Leadership: Setting Performance Milestones

Are you seeing your leaders’ full potential come through in day to day operations? If you are not, where is the breakdown? It is likely…

Translating the Strategic Plan into Strategic Goals and Daily Strategies

In the digital age of GPS, reading a map is one of the skills that is almost extinct. While a GPS is an amazing tool,…

How to Be the Solution (Even When Someone Else is the Problem)

Challenge Josef (not his real name) loved his job but could barely tolerate his boss. His boss was unpredictable and was either missing in action,…

5 Tips for a Successful Virtual Team

Virtual teams are part of the workforce. While there are great benefits to working virtually, like flexibility for the worker, increased diversity, accessing the best talent, creating a successful virtual…

7 Steps to Making Great Decisions

Leaders make decisions. This is what we do! Have you ever had a boss that could not make a decision and waffled, back and forth?…

5 Tips to Stop Playing SuperHero at Work

How many items do you have on your “list?” Everyone is busy and distracted is the typical state of mind.  You probably have a ‘to…

4 Tips to Avoid Burnout

Burnout is epidemic and in this post I’m sharing 4 tips to avoid burnout.

Challenge: Dealing with Burnout in Staff When You Are Burned Out

CHALLENGE The VP was in a very competitive season with the new department opening and had been in a struggle with the CEO. The pressure…

Case Study: Trickle Down Performance Problem

CHALLENGE Trickle down performance problem starting at the top, VP, Director, Manager, Front line staff. Consistent low performance in the department as noted by the…

4 Questions to Answer To Set Boundaries

Boundaries are easy to spot in the physical world: people put up fences, close the door, pull down the shades, and define their own space.…

5 Ways to Handle Passive Aggressive Colleagues

We have all, at one time or another, encountered passive-aggressive people at work.  And it is possible you may be a little passive-aggressive at times,…

Challenge: When Being Friends Disrupts Your Influence

CHALLENGE: This director was having trouble managing expectations of her friend who was in her department and her role as director. She was having internal…

Burned Up Leads to Burn Out: Leverage Your Anger

There is a lot of focus on dealing with other people’s anger. In this post, we will explore dealing with one’s own anger. Anger is…

Case Study: No Pipeline. Turnover. Poor Quality.

CHALLENGE “I am afraid to find out what my emotional intelligence is.” Unaware of his impact on faculty and department heads, there was communication breakdown…

The Value of Reflection (Power Tool Great Leaders Live By)

Reflection is a powerful habit that is used by successful people. Benjamin Franklin made this part of his daily routine. He was an accomplished man;…

Get More Done with Kanban - Workflow Management

The pace at work has accelerated and it does not look like it is stopping anytime soon! My job is to help leaders and organizations…

Challenge: Director. New position Risks Overload.

CHALLENGE The Director was new to the role and the department was in chaos. BACKGROUND The Director was new to the position and while educated…

Manage Distraction. Manage Your Energy. Get More Done.

Recently I was talking with a nursing colleague and she mentioned that she comes home and spends 30-40 minutes worrying about whether she got everything…

Case Study: CNO First 100 Days

Challenge Organization in transition. Conflict and confusion within departments. Need for decisiveness. Worried about stepping on people’s toes. Solution Assessments, Executive coaching EQi 2.0: Emotional…

2 Steps to Powerful Mornings

How you start your day sets the tone for your entire day. You really cannot make up for getting off to a sluggish or rushed…

Challenge: Handling Negative Feedback

Challenge The manager (who we will call Jesse) was new and very eager to do a good job. She made the effort and everyone could…

5 Steps to Giving Effective Feedback

Do you cringe when your boss says it is time for your Performance Review? Unfortunately most managers wait all year to provide feedback, saving comments…

Are You Comfortable Being Independent as a Leader?

