GAPOLOGY

Change is inevitable. Markets shift, strategies evolve, and new priorities emerge. Yet, what often determines success or failure isn’t the change itself—it’s how leaders guide their teams through it. Leading through change is one of the most important—and most difficult—leadership competencies. Winning Leaders know that change is constant, and they prepare their teams to thrive within it. At Gapology, we use a simple model to understand how people emotionally process change:

I want to talk about one of the most powerful forces you have as a leader—trust. If you want stronger results with your team and customers, start by looking in the mirror. Ask yourself: What trust levels am I creating with my team? Trust is earned. And as leaders, we either grow it or erode it every single day. When trust is high, your team takes risks, shares ideas, and fully engages with your organizational purpose. When trust is low, they hold back, they play it safe, and

They’re harder to create than they are to keep—here’s how to make sure they stay. We don’t always think about retention—at least not until it’s too late. A-Players. Those who consistently outperform the rest. The ones you rely on to set the pace, drive results, and lift everyone around them. Losing an A-Player can create a ripple effect across your entire team. And while compensation, promotions, and recognition are essential, they’re just the beginning. If you want to keep y

When looking at team members’ various levels of commitment, we typically view them through a lens where they are solely responsible for being committed to their role, task, or employment in general. What we tend to forget, however, is the leader’s role and responsibility in all that. As with most areas of a business, the leader matters. Highly engaged and effective leaders produce highly engaged and effective team members, and those who struggle do not. We have seen this repe

When teams move through moments of change in the workplace, they experience real human emotions and, as a result, human behaviors that must be planned for by their leader. This leader must understand that regardless of the level, role, or even their performance ranking within the team, these emotions and behaviors will be a part of their transition from what they currently understand as the norm to the new environment and expectations. These things are real and natural. Leade

Above most elements involved in the operation of a business, the leader matters most. Without high-performing leaders, most teams will underperform. Conversely, add a high-performing leader to a struggling team, and they can immediately jump in to improve organizational performance. One of the key elements A-Group leaders bring to the table is a consistent rhythm around creating accountability. Here, we discuss three key ways these winning leaders create transparent and consi

If we had to choose one skill that would be the most critical to producing outstanding leadership and impacting your team, customers, or larger organization, it would be Communication. It sits at the heart of every other leadership skill; with it, you will succeed. You need better communication skills to do it effectively, whether closing Knowledge Gaps, Importance Gaps, or Action Gaps. There is no way to train, teach, or hire talent without them effectively. It is only possi

One of the critical areas to create lasting high-impact effects on your team is to focus on development. Looking at where your team is currently in their growth journey and where you want them to be and then providing the training, coaching, and mentoring needed to move ahead is a fundamental responsibility of any leader. Without your consistent guidance built into your Leadership Rhythm, your team members may grow stagnant in their development and flounder as they try to mee

You think you may have an idea that someone is ready for the next big step in their career. They seem ready to be promoted… but are they truly? The risks are high with these individuals. They may be a top individual contributor, or even if they are already in a leadership role and may be seeking a bigger responsibility, you have a tremendous decision to make that may accelerate or cripple their career. So, how do you really know when to move them up? Our books, Speed of Purpo

How do you know when to add headcount to your existing team? How do you know when to replace existing performers? In essence, when do you make the decision to place that ad on Indeed and LinkedIn? This is often a tough choice, especially for small businesses with small payroll budgets or those who are in a growth mode. Payroll is often the largest controllable expense outside of cost-of-goods for organizations and the choice to spend those valuable dollars on additional perso

Emerging Leaders, today’s young or inexperienced leaders, often face incredible challenges in the workplace and their careers. Between learning the technical elements of their new roles and taking on a previously untested skill of leading a team of people, many quickly spiral into a sea of confusion and frustration, and really struggle to make a positive mark on their organization. Often, the best performing individual contributors deservedly get promoted. But without the pro

Last week I was blessed with the opportunity to finally have a conversation with the amazing Coach Cabrina McLain on our podcast, “Gapology Radio” and I would absolutely recommend that you listen to that episode to hear her describe her incredible journey as an author and executive coach. Although she is a good friend of mine and I’ve worked with her for a number of years, I never get tired of her inspirational view of the world and the light that perpetually shines from with

Have you ever received a wake-up call in your life or your career that you didn’t respond to right away and it ended up knocking you upside the head with an even bigger one? I think many of us have gone through something similar in our journeys through life and we can connect with the ramifications of not listening to our own internal voices. Whether it is telling us to adjust our identity, mindset, purpose, or expectations that we've set, oftentimes that inner voice seems to