The question you ask can change the conversation you have. I recently watched a TED Talk by bestselling author Vanessa Van Edwards about the questions we ask when we're trying to connect with people. Think about some of our defaults: How are you?Been busy?What's new? We ask them automatically and usually get automatic answers in return. Van Edwards suggests changing the question. Instead of: “Been busy lately?” Try: “Working on anything exciting lately?” It's a small shift, b

What gets lost between people often becomes the problem later. In a relay race, the baton exchange can determine everything. The runners may both be strong. The strategy may be sound. But if the handoff is sloppy, the race can be lost in a second. Work is full of handoffs too. One shift to the next. Engineering to operations. Project team to maintenance. Office to field. Leader to leader. And a lot of problems don’t begin because somebody did poor work. They begin because

When the pressure rises, listening steadies the team. A colleague once told me, “September is when the noise gets loud—deadlines, goals,...