I remember a handful of times this spring when I connected with colleagues about feeling overwhelmed by the workload. I joked that I was "stifled by my own ambition" as a way to articulate that I brought this on myself. The ironic image evokes laughter because the words seem incongruous. Why would anyone stifle themselves?

Team issues can feel like wrestling a big hairy monster with a blindfold on. It can feel emotionally messy, tactically murky, and multi-faceted beyond that. There can be a lot of noise.

Righting this ship, to mix metaphors, will take time.

When we celebrate and acknowledge milestones with our teams, we motivate them, create a sense of accomplishment, and foster a positive and encouraging environment.

The goal is to always be able to answer the question, “what am I doing right now?”

Leaders, if you want to encourage your team to develop in a certain way, gain a certain skill, or create some other change, you can't just talk about it once.

The idea of constant growth is not only overwhelming and unsustainable, it disregards the natural cycles of ebb and flow, of order and chaos, of action and rest.

Communicating up is a key part of managing up. However, it can feel like an extraneous task to write an email or put a deck together for work that is already done.

Breaking free from the codependency journey as a leader is a transformative process, trust in yourself.

Welcome misalignment so that you can work as a team to build the necessary shared understanding to allow for progress toward the change.

Connecting your new habit directly to something you already do in your daily routine increases the likelihood you will follow through with it.