The Positive Energy Workplace

Heading into a media interview for the book last week, I was ready to roll. Excited. Prepared. I’d done all my pre-work, set my intentions, taken really great care of myself. I got on the call, the host was running late (for great reasons), the audio needed some tweaking, and right before we launched they said something about “I don’t know how this is going to go over with our audience, let’s hope they like it”. 

In the book Contagious Culture: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization That Thrives (McGraw-Hill), I invite readers to take an inside-out approach to leadership and cultural optimization. People often think that leadership and culture are all about skills and what we do, but speaking even louder is who we are, how we show up, and the energy and intention we bring to the table. Being an effective leader and creating a culture that thrives is rarely about having better skills, changing other people, or even holding huge corporate cultural initiatives--our quickest path to shifting culture and dynamics is more simply in shifting ourselves and how we show up.

I recently had something big fall apart with my team. It's really quite simple, we had a vendor who had an agenda, and in the land of "assuming good", I missed it. Five months of trying to collaborate, find clean solutions, and do good work—and the whole time, ulterior motives were at play.

I love hiking with business leaders. Hiking, yoga, walking, dancing, whatever… the wisdom of the body is one of the best business partners you’ll ever have.

You have an opportunity with every single client or customer you work with to leave them feeling better than when they met you, to contribute hugely to their business and life, and to create a meaningful interaction — or even better relationship — that will have you serve as a trusted partner and resource in their life… or not. Here are three things I see as being essential to building strong client relationships with integrity and care. They’re free, they don’t take a lot of time, and the ROI can be delicious.