What Keeping People Waiting Says About Your Leadership
Publication: leadership | respect | Time management | Trust | Workplace Culture
Years ago, I was told to arrive thirty minutes early for a presentation to the Board, just in case they were running ahead of schedule. They weren’t. I sat outside that boardroom for four hours. Then, my sixty-minute presentation got cut to thirty minutes. Then fifteen. Then ten. Eventually, the door opened, and I was told […]
psnews.com.au: Why mandated work fun is often an emotional drag
Publication: Employee Engagement | Leadership Development | Psychological Safety | Workplace Culture
Michelle Gibbings, a leadership speaker in Melbourne, says organisations often try to motivate their employees with mandatory social hours and team-building exercises that often do more harm than good. She suggests better ways of creating workplace joy. This article was originally published by psnews.com.au The emotional baseline people bring to work is heavier than many […]
What Your Team Is Waiting For (And Not Getting)
Publication: Competency development | Leadership Expectations | Leadership Gaps | Workplace Culture
Late last year, my husband and I checked into a fancy Melbourne hotel to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We were looking forward to it. On arrival, the front desk staff greeted us warmly and offered us something lovely: a bottle of champagne to be sent to our room. We didn’t ask for it, nor were […]
You Can’t Mandate Joy At Work, But You Can Create The Conditions For It
Publication: Employee Engagement | Leadership Development | Psychological Safety | Workplace Culture
The emotional baseline people bring to work is heavier than many leaders realise. Gallup’s global data revealed that 39% of adults reported feeling worried for much of the previous day, 37% felt stressed, and 26% reported sadness.¹ That context matters for leaders. Team members don’t leave their emotional weight at the door. They carry it into […]
HR Leader: Is Employee Activism a Threat or Opportunity
Publication: Employee activism | Employee voice | Inclusive Leadership | Organisational trust | Workplace Culture
Employee activism is not a leadership threat. It is a powerful signal of employee voice, cultural health, and psychological safety. In this Fast Company article, Michelle explains how leaders can turn dissent into opportunity by listening closely, strengthening organizational culture, and responding with clarity, courage, and accountability. While many leaders see employee activism as a […]
Is your help, helpful?
Publication: Gratitude Expression | Prosocial Behaviour | Workplace Culture
Pandas, polar bears, marine turtles and jaguars are a few of the animals that are solitary creatures. Humans are quite the opposite. We need interaction and connection. Evolutionary biologists have examined how we have evolved in small networks, which involved cooperation and conflict. What underpins cooperation is the concept of social exchange, whereby one person does […]
With leadership it’s the little things that matter
Publication: Employee Engagement | Leadership actions | Workplace Culture
Recently, I was at Virgin’s airport lounge in Sydney waiting to catch a plane back to Melbourne, and at the same time Richard Branson was in the lounge saying hello to guests and chatting with staff. Apparently, he does that every time he is in town. No doubt he’s busy, but he finds the time […]