Skip to content
Bill Berthel
The Dark Side of Achievement Orientation
We are an achievement-oriented society. In many cases, it’s how we measure success, growth, and overall status. It can propel us toward advancement and be the impetus for needed changes in our lives. As leaders, we employ that drive to achieve in our efforts to bring the best out of our employees. As employees, we…
The Problem with Managing Time
Time management is a constant requirement for just about anyone, and certainly for leaders and members of teams in high performing organizations. We keep full schedules with the intention of being responsible, productive and accountable – to ourselves, to the relationships we have on teams, and to the metrics and objectives of our organizations. However,…
Connecting
It seems we often start new relationships with common questions – “Where are you from? What do you do? Where do you live now?” These questions are considered socially safe, predictable and expected. However, these safe questions are often slow starters – or worse, non-starters – for meaningful connection. Having recently moved to a new…
Timely Response
Have you ever experienced not getting a reply in a timely manner? Maybe it’s a voicemail you left for someone several days ago, an unanswered email sent yesterday, or a text you sent this morning that remains unanswered or not replied to. We seem to have unconscious expectation of the expected reply time related to…
Expectations and Success as a Leader
I recently overheard a small group of business leaders commiserating about a project that wasn’t proceeding as well as anticipated. They all seemed to be in a spirit of supporting one another, as we so often do when we trust colleagues with our frustrations and complaints. This can be healthy, of course, the opportunity to…
Stop Growing and Developing
While I am a huge fan of the book “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck,” I think author Mark Manson got one element wrong. He claims there is a natural “Law” called the “Backwards Law,” which suggests the human desire to improve and want for more is counterintuitive and that the opposite is…
Empathetic Leadership
There’s plenty of great information available on the value and power of empathy for leaders – so much, in fact, I hesitate to write on this topic for fear of not adding any value to the discussion. However, I would like to share a facet of empathy often not associated with leaders: the facet of…
There is no ‘I’ in ‘Team’
We’ve all heard the axiom before. Usually it’s in the context of reminding someone they are too focused on their own interests and not focused enough on the team. Sometimes it’s declared as a preemptive strike against the fear of lack of compliance to the agenda or team’s mission. Sometimes, it’s ensuring that the “cowboys”…
Right People – Right Seats, pt 1
Right People – Right Seats: This post is the first of two related posts. Here we’ll take on the “Right People” and in my next post, we’ll discuss “The Right Seats.” Part I: Right People The title of this post may remind you of one of the more widely known analogies of getting the right…
Why I Love Coaching Millennials
Despite my experience and background in Human Resources, I have resisted the generational stereotyping so common in my field. I have given presentations on the topic of Generations In The Workplace on several occasions, and I am invited to do so because my approach is that of common ground – how we’re the same –…