From what I can gather, Unicorns are solitary creatures. They are happiest when they are “uncorning” alone. Conversely, otters are all about the team. A group of otters can be referred to by many names, but my favourite is a family of otters…although a raft of otters is also awesome. Whether it a family, or […]

If I had a magic wand, I would foster a company culture absent of toxicity. While there are some common characteristics of a toxic workplace, I would suggest most people can recognize a toxic workplace when they see one and even more people know what one looks like because they’ve had the displeasure of working

If I had a magic wand, I would…..transform all the bad managers into good ones. Why choose this? But wait, how will the magic wand know which are the bad managers? While they aren’t hard to spot, here are a few characteristics that standout: Sadly, the list could go on. Managers have a disproportionate impact

The next four posts will feature a bold experiment. I’ve invited three wise people, The Business Otter, The Business Flamingo and The Business Bunny to join me in answering the question “If I had a magic wand, I would change…” in the workplace. The results were fascinating.

You have a team member with an okay(ish) performance record. While enough work is getting done, there is so much more that could be accomplished. Unfortunately, the person in the position doesn’t have the potential or willingness to grow further. At least not to the extent they need to. Too often managers leave people in

It’s time to bring out the swag. Every person who signs up for alerts on businessunicorn.ca (bottom of the homepage) in the next week will receive a collectible, limited edition Business Unicorn laptop sticker. For free. Yes, you are reading that correctly. What’s the catch? None really. Well, you will have to eventually share a

This is the most ubiquitous management failure I have committed and witnessed in the workplace. The situation is simple. Someone on your team has engaged in a behaviour that warrants constructive feedback. As you start to contemplate discussing it, you flinch. Perhaps you don’t know how to raise it, feel awkward or are concerned about

Sometime in the distant past, I assigned a small, but significant project to a direct report. When I received the final deliverable, it was late and poorly done. My initial reaction was to firmly admonish them for the timeliness and low quality of their work. Once I finally started listening, I learned they were experiencing

The next three posts are going to follow a theme – the 3 worst management failures of my career and what I learned from them. I wish I could say it was challenging to think of 3 significant failures, it was not. Managing people can be hard and, despite decades of experience and learning, I