Most people do not need enemies because they end up being their own worst critic! Focusing on the negative and what can go wrong will…

Case Study: Priorities and Planning

Challenge Trouble setting priorities and planning across multiple outpatient clinics. Each of her managers had their own system. Solution 100 Day roadmap, standardized management  As…

WEBINAR: The Goal Setting & Planning Guide

Setting goals is a power tool yet many do not  know how to set goals that stick. In this webinar you will learn: 3 different…

Challenge: Coaching Staff as a Manager

Challenge: The department head for the section of the company Jon (not his real name) works in, just declared that all managers have to start…

[Video] Transform Your Todo's into a Power List of Priorities

Do you have priorities?  We all have some type of to-do list. I worked with one manager not too long ago, and she had 20…

Case Study: Employee Turnover

Challenge: Turnover. Employee turnover increased to 28%, up from 18%. This churn created many problems including quality of care issues, decrease in billable hours and a…

Challenge: Dealing with Negativity in a Key Staff Member

Challenge One of the key staff members in this department was negative and critical. This manager, we will call Marci, decided she needed to change…

Webinar: 5 Steps to a Successful Retreat

Retreats are a powerful way to bring people together and align around a unified purpose. And there are common mistakes leaders make when planning and…

Webinar: Dealing with Toxic People

Negative people impact the rest of your team, ten times what a positive person does. We present strategies to deal with toxic people. In this…

EP 38: Normal is Not a Destination. Think Differently About How You Manage

The digital age comes with constant change and therefore, you need to be adaptable as a leader so that your team’s sense of normal is…

50 Quotes to Change Your Mindset!

Change is constant and fast. Too often, change is resisted because of the uncertainty, fear of what it means, and the amount of energy required…

Case Study: Simplify Work

Challenge: A team in a medium sized business was tasked with implementing a new sales approach to stop the customer turnover. In order to have…

EP 37: 4 Key Leadership Perspectives that Transform How You Show Up

Your perspective is guaranteed to influence how you approach situations. In this episode, Dr. Cynthia Howard comments on the four core perspectives any leader needs,…

EP 36: What Really Matters is Your Relationships

You may, somewhere deep down, know that relationships are the most important thing in your life. In this episode, Dr. Cynthia Howard shares information about…

Challenge: Going for that Promotion.

Challenge: Wants to go for the promotion but feels uncertain and hesitant to step out of her comfort zone. Background Kerrie (not her real name)…

How to Leverage Your Values in the Workplace

Values in the workplace. Is there even a place for them? After all, isn’t one of the keys to effective management to be open-minded and…

How to Leverage Your Weaknesses in the Workplace

Weaknesses are a part of life. We all have them. Contrary to popular belief, weaknesses are not the same as areas you want to develop—at…

How to Leverage Your Relationships in the Workplace

Loneliness in leadership is all too common. According to a recent survey by Harvard Business Review, more than 50% of leaders feel lonely in their…

Case Study: How a Manager Created a Culture of Gratitude

Case Study: New manager (who we will call Zak) developed a powerful way to connect his staff using gratitude. Background: This manager recognized signs of…

How to Leverage Your Personality in the Workplace

Your personality is one of your most valuable assets—especially in leadership. Yes, you read that statement correctly. Often, leaders try to hide their personalities. This usually occurs…

EP 35: 4 Tips to Make a Difference and Have a Positive Impact as a Leader

Everyone wants to make a difference, but how do you actually see your dream become a reality? It all begins with defining the difference you…

EP 34: Leadership Leverage: 3 Steps to Build High-Performance Teams

Leverage is all about putting the right amount of pressure on the right spot at the right time. Leveraging your leadership is much the same…

EP 33: 5 Steps to Measuring and Monitoring Resilience in your Workflow

In the uncertainty and ambiguity of the information war that we find ourselves in, only one thing in the workplace remains constant: rapid change. “Normal“…

EP 32: WAIT, Why Am I Talking? (Radical Ways To Manage Communication in a Digital World)

Most of us would agree that email is not always an effective way to communicate. Of the 300 billion emails that go out every day,…

EP 31: How To Build Grit and Tenacity in Your Team

How can you lead a company if your employees are constantly positioned with one foot in and one foot out? How can grit help you…

Stop Wasting Time and Momentum: 3 Things to Do Instead

How Do You Maintain Momentum? We all experience the significance of time because it seems like there is never enough of it. Understanding the value…

EP 30: How Can Leaders Improve Their Team's Relationships at Work

One of the defining characteristics of the era in which we currently find ourselves is increased worry, sadness, and loneliness. This trend was already appearing…

EP 29: How Leaders Build Resilience in This Tumultuous Climate

Welcome back to the Work Smart Club, we’re thrilled to have you with us! Today, we will be discussing how to be a resilient leader…