--- title: Next Generation Leadership Blog description: At DJA, we are committed to help our clients become the best and most inclusive versions of themselves. We want to help you change the world. --- [![NEW DJA logo](https://blog.deettajones.com/hs-fs/hubfs/f098b2db-9a1e-4efb-9509-53fa66205bbb%20(4).png?width=200&height=42&name=f098b2db-9a1e-4efb-9509-53fa66205bbb%20(4).png "NEW DJA logo")](https://deettajones.com/) - About - [About DeEtta Jones](https://www.deettajones.com/about-deetta-jones) - [Meet the Team](https://www.deettajones.com/deetta-jones-dei-team) - [Privacy Policy](https://www.deettajones.com/privacy) - Solutions - [Calendar](https://www.deettajones.com/upcoming-training-development-programs#course_calender) - [CultureRoad®](https://cultureroad.com/) - [Speaking](https://www.deettajones.com/deetta-jones-speaker) - Resources - [Blog](https://blog.deettajones.com) - [CultureRoad® Podcast](https://podcast.cultureroad.com/) - [Resource Hub](https://www.deettajones.com/resource-hub) - [Contact](https://info.deettajones.com/contact) - [Login](https://learn.cultureroad.com/#/login) # Next Generation Leadership ## [Sometimes Its the Person. Sometimes It's the Conditions.](https://blog.deettajones.com/sometimes-its-the-person.-sometimes-its-the-conditions) [organizational culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-culture), [transformation](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/transformation), [Culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/culture), [Organizational Capacity](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-capacity), [Becoming](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/becoming) [![Sometimes Its the Person. Sometimes It's the Conditions.](https://blog.deettajones.com/hubfs/pexels-mart-production-7605197-1.jpg)](https://blog.deettajones.com/sometimes-its-the-person.-sometimes-its-the-conditions) When someone's performance slips, most managers look first at the person. Often the answer lives in the conditions around them. Telling the two apart is one of the most consequential, and most inclusive, judgments a manager makes. Picture a manager preparing for a hard conversation. One of her direct reports has missed two deadlines this quarter, and the work that does arrive needs revision. She... [Continue Reading \>\>](https://blog.deettajones.com/sometimes-its-the-person.-sometimes-its-the-conditions) ## [What Really Influences Your Boss?](https://blog.deettajones.com/what-really-influences-your-boss) [organizational culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-culture), [transformation](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/transformation), [Culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/culture), [Organizational Capacity](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-capacity), [Becoming](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/becoming) [![What Really Influences Your Boss?](https://blog.deettajones.com/hubfs/pexels-pavel-danilyuk-6712718.jpg)](https://blog.deettajones.com/what-really-influences-your-boss) Managing Up Is a Skill You Can Build Think about the last time you walked out of your supervisor's office frustrated. Maybe you'd made a case for more staff on a project, or a new service, or a change in how your unit works. You had the facts. You'd thought it through. And the conversation ended somewhere between a polite "let me think about it" and a quiet no. Most managers I work with can name... [Continue Reading \>\>](https://blog.deettajones.com/what-really-influences-your-boss) ## [How to Stop Doing Something](https://blog.deettajones.com/how-to-stop-doing-something) [organizational culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-culture), [transformation](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/transformation), [Culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/culture), [Organizational Capacity](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-capacity), [Becoming](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/becoming) [![How to Stop Doing Something](https://blog.deettajones.com/hubfs/pexels-olly-3907763.jpg)](https://blog.deettajones.com/how-to-stop-doing-something) Every organization has one. [Continue Reading \>\>](https://blog.deettajones.com/how-to-stop-doing-something) ## [The Moment You Meant One Thing and They Heard Another](https://blog.deettajones.com/the-moment-you-meant-one-thing-and-they-heard-another) [organizational culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-culture), [transformation](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/transformation), [Culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/culture), [Organizational Capacity](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-capacity), [Becoming](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/becoming) [![The Moment You Meant One Thing and They Heard Another](https://blog.deettajones.com/hubfs/pexels-mikhail-nilov-6893929.jpg)](https://blog.deettajones.com/the-moment-you-meant-one-thing-and-they-heard-another) You're in a meeting with a colleague. They've just walked you through an idea — a plan, a proposal, a first draft of something they clearly put real effort into — and you want to be useful, so you jump in with a question: "Have you thought about doing it this way instead?" [Continue Reading \>\>](https://blog.deettajones.com/the-moment-you-meant-one-thing-and-they-heard-another) ## [We Are Always Part of Something Bigger](https://blog.deettajones.com/we-are-always-part-of-something-bigger) [organizational culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-culture), [transformation](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/transformation), [Culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/culture), [Organizational Capacity](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-capacity), [Becoming](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/becoming) [![We Are Always Part of Something Bigger](https://blog.deettajones.com/hubfs/pexels-moe-magners-7495409.jpg)](https://blog.deettajones.com/we-are-always-part-of-something-bigger) Saturday was the first football game of the season. My son is a first-year student and football player at Tennessee State University. He didn't play — not surprising for a first-year player — but you couldn't have kept me away. It was the John Merritt Classic: Tennessee State and Jackson State, two Historically Black Colleges and Universities, opening the season in Nashville. And yes, there was... [Continue Reading \>\>](https://blog.deettajones.com/we-are-always-part-of-something-bigger) ## [Decision-Making Is Infrastructure](https://blog.deettajones.com/decision-making-is-infrastructure) [organizational culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-culture), [transformation](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/transformation), [Culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/culture), [Organizational Capacity](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-capacity), [Becoming](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/becoming) [![Decision-Making Is Infrastructure](https://blog.deettajones.com/hubfs/pexels-rdne-5922677-2.jpg)](https://blog.deettajones.com/decision-making-is-infrastructure) We underestimate decision-making. [Continue Reading \>\>](https://blog.deettajones.com/decision-making-is-infrastructure) ## [Before You Decide, Decide How You'll Decide](https://blog.deettajones.com/before-you-decide-decide-how-youll-decide) [organizational culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-culture), [transformation](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/transformation), [Culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/culture), [Organizational Capacity](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-capacity), [Becoming](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/becoming) [![Before You Decide, Decide How You'll Decide](https://blog.deettajones.com/hubfs/pexels-jan-van-der-wolf-11680885-37364978-1.jpg)](https://blog.deettajones.com/before-you-decide-decide-how-youll-decide) If you asked me the number one “topic” people come to me about, I would say communication. That's the specific word cited most often. When I ask more questions, what gets shared ranges from trust to transparency, from inclusivity to managerial effectiveness. But when we finally land on the actual thing, 99% of the time, the real topic is decision making. [Continue Reading \>\>](https://blog.deettajones.com/before-you-decide-decide-how-youll-decide) ## [Why We Fight the Change We Asked For](https://blog.deettajones.com/why-we-fight-the-change-we-asked-for) [organizational culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-culture), [transformation](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/transformation), [Culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/culture), [Organizational Capacity](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-capacity), [Becoming](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/becoming) [![Why We Fight the Change We Asked For](https://blog.deettajones.com/hubfs/pexels-freestockpro-12969418-1.jpg)](https://blog.deettajones.com/why-we-fight-the-change-we-asked-for) Here is something I have watched play out in organizations for years, and it still catches people by surprise. We complain about something for months, sometimes for years. "Nobody knows who to go to to make a decision." "There's no coordination across departments, and when it does happen, it's fraught with miscommunication." "Our silos are making it impossible to get work done without twice... [Continue Reading \>\>](https://blog.deettajones.com/why-we-fight-the-change-we-asked-for) ## [I Was Terrified. Everyone Else Was Texting.](https://blog.deettajones.com/i-was-terrified.-everyone-else-was-texting) [organizational culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-culture), [transformation](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/transformation), [Culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/culture), [Organizational Capacity](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-capacity), [Becoming](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/becoming) [![I Was Terrified. Everyone Else Was Texting.](https://blog.deettajones.com/hubfs/IMG_2200%20(1)-1.jpeg)](https://blog.deettajones.com/i-was-terrified.-everyone-else-was-texting) A few months ago, I went to Bangkok. It was magical. And one of the first things I did — right off the plane — was climb onto the back of a scooter. A little Vespa. You order it on an app, the way we order an Uber at home. Up pulls a driver who looked all of fifteen, hands me a helmet, and tells me to hop on. He was going to take me to a restaurant on the river — about ten miles away, over a... [Continue Reading \>\>](https://blog.deettajones.com/i-was-terrified.-everyone-else-was-texting) ## [Why We Become](https://blog.deettajones.com/why-we-become) [organizational culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-culture), [transformation](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/transformation), [Culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/culture), [Organizational Capacity](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-capacity), [Becoming](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/becoming) [![Why We Become](https://blog.deettajones.com/hubfs/pexels-anderson-wei-2151965849-34152346.jpg)](https://blog.deettajones.com/why-we-become) We love a butterfly. We rarely think about the cocoon. [Continue Reading \>\>](https://blog.deettajones.com/why-we-become) [1](https://blog.deettajones.com) [2](https://blog.deettajones.com/page/2) [3](https://blog.deettajones.com/page/3) [4](https://blog.deettajones.com/page/4) [5](https://blog.deettajones.com/page/5) #### Subscribe to the Blog #### About Us DeEtta Jones & Associates (DJA) guides leaders and organizations on a journey that builds capacity, strengthens innovation, and increases organizational performance by creating a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment. [![Learn More About DeEtta Jones & Associates](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/3781544/f2180fee-24f9-41d7-9971-fa4a560c783b.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3781544/f2180fee-24f9-41d7-9971-fa4a560c783b) Recent Posts [Sometimes Its the Person. Sometimes It's the Conditions.](https://blog.deettajones.com/sometimes-its-the-person.-sometimes-its-the-conditions) [What Really Influences Your Boss?](https://blog.deettajones.com/what-really-influences-your-boss) [How to Stop Doing Something](https://blog.deettajones.com/how-to-stop-doing-something) [The Moment You Meant One Thing and They Heard Another](https://blog.deettajones.com/the-moment-you-meant-one-thing-and-they-heard-another) [We Are Always Part of Something Bigger](https://blog.deettajones.com/we-are-always-part-of-something-bigger) Categories - [All Categories](https://blog.deettajones.com) - [leadership](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/leadership) - [organizational culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/organizational-culture) - [Culture](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/culture) - [leadership communication](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/leadership-communication) - [inclusive leadership](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/inclusive-leadership) - [DEI](https://blog.deettajones.com/tag/dei) Follow Us Online © 2022 DeEtta Jones and Associates - [Terms](https://courses.deettajones.com/pages/terms) - [Privacy](https://courses.deettajones.com/pages/privacy)