The Situation: A supervisor told me she had an annual performance review coming up with an employee who had been underperforming. I asked what kind of feedback the employee had received leading up to the review. Silence. Then came a few comments Jamesa and I hear all the time when supervision has become informal or inconsistent. "Well, we talk all the time, so we don't really do formal, documented supervision." "I've tried to be encouraging. I didn't want to overwhelm them wh

The Situation A senior leader asked to meet because she was concerned about one of her teams."They're just not very professional," she said. I asked what had happened. There wasn't a major incident. No ethics violations. No complaints. No missed deadlines that explained the concern. Instead, what she was describing was a feeling, and it seemed to be that the team made her uncomfortable. The team was louder than others. Meetings felt less polished. Some people interrupted. Ot

The Situation During an all-staff meeting, a high-ranking physician told a story he clearly intended to be humorous. As it unfolded, it became apparent that the “humor” depended on harmful stereotypes affecting multiple identities represented in the room. And no one, not even the leadership present, said a word. Later that day, I met with leadership and learned what had happened. Even though they had not said anything, it was clear they recognized the harm. I asked the leader