Blue Fjord Leaders Blog
The Voice for Insightful Leadership with Shelley Row, P.E.
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...
Why Self-Evaluation is Essential for Leaders
It’s inevitable. At some point you make a decision that doesn’t go well. The astute leader takes time to assess the decision-making process and determine what worked or didn’t. To appreciate why self-evaluation is essential, we need to understand more about the brain....
Three Tips to More Performance with Less Stress
The deadline for a big work or study project is approaching. The deadline creates just enough stress to focus you on the task. But the stress doesn't stop there. While working on the big project, three others show up with imminent due dates. Or, just as you were...
Managing Expectations: Should Leaders Aim High or Aim Low
Setting strategic goals is the job of a leader. And not just any goal will do. We are implored to set stretch goals or a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). But is that really a good idea? Neuroscience shows that falling short of expectations launches a downward spiral...
Hot Buttons: Four Ways to Manage Your Reaction
(Hint: Some are better than others!) Hot buttons: Some arrive unexpectedly in an instant and others you know well. In either case, hot buttons issues have a serious impact on your ability to make effective decisions. A hot button issue is a memory stored in one of the...
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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