Doing all the work

Accountability is a big, heavy word. It manages to be about management, and feedback, and operational excellence, and culture all at once.

Let us feed you

Delegation fails at work when the hand-off is incomplete, and also when the hand-off is too complete. And once you know that, you can get better at this fast.

You've changed

The solution is to acknowledge and process the change. To integrate it and come back to something newly coherent. And the way you do that is reflection.

The little con and the big con

This Quiet Quitting thing may be the topic du jour, but it's not universal. There are people out there doing engaged, enthusiastic work. There are organizations shining bright and without burning out. If you're sweating it, worried that it's happening with your team, here's our advice.

You don't want to drink that

Threats. Dismissiveness. Burnout. Micromanagement. Yelling. Every bad boss behaviour is going to come out of the woodwork in the next few months.

Hello from the basement

One of us has COVID and so far, thanks in large part to the basement (and boosters! and masking! and updated rapid test procedures!), no one else in the house does.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleJuly 27, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, psychological safety, performance, COVID, COVID-19, uncertainty, leading through uncertainty, flexibility

The buzzing noise from the hotel closet

Vacations are a cross-training opportunity. They are a sponsorship opportunity. They are resilience and succession planning and visibility opportunities for your team. You just have to see them for what they are.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleJuly 13, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, vacation

The opposite of coherent

So here we are. Faced with this disastrous ruling. And it makes us wonder: how coherent are your organization's actions on this one? We heard about the relocation policy, what other actions are they taking? Do they line up?

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleJune 29, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, business strategy, community, power

Smile more?

If you start from the assumption that you need to make your team happy – that happiness is an input to work that you need to maximize – you reach for one set of tools. Tools that reduce stress, remove discomfort, avoid conflict. And maybe at a birthday party, or a summer camp, those would be appropriate.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleJune 15, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, happiness, burn out

The unloved doc with all the answers

The org chart is a power map. Not figuratively. Literally. It is a map of relationships, reporting structure, and accountability lines. When we talk about issues being structural, this is where that structure shows up.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleJune 1, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, org chart, power

The Clapback

Anywhere your senior leaders are not giving their full-throated support to a thing, you should be prepared for a clapback.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleMay 18, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, performance, power, community, connection, office perks, remote work, remote, layoffs

Pretend it's a business

Faced with an extended stay in the squishy place, a lot of execs are opting out. They are making decisions with the information they've got. Trading liminal for solid ground anywhere they can find it. And, for a lot of workplaces, shit is about to get real.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleMay 4, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training

The laziest form of management

At the core of every boss quoting some article about kids today is a two-part management failure. First, a failure to adapt to the changing workplace. And second, a failure to listen to the feedback that they are part of the problem.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleApril 20, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Management Training, Management, Leadership, Leadership Training, millenial, gen z

The donuts aren't working

We're hearing from the bosses and people and culture teams asked to implement the Bums-in-Seats directive. Even when they, themselves, are skeptical.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleApril 6, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, performance, power, community, connection, office perks, remote work, remote

New York's hottest club is Competent Management

The massive competition for talent has every HR and Talent leader running after the same ball. And the visual effect, from up here on the hill, looks a lot like Bunch Ball.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleMarch 23, 2022Leadership, Leadership Training, Management Training, Management, melis, office perks, office snacks, flexibility, burn out, Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, power, hiring, performance

Everyone's a great manager until they start managing

It's easy to dip into "I would never talk to my team like that. If I were in charge, I would be a way better boss than that." That smug satisfaction about what you would do if you were in charge? Well, we understand the appeal.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleMarch 9, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, performance, hiring, power

The perks are great and the work is fine

Faced with that blandness, a lot of leaders are pushing back-to-office plans. They have nostalgia for the flavour of a packed and humming office, and feel like if people would just get back in there, it would fix things.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleFebruary 23, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, performance, community, connection, COVID, COVID-19, office perks, remote, remote work

You only get punked when you don't expect it

If we're right about this prediction, the amount of energy coming at you is going to be intense. The question to ask is: do you have somewhere for that energy to go?

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleFebruary 9, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, performance, community, connection, COVID, COVID-19, office perks

Okay, but what about managing up?

What's to be done about the boss above me who doesn't know this stuff but needs to? How do I get them to show up for me so I can show up for my own team?

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleJanuary 26, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, business strategy, performance, managing up

Bad advice you shouldn't take

Resignations. Competitive talent markets. The structure of the org chart. All of these things can feel bigger than you, as an individual leader trying to get things done in your organization. We get that. But be skeptical of any advice that takes them as fixed.

NewsletterJohnathan NightingaleJanuary 12, 2022Melissa Nightingale, Johnathan Nightingale, Raw Signal Group, RSG, Worlds Best Newsletter, Management, Leadership, Management Training, Leadership Training, COVID, COVID-19, business strategy, hiring, The great resignation

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