Weekly Posts and Insights
Empowering People Too Early (And Why It Backfires)
A practical leadership guide to the IEE Continuum—Include, Engage, Empower—and why empowering employees too early leads to failure and frustration. Learn how to develop supervisors, managers, and rising leaders through intentional modeling, coaching, and earned autonomy. Includes real-world scenarios for applying the IEE model to performance conversations, meetings, and cross-department projects.
Team Meetings Are Your Playing Field I Direct Application with Matt Harrington
High-performing teams win or lose in their meetings. In Episode 20, Matt Harrington explains why team meetings are the true playing field of organizational performance and shares three practical strategies—structure, shared accountability, and role rotation—to transform meetings into high-impact collaboration.
‘It’s Faster If I Do It Myself’… and Other Reasons Why Your Culture Lacks Accountability
This post breaks down why excellence starts with belief, not checklists, how psychological safety fuels accountability, why leaders must model the yardstick for quality, and how ownership—not oversight—creates a culture of accountability. This post is a guide for leaders who want to strengthen culture, elevate performance, and develop truly accountable teams.
Team Conflict Resolution Protocol I Direct Application with Matt Harrington
In Episode 19 of Direct Application, Matt Harrington talks about something every leader faces (and few prepare for): conflict in teams.
We tend to avoid it or hope it just fades away. But healthy teams design for conflict before it happens.
In this episode, I break down how to:
Recognize that conflict is a signal, not a setback
Use clarity to keep emotion in check
Apply a simple, practical framework — the RISC–PAUSE model
Build a Conflict Resolution Protocol so your team knows how to disagree productively
The best teams don’t fear tension — they use it to grow trust, creativity, and innovation.
Listen to the full episode here: [link to Spotify/YouTube]
Read the companion blog: Conflict in Teams: Why It Happens and How to Handle It Productively
Download the free Conflict Resolution Protocol Template: HarringtonBrands.com/Templates
Why Your Team Struggles to Decide (and What to Do About It)
In too many workplaces, decisions happen by default - through exhaustion, authority, or avoidance - rather than through a clear and fair process. That’s why every high-performing team needs a Decision-Making Protocol in its tool belt of protocols.
A Decision-Making Protocol defines how a team will decide before they actually have to. It’s less about hierarchy and more about equity - making sure everyone understands the process, expectations, and boundaries.
Leadership Health Assessment I Direct Application with Matt Harrington
In this Direct Application episode, host Matt Harrington explores what it means to build leadership health the same way we build physical fitness.
Do Your Team Meetings Have Positions? (They Should.)
Have you ever noticed that players on a sports team have clear positions and skill sets, but in most workplaces, once you walk into a meeting, everyone just… sits down? Other than your job title, you probably don’t have a position in the meeting itself. But you should. High-performing teams understand that meetings are their playing field, and every player needs a defined role.
Team Protocols: Help/Hinder List I Direct Application with Matt Harrington
In this episode of Direct Application, host Matt Harrington breaks down one of the most practical frameworks for high-performance teamwork: the Help/Hinder list — a simple, powerful first agreement that sets the foundation for trust, accountability, and inclusive excellence.
Why Your Team Meetings Aren’t Working (and What High-Performing Teams Do Differently)
Learn why most team meetings fail and what high-performing teams do differently to make every meeting focused, accountable, and worth everyone’s time.
Leadership & Teams (and a Personal Story) I Direct Application with Matt Harrington
Building a team-based culture isn’t a retreat or an initiative that fades by November. It’s a long game - years, not months - and it begins and ends with leadership commitment. In this episode of my podcast, Direct Application, I reflect on those early lessons from Deb and what they still mean for leaders today: