Welcome to Misti's Insights
Getting Good at Using Conflict as a Catalyst for Growth
Using conflict as a catalyst for growth “Your silence is violence. If you’re not for me, you’re against me. If you don’t speak up, I won’t work with you anymore,” she said. It was six thirty in the morning when I read this. I received an email from a marketing expert...
Fostering Team Momentum In The Midst Of Uncertainty And Fear
Keeping employees focused and productive in the midst of mass uncertainty is tough, but it can be done. It requires a shift in thinking about how having difficult conversations can help to improve bottom line results. Many leaders think that better results come...
“I Wish the CEO Would Try and Open This Darn Package”, Guest Post by Chip R. Bell
It is a line we use at my house when a product or service is unusually challenging. It could be that bottle or package that requires a hack saw and a blow torch to open, or it might be the service that has way too many steps to finally reach your desired outcome. Our...
Pandemic Exhaustion Is Real: A Key Leadership Strategy To Keeping Positive Energy
Little Stories That Make a Big Impact This pandemic (along with massively unsettling political shenanigans) is causing immense weariness, and exhausting employees across the globe. Simply said, our brains are not built for processing or pivoting at the magnitude that...
No Time For Managing Your Team? Do This Effective Exercise This Holiday Season
With the sheer number of responsibilities continually increasing almost daily, how are you supposed to find time to manage them too? Just like you, your team gets paid to do a job, and wouldn’t it be great if they’d just do it? While Baby Boomers required very little...
How To Reduce Dread This Winter… Politics, Pandemics, and Climate Change
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin The pandemic, along with politics and even climate change, have made it very hard to feel optimistic about and in control of where life is headed. Yet...
The Power of Praise: The Reason To Thank Your Team This Holiday Season
Get Your Team To Perform Better, Through Praise Who doesn’t stand a little taller, or perform better, when someone praises their good work? Most people do. So, why don’t more leaders use praise throughout the year? Could it be that we, as leaders of teams and...
The Appalachian Antivirus: How A Rollercoaster Helped Me Overcome Covid19, Politics, and An Uncertain Future
I was in the midst of the longest and hardest hike of my life; lost, beyond frustrated, and hurt from slamming my knee into a rock on a steep downhill. I had started this hike at eight-thirty in the morning, thinking I would arrive at my destination before four in...
Overcoming Decision Fatigue During Global Pandemic
Two weeks ago I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to focus and get stuff done. Covid19 created a massive change in my schedule, and left me too exhausted to make the simplest of decisions. Like, when to workout. Can you relate? At the time, I didn’t...
A Phrase That Transforms Failure Into Fortitude
Fully consumed with excitement for my upcoming open water swim on a beautiful late September day, I rounded a curve on 695, just outside of Baltimore. Imagining the goose bumps from the frigid water engulfing my skin, I looked down at the temperature gauge on my car:...
How Political Conversations Can Strengthen Relationships
Politics ... a forbidden topic in many relationships, and one that can easily put a stop to new relationships. And yet, the topic is a gold mine for practicing one of the most important skills in business and life. A skill that, when strengthened, not only improves...
7 Simple Steps To Deepen Trust… NOW, more than ever
Fear is paralyzing… It stops us from bringing our full self to work. It increases tension, decreases collaboration, and wreaks havoc on progress/productivity. It doesn’t have to be that way! There is a simple (albeit, not necessarily easy) strategy to use these...
Don’t Miss Out On The Leadership Opportunity The Coronavirus Is Offering
The opportunity is before us… Leadership is needed NOW more than ever. A senior vice president of HR shared about a meeting she had with her executive team yesterday… "Misti, everybody was sitting around the table looking at each other, unsure what to do. Finally, I...
5 Questions To Break Down Team Silos And Increase Collaboration
With the golf club in my hands, I bent down ever-so-slightly to align myself with the ball. Five feet across his office floor, Tom laid down a trash basket, which I was aiming for. As I took shot after shot (missing nearly all of them… Hey, it’s just not my sport!),...
Creating Psychological Safety in Uncertain Times, Here’s How, Guest Post by Danielle Oakley, PhD
The moment is still etched in my mind. The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. The lump in my throat. My opinion didn’t matter. My degree wasn’t good enough. My experience was irrelevant. Remember to breathe, I told myself. Let me set the scene... It was the...
Are You Heeding The Warning Signs?
Wanting to Do What I Wanted To Do It was 1pm when I finally arrived at the beach in Lewes, Delaware. I had driven three hours, checked into my AirB&B, and was ready for a swim in the rejuvenating salt of the ocean. As I popped my trunk to get my swim bag, I heard...
How to Have Conversations You Don’t Want to Have (But Need To)
“I have pulled up every leader and influencer that I follow… or work with. To be honest, as of this morning, you are one of the only ones who hasn't spoken up... and it might not be your thing… but our civil rights are at stake. Period. I’m done working with you....
4 Nights in The Backcountry: What The Appalachian Trail Taught Me
I recently spent 4 nights on the Appalachian Trail. For those who don’t know, this is a journey along the east coast that goes from Georgia to Maine. Some people take 4-6 months to walk the entire trail in one shot, while others do pieces and portions of it over...