Meeting Check-In Questions That Actually Work

meeting check-in questions - where are you located? and why it is the wrong question

How many times in the last month has someone asked you to “type in the chat where you’re dialing in from”? If you’re in back-to-back virtual meetings, the honest answer is probably: more times than you can count. It’s become the default opening ritual of distributed work. Someone shares their screen, the attendee count ticks … Read more

Why Your Relationships Matter More Than Your Network After a Layoff

Building professional relationships after a layoff

Layoffs are no longer exceptional events. With AI-driven restructurings accelerating across every industry, career transitions have become a recurring feature of professional life. And while most layoff advice focuses on the mechanics, we’ve found that relationships after a layoff are the real differentiator. It’s not your resume that determines whether you land in three weeks … Read more

Meaning-FULL Connectivity™: The Missing Link in Workplace Engagement

meaning-full connectivity a chalk board with the words because you matter with a red heart in you

Meaning-FULL Connectivity™ is the capacity and intentional practice of creating meaningful connection with ourselves and others through trust, empathy, presence, and authentic workplace relationships. And right now, many workplaces are struggling with it. Not because people don’t care. Not because teams aren’t communicating. But because communication and connection are not the same thing. Most organizations … Read more

How to Build a High Performing Team (Without a Single Team Building Exercise)

how to build a high performing team

When it comes to how to build a high performing team many leadership books will tell you to ‘hire the best people.’ Culture consultants will tell you to build psychological safety. HR will send you a team effectiveness survey. None of it is wrong, exactly. But none of it gets at the thing that actually … Read more

How to Be Coachable: The Skill Nobody Talks About

how to be coachable with ruby vesely

Most leaders spend time thinking about whether their coach is good. Very few spend time thinking about whether they’re a good coaching client, whether or not they themselves are coachable! That’s a mistake. Coaching is not something that happens to you. It’s something you do — with support. And the quality of your engagement determines … Read more

Your Colleagues Called. They Miss You.

a line drawing of a robot colleague emerging from a computer screen high fiving a human colleague sitting at a desk representing workplace loneliness and AI

by Eric Spencer Workplace loneliness is at a crisis point. Most organizations are making it worse — accidentally. Here’s what the research says, and what to do about it. I wrote this article with the help of an AI. First time. And yes, it felt a little weird. I’m a GenX leadership consultant who has … Read more

Why Human Connection Matters More in an AI World

Morag Barrett keynote speaker on human connection at work

Let me tell you what’s quietly happening while you’re busy optimizing your workflows. Your most important career skill, the one that no algorithm can replicate, is atrophying. And most of us haven’t noticed, because the thing replacing it feels like connection. It has the shape of a connection. It’s just not the real thing. I’m talking about … Read more

The Power of Listening: 4 Steps to Stronger Work Relationships

SkyeTeam Eric Spencer, Morag Barrett, Ruby Vesely listening to each other

Want to know a secret? Listening is the key to building stronger relationships. Think about the last conversation you had with someone at work. Who were you speaking to? What were you talking about? And here’s the question that matters most: Did that conversation leave your relationship stronger, weaker, or in the same place as … Read more

How to Recover When You’ve Damaged a Relationship at Work

an image of two halves on the left 9 wooden blocks shaped like people all misaligned representing damaged a relationship - on the right the wooden people are all aligned a repaired relationship

We all have those moments we wish we could take back, things we have said or done that have damaged a relationship at work. Sometimes, it’s dramatic—like when I slammed my laptop shut and stormed out of a leadership meeting (not my finest hour) or the stomach-churning horror of realizing you’ve sent an email containing … Read more