Blue Fjord Leaders Blog
The Voice for Insightful Leadership with Shelley Row, P.E.
Personality Conflicts at Work? How to Resolve Hard Feelings
Why you have to address personality conflicts at work Have you ever worked in an office where a performance problem went unaddressed? Have you ever watched personality conflicts negatively impact productivity and no one does anything about it? As a top performer, have...
How To Diffuse Tense Moments in Three Steps
We’ve been talking about what it takes for your organization to run like a well-oiled machine. In our discussion the “oil” is communication skills. Previously, I wrote about three communication tips that grease the gears: listening skills, diffusing...
The Surprising Key to Productivity: Listening Skills
How to be a boss that is a good listener You want your office to run like a finely-tuned machine, each gear meshing seamlessly with the others. This level of performance requires the WD-40 of organizations – communication skills and listening skills specifically. In...
3 Essential Communication Skills for Improved Productivity
Want to get more stuff done? Here’s what it takes. You just want to get stuff done. That’s what I hear from the technical professionals I work with. Run into a problem? Let’s solve it and move on. These motivated staff are like high performance gears whirring at top...
Understanding Humility & Leadership: a Guide for New Managers
How this aspect of self-awareness is a critical function in leadership How do you show up? A few weeks ago we introduced you to the Blue Fjord Leadership System. Over time, I’ll write about each of the skills starting with the foundational skills. Today, is...
Being the Smartest Person in the Room isn’t Enough. Now what?
Why smart people struggle in leadership positions & why technical experts need people skills You sensed it for some time. You know technically what is the right answer. And it’s not enough. You sense that you aren’t as effective or influential as you should...
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
Get Motivated to Motivate Your Staff
The recent LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Survey which canvasses roughly 5,000 US workforce members every two weeks noted a six-point drop in the optimism that employees felt about their employer’s business. While there are concerns about inflation, LinkedIn writers...
You Shouldn’t Feel That Way – and Other Phrases to Eliminate
How to replace suppression phrases with validation to improve communication “You’re getting upset over nothing.” That’s what my boss told me after a particularly difficult project meeting where everything seemed to go wrong. I’m sure she meant well, but her words...
Curiosity: The Secret to High-Functioning Communication
How to be a curious, not judgmental leader Walt Whitman said, “Be curious; not judgmental.” The word, curiosity, evokes a sense of openness and flexibility. That’s a good way to approach interpersonal communication. In my courses, we define the goal of communication...
3 Components of Judgment: Are You Using All of Them?
Good Judgment Empowers Leadership Teams — Here's How to Use Information, Experience & Gut Feel when Making Decisions “You weren’t promoted for your technical skills. You were promoted for your judgment.” That’s what my boss told me shortly after my promotion into...
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