A collection of reflections, tools, and leadership insights to help you communicate more clearly, navigate change more confidently, and lead with greater generosity.
New insights are added monthly, including expanded versions of Shannon’s LinkedIn articles and fresh content designed to support your growth.
Leadership Qualities of Introverts
Many of us equate loud, brash and even aggressive with success. But in fact, the quiet qualities of a classic introvert can be just the ticket, in a leadership role. Of the many things a leader does every day, interacting with people is top of the list. If you’re an introvert by nature, many will…
The Difference Between Leading And Managing
While on the surface, it may seem that these two terms are interchangeable, there are in fact important differences, for you and for your team, between being a leader and being a manager. Understanding those differences is how you can step from one role to the other with distinction. “Management consists of controlling a group…
The 20-60-20 Rule of Change Management
Whether you’ve been brought in to a team to clean it up or to facilitate the implementation of a new program, product or service, change management requires some tough decisions. In addition to figuring out a plan for implementation of whatever program, process, product, or service you’ve been brought in to manage, there is a…
How and Why CEOs Should Be Leveraging Executive Coaching
The short answer to ‘why’ CEOs should leverage executive coaching is simple: it is the clearest way to develop leadership skills, to take a leader with potential and help to make them extraordinary. Also? It’s lonely at the top. Few people will tell you where you are going wrong and even fewer will support you…
4 Ways to Ensure People Hear What You’re Saying
It’s not about being loud: good leaders can communicate with a whisper and still be heard. If you think about the greatest leaders the world has ever seen, throughout history, you’ll realize that all of them were excellent speakers. They knew how to communicate a message that resonated with the audience they were seeking to…
The Value of Collaborative Leadership
The manager who seeks to keep all the knowledge within their own silo, refusing to share with others, in the hopes of retaining power, is doomed to fail. The manager who understands that their success comes as a direct result of others working together towards a common goal will be successful. Knowledge management is, at…
Motivation Comes From More Than Money
So much of our lives are spent working and, of course, you can pull together a good team if you offer very high salaries, but what you’ll find over the long term is that there are other ways to motivate your team, beyond the dollars and cents. These motivators are often quoted as being more…
6 Mentorship Myths That Need To Go Away
Whether you are a mentor or a mentee, the whole relationship of mentorship can be fraught with myths and misconceptions. Here are six myths that you should dispel from your thought processes right away. Myth #1 — The best mentors work at other companies and make more than you do While you are likely to…
Why You Need to Let Your Team Go
Unless you’ve been living under a rock these last years, you’ll have heard about the phenomenon known as ‘helicopter parenting’. These are parents who won’t let their children experience failure of any kind. In the business world, this is known as micro-managing. “Micromanagement is a management style whereby a manager closely observes and/or controls the…
How to Get Rid of Your Toxic Work Culture
The recipe for a productive, happy team isn’t complicated. Like actual food recipes, it’s all about working with real, authentic ingredients. No fake elements, no aggressive attitudes! Toxic work cultures aren’t new but they all tend to operate the same way. A culture of ‘motivation by fear’ works, but only in the short term. If…