I spend a lot of my time talking and writing about the relationship between power and respect at work. Disrespectful behaviors like harassment and bullying are power based behaviors. The choice to engage in these behaviors and how we respond to them is very much connected to power – how much we have and how [...]

Today, April 14th is Pink Shirt Day in BC. Started three years ago by Vancouver radio personality Christy Clark, Pink Shirt Day Serves to raise awareness about bullying in schools, workplaces, homes and over the internet. Ms. Clark took her cue from the actions of two teenage students in Nova Scotia who took a stand [...]

One of the things I discuss in my book Road to Respect is how bad behavior is often tolerated within workplaces. Excuses are made. “Oh that is just (whomever). That is just how she/he is”. When nothing is done to deal with workplace disrespect, everyone soon accepts it as “just the way it is around [...]

I was a panelist asked to choose the worst bosses from a list complied by eBossWatch. This site (www.ebosswatch.com) was launched by Asher Adelman in 2007 to help people avoid toxic workplaces. eBossWatch enables people to anonymously rate their current or former bosses using a respectable and focused evaluation form so that job-seekers can better [...]

Last month I featured online shoe retailer Zappos‘ unique corporate culture in my monthly blog post for RespectfulWorkplace.com as well as in Reflections on Respect, my monthly e-newsletter. I wrote about Zappos because it is a company that illustrates one of the key lessons in my book, Road to Respect: Path to Profit: that creating [...]

Kristen Tillquist is a woman after my own heart. The former Vancouver litigator, now working as Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Riverside, California, believes that the key to business success in today’s marketplace is kindness. Her 2008 book is entitled Capitalized on Kindness: Why 21st Century Professionals Need to Be Nice. The idea [...]

One of Bill Maher’s guests on Real Time this week was Elizabeth Warren, Harvard University Professor and recently appointed Chair of the TARP(Troubled Asset Relief Program) congressional oversight panel. The topic of usury arose in the context of discussing credit card companies, whose business model Ms. Warren described as “trick and trap”. Both Ms. Warren [...]

Want your team to perform better? Want to encourage more discussion and better decisions? Follow the old adage and encourage diversity within your employee group. Brigham Young University assistant business professor Katie Liljenquist co-authored a study which focused on the influence of new employees on a team. The study concluded that new workers with diverse [...]

A client of mine recently sent me an email with the following quote which he found on a Starbucks mug. The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating – in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself [...]

On Friday March 13 I attended the 22nd Annual Equality Breakfast in celebration of International Women’s Day 2009. The breakfast is hosted by West Coast LEAF –Legal Education and Action Fund. This organization was founded in 1985, when Canada adopted section 15, the Equality section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The mandate [...]