Ask Anna Banana™

Topics

• When to move on?

  • The grass isn’t always greener, but how will I know when to move on from my current organization?

    • A happiness tip | What are you good at | Visualization

• Feeling caught in the middle

  • Person A shared some information with me. They asked me to keep it private for now. Person B asked me very directly what was going on with Person A. Person B knows that I have information, and is trying to pressure me to divulge. What do I do now?

    • A default response | What to focus on | Getting curious

• Energy management as a form of leadership

  • Do you operate amongst a stressed, overwhelmed, tired workforce? Are you looking to run an event and you don’t want people to fall asleep on you? Do multitaskers distract you? Here are three unusual things to try to help you optimize people’s comfort and energy at a meeting.

    • Leveraging time of day | Being Outside | More meeting tips

• Deconstructed salad as a form of leadership

  • As a keynote speaker, meeting facilitator, and leadership coach, people often ask me about when, where, and what to plan regarding food for a partial or full-day in-person event…

  • Knowing | Offering | Un-parching

• Footwear as a foundation of your leadership style

  • I’m starting a new position. My mentor suggested that I not wear my favorite (bright and colorful) socks. What do you think?

    • Being yourself | Finding… | Harmony

• What’s so special about you, anyway?

  • I’m working on a grant submission and I need to describe the project, but it’s hard to explain. Where do I start?

    • Signals | Highlights | Notice what feels…

• The problem of the Shoulds (as in, the word “should”)

  • My colleague showed me some work that they did. I think they did a terrible job. They should do better. How do I tell them they should do things differently?

    • Appreciations | What vs. Why | Shoulds

• What to say when you feel underestimated

  • …How do I regain footing in a social situation when I am the least senior person there?

    • What to imagine | Boundaries | Notice the behavior of…

• Naming when you use Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)

  • Do I label it as assisted by A.I.?

    • Identify… | When… | Name it

• Design your best work with phased sharing and big-picture communication

  • …We all have information that we can’t share with each other…

    • Communicate incrementally | Communicate your rationale | Big picture

• Navigating the workplace

  • Flowers and weeds | Gift | Future

• Managing office dynamics: Can we agree to disagree? [audio] [written]

  • I’m the Executive Director of an organization where some board Trustees disagree with each other. You can see, hear, and feel the tensions across people! How can the board come to consensus? How do we communicate with each other?

    • Brainstorm versus editing | Naming the challenge | “Fist-to-five”

People Mentions

• Bill Carmody

• Shirzad Chamine

• Cristi Cooke

• Charlotte Greedy

• Gay Hendricks

• Vicki Hoefle

• Dacher Keltner

• L. David Marquet

• Gabor Maté

• Tara Mohr: mentioned here and here

• Kerry Ann Rockquemore

• Emiliana Simon-Thomas

• Nedra Glover Tawwab

Organization Mentions

• Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

• The Moth Radio Hour