This is a sign that Jeffrey put up in his cubicle at ADP a few years ago to remind himself what his business goals should be – and what he can accomplish through promoting the growth of others. From sales to leadership to operations, the rock stars of business multiply the value of everyone they…
Research by TowersWatson has revealed that to generate a climate where your employees contribute a consistently high percentage of their capacity you need more that just “engagement.” You must add into the mix enablement (a better term for what used to be called empowerment), and employee well-being. Here, very briefly, is what constitutes each element…
Are you tired of the political discussion? Now that the election is over, there’s nothing left but celebrations and grousing. Most of us had our fill of it a month ago, but it drags on. We react by covering our ears, unfriending people and pushing back. Then we go to work, and a different kind…
Life is a long process of getting used to things you started out to change. – Frank A. Clark As the story goes, it was on June 4, 1783 at the market square of a French village of Annonay, not far from Paris, that a smoky bonfire on a raised platform was fed by wet…
People in the business community love their clichés. “There’s no ‘I’ in team,” “work smarter, not harder,” and my personal favorite, “think outside the box”. Ugh. When it comes to describing a workplace culture, clichés are abundant here as well. With our open-door policies and expectations of giving 150% (how is this even possible?). These general statements…
This October, I’m reminded of a company effort to battle breast cancer, started by a handful of passionate people in Canada. We focus so much on the power of one person, super-woman, but forget that more often than not it takes a core group to really move the needle. This is why Margaret Mead once…
I would like to be remembered as a player who was there for others –Mariano Rivera In announcing his forthcoming retirement from Major League Baseball at the conclusion of the 2013 season, Mariano Rivera will certainly be bound for Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame. By the numbers Rivera has no equal. His stats…
Nothing last forever – not even our troubles. – Arnold H. Glasow In Bits & Pieces, a story is shared about Somerset Maugham, the English writer who once wrote a story about a janitor at St. Peter’s Church in London. One day a young vicar discovered that the janitor was illiterate and fired him. Jobless,…
I’ve been thinking lately about how one really moves up inside an organization. Many might think it’s about performance or schmoozing. The former is hard, because not everyone gets an opportunity to produce measureable results. The latter isn’t really true, except for those rare situations where the leadership cares more about being popular than organizational…
Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners – Laurence Sterne In surveys conducted by Weber Shandwick (http://bit.ly/ieo5oz) in 2011 it revealed what many already know or experience – incivility in the workplace is on the rise and the many place the blame at the feet of workplace leadership. The online…
Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention. – Jim Rohn Dale Carnegie Training recently released new findings on employee engagement (http://bit.ly/12GBqXI) and the results proved to be quite intriguing. The first and most dramatic finding shows that if an employee is dissatisfied with their immediate supervisor, there…
Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one. – Hans Selye Are you stressed at work? If you answered in the affirmative then according to a recent Gallup poll (http://bit.ly/Z1RqTr) you are among 33% of workers who said they were totally dissatisfied with the amount of stress they experienced at…
Life presents us with an ongoing series of situations that can strain our relationships and tug and pull apart our connections. Getting along with people is a life-long endeavor. But conflict is a natural part of life, with the potential to arise when we face resistance, pressure, change, or interaction. It brings up uncomfortable feelings…
Leaders are celebrated, while managers are often criticized, but a combination of the two could be just what the economy needs. There’s been an ongoing debate for the past five decades and I’m not talking about Medicare or why the Chicago Cubs haven’t won a title since 1908. This debate has to do with leaders…
The endless assortment of messages, feelings and attitudes we bring from our past into our present influences how we see ourselves. It also directly impacts our ability to relate to others. Your self image serves as a sieve, filtering every experience and interaction and creates a running inner dialogue. You talk to yourself constantly about…
Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it – Charles R. Swindoll A story is told of two men who lived in a small village who got into a terrible dispute that they could not resolve. So they went to the town sage. The first man went to the…
According to a recent study, the average attention span of an adult is 8 seconds. People will listen to you longer, however to get their attention you need to have passion, energy, excitment and be interesting. In my presentation skills training sessions and coaching we go over a number of ways to keep your audience…
Recently, consulting firm Emergent partnered with a Fortune 500 apparel company to undertake the biggest business transformation in the company’s history. Below is a mini case study that provides insights from that project. Building upon its solid performance in 2012, the company chose to implement a new global structure designed to fuel its long-term, international growth. The project…
Consider the following two versions of feedback given by a boss, in response to an employee leaving errors in an important report for the Board: “I’ve gone over your report and found you didn’t include the sidebar paragraph that explains Figure 6 on page 18. Please add it in right away and get the revised…
It seems to be a “no brainer” that better mid level managers and supervisors will, by the way they lead their people, yield better results. Yet this relationship has been very little researched, formally and academically. A study published in August, however, does shed some light on this. It is available through the (U.S.) National…