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
Are Your Decision-Making Habits Feeding Your Organization?
I’m intrigued but not surprised. The a-ha moment happened as I discussed the pitfalls of over-thinking with a group of 70 transportation leaders. It could have been any group of leaders. Perhaps it is evident: Leaders develop good and bad decision-making habits and so...
Three Steps to Just Getting It Done
It was a beautiful Texas afternoon and I decided to take a short walk along the street where my mother lives. Walking, I passed a short, old woman slowly ambling along out for her afternoon walk and carrying her cane. We smiled and acknowledged each other as our...
Four Ways Leaders Use Intuition
Think, think, think. We live in a culture that values thinking. We have big thinkers, deep thinkers, creative thinkers, out-of-the-box thinkers. There are think tanks and a sculpture called, The Thinker. We think out loud; we think to ourselves and then we think...
Three Steps to True Consensus: It’s More than Flip Charts & Colored Dots!
We talk about creating consensus all the time. What we do, however, is have a meeting and hope to reach agreement without appreciating what “consensus” really is and the benefits it provides when done well. Consensus when well-executed will: Generate a wide range of...
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