A Bad Day or a Lousy Attitude?
Everyone has a bad day now and then, but there’s a cumulative effect for people who seem to have more than their fair share of bad days. At what point are the bad days an excuse for a bad attitude? ...
Culture Catalyst Blog & Articles
One Email Is Not Communicating
When I coach executive teams on culture transformation, one of the first things I do is a communication audit. A few of the areas I look at include: Channels used for communication (email, newsletter, talking points for huddles and rounding, ...
Beware the Toxic Superstar
A few months ago, I was doing leadership development in a critical access hospital. The CEO is a strong leader and fairly new to his role. He has a clear vision of where he wants to take the organization, and I honestly ...
Lead Is a Verb. Take Action Now
One of my colleagues often reminds our clients that the word lead is a verb and, as we learned in grade school, verbs are action words. So what actions are most important today? Coaching rises to the top. To Lead Is ...
Complaining, Resisting Change, or Speaking up?
In our fast-paced culture, change is a way of life. One thing I know for certain is that when making changes to systems, processes, and workflows, you must listen first and engage stakeholders. Without stakeholder input at every step of change, ...
Change Agents vs. Resisters
I’ve always been a change agent and an ideas person, seeing new opportunities and potential all around me. I get excited about changing things up to improve. While I get excited and energized by change, my team members may not ...
Are You Accepting Excuses? What You Permit, You Promote
Accepting excuses as a way of life is often a subtle, yet insidious culture killer. When we do culture assessments, we frequently unearth patterns that point to an excuse mentality that keeps an organization stuck. The insights shed light on ...
Training vs. Learning – What 250 Healthcare Leaders Told Us
Just because you conduct training, doesn’t mean people are learning. And just because people learn something, doesn't mean they change their behavior. How can you ensure that every training results in behavior change? Start by finding out how they learn ...
Diagnose Culture Issues to Solve Problem Behaviors
We get a lot of interesting requests for training and addressing specific culture issues at Baird Group, but a recent discussion still has me shaking my head. A large medical group contacted us for service excellence training. The person contacting ...
Working for a Toxic Leader? – 5 Survival Tips to Protect Your Sanity
Remember the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion finally approach the Great Oz after days of perilous travel? The four are optimistic at first, but the Wizard’s booming voice, harsh words, ...
