Blue Fjord Leaders Blog
The Voice for Insightful Leadership with Shelley Row, P.E.
How to Manage Your Mood and Language to Resolve Workplace Disputes
"I can't work with him! The project was late because he didn't do his part. I have to hold his hand every step of the way." That's what she said as she stood in my office frustrated, agitated and angry. And, she expected me to "take care of it." The situation is...
Five Ways to Reward Employees – It’s Not About the Money.
It was a perfect July 4th evening in Annapolis, Maryland. A soft breeze blew in from the water as the crowds gathered on the bridges, piers, and in boats moored within the harbor. Poof, poof, poof and the sky glitters with globes of red and blue twinkles. Poof, boom...
Four Ways Fairness Addresses Performance Problems
"It's not fair!" You have a team that is working hard and delivering results...except for one team member. He's not pulling his fair share and the workload has to be reallocated because of missed deadlines. The other team members' effort and morale is being impacted....
Three Steps to Manage an Emotional Conversation
The work day started as usual —a long, tedious commute for a meeting-packed day. Lost in thought, I strode past our administrative assistant, Melinda, and into my office intent on reviewing and prioritizing the day’s actions before interruptions started. Just as I sat...
Four Ways to Counteract Unintended Bias
Everyone has biases. The only thing worse than having a bias is not realizing that you do. It is in the knowing that there is opportunity to manage unintended bias. Humans are designed to crave relatedness. Millions of years ago your tribe was key to survival. Quickly...
Rethink Financial Rewards: Four Rewards that Really Matter
Money, prestige, power, promotion. These are rewards that matter – right? We tend to believe that employees must be rewarded with money. That's the default. Not so fast. The way businesses are rewarding their employees are changing as more managers are looking to...
Blue Fjord Leaders Newsletter with Shelley Row, PE, CSP
Your place for short, easy-to-read articles on management, leadership, decision-making, and personal & professional development.
Featured Blog Posts
Motivation: Tips to Give (not Take) Clout
The brain really likes feeling important, but it’s not just about giving out raises or promotions (although that’s okay, too). As a manager, there are simple ways to activate the brain’s reward response by helping people feel important and give them a sense of clout....
It’s Not Fair! Three Ways to Combat Unfairness
“But it’s not fair!” Have you ever heard that from someone on your staff or from a frustrated colleague? At one time or another, everyone has felt the pangs of unfairness. There’s a reason for that. The brain is wired to easily detect and react to perceptions of...
Connection: We Feel Good When We Feel Connected
Is there someone you work with who could use a little motivation? Could you use a little motivation? You can’t motivate someone else if you can’t motivate yourself and, frankly, we could all use a little motivation sometime. Too often we think of motivation as money...
To Counteract Uncertainty: Stabilize
There’s a reason that we experience resistance to change whether it’s us personally or staff. The brain wants the world it experiences today to be as expected based on its past. The brain likes “the way we’ve always done it before.” That’s easy, comfortable and...
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