Leader's Beacon

This question has been studied for decades and no direct relationship has been established. Despite what would seem to be a slam-dunk connection, happier workers don’t necessarily result in a bumped up bottom line. A recent study by researchers at Cornell, however, has mapped a path between the two. It is not a direct route. [...]

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City councils, boards of administrators and other governing systems demand a performance management framework that focuses on what outcomes employees will achieve, and how success is going to be measured. This tool reveals how to construct an integrated performance management framework that takes into account the many different functions which a city or a county [...]

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I have been touting the 4-Drive Model of Employee Motivation since I first read the 2008 Harvard Business Review article “Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model” by  Nohria, , Groysberg, and Lee.  You could say I’ve been a very BIG advocate for this model!  It is a powerful theory on human motivation in general, and [...]

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The Institute for Corporate Productivity recently came out with four recommendations for putting in place an effective, robust process for managing and recognizing individual performance. Focusing, as is their wont, on the practices of high performing organizations, their research found that: We also recommend . . .Every Manager a Coach4 ways great leaders use the [...]

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Hewitt Associates have come out with another informative study, called The Current State of Performance Management and Career Development 2010. They surveyed HR professionals from 193 employers. On the performance side, it looks at how companies are using performance goals (the “what”) and behavioral competencies (the “how”) in their year end performance assessment process. Here [...]

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It is mid afternoon. You are sitting at your desk trying to pull together this important proposal for your boss. It is due the day after tomorrow. As you wrestle with how to incorporate a complex spreadsheet from the finance department, you wonder when your quality analyst will bring in those last two key pieces [...]

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One of the most challenging aspects of a manager’s job, the part that is most messy and unpredictable, is giving corrective feedback. Whether it’s delivering a less than stellar review, coaching a challenging employee, or laying someone off, for those of us who are wired to avoid conflict, this can be excruciating. We often walk [...]

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So, you want to be a success? And you want those who work for you to succeed? Then you might as well know the (bad ?) news. Successful, effective people are courageous people! Aristotle said courage is the primary human virtue. And the ultimate courage is to accept what philosopher Peter Koestenbaum calls life’s “dirty [...]

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Are your employees clear about what you expect from their performance this year? I should be able to come in as a consultant, sit down one-on-one with any individual who reports to you and ask him or her, “What will constitute ‘fully satisfactory’ and ‘outstanding’ performance by you over the current year? Please describe it [...]

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Small and mid-sized entrepreneurs, upwardly mobile business professionals and large corporations are increasingly using the services of business coaches to accelerate professional growth by helping them understand their strengths and challenges, achieve goals and objectives, a get results far beyond what an individual can accomplish by themselves. In this economy, however, spending money on a [...]

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