Managers typically are more competitive than average employees. So it’s natural for managers to want to create a competitive spirit between employees, shifts, divisions and locations. And some employees respond really well to this competition. It can even get carried away to include gaming the system to improve your score over your colleagues, and other…
Last night I gave a talk to a group of donors about generosity. The point of the talk was that giving is an area of excellence in our life, just like any other activity. Some people are great givers, and others are sporadic to inappropriate. It’s critical that we approach giving with a Good-2-Great mindset…
There is enough research on Employee Engagement to show that engaged employees give more “discretionary effort” (going above and beyond job expectations…without being told/asked) to their employer. Yet levels of engagement have not changed over the last ten years or so, through a period first of boom, then of bust. Consider this data from the…
Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers – Stephen Covey In Reader’ Digest a story is told of a factory worker who refused to sign up for group insurance. The problem was no policy could be issued until all employees signed up. Yet he held out stubbornly. The…
Previously, we had explained the value of incorporating a change agents network as part of your overall change management program. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when Paul Hagen from Forrester contacted me to request an interview for his recent research report titled “How Customer Experience Change Agents Transform Culture.” I provided Paul with firsthand insights from two customer…
Many excellent change initiatives never get off the ground, stagnating just when they should be flowering. Why, after an enthusiastic start, do so many major change efforts—a new product rollout, international expansion, a new IT system—founder and organizations return to the pre-change state? It’s because companies focus disproportionately on the structure and technical aspects of…
Last year, I was blown away by The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It was the top read of the year for me, and the most impactful book on my business life since Good To Great. Why? Because the Lean Methadology changes the game, whether you are a startup or a big-old-company. When you are…
Equally important to creating a powerful future vision is how that vision gets communicated to your people. This is where the art and skill of storytelling becomes very important. Done well, storytelling can be a powerful catalyst for driving transformational change. Effective leaders tell stories that position them and their organizations as change agents instead of defenders of the…
Recently I heard a presentation by Jim Gibbons, President & CEO of Goodwill Industries. In it he said that “every job matters.” Every job has someone relying on the incumbent of the position to do their job well so that the other person can either: benefit or do their own job well. Your client/customer is…
A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better. – Jim Rohn Last week, for the seventh year, the Hay Group released their findings that identify which organizations have the best leadership practices and what we…
You’ve likely heard the expression, “What gets measured, gets managed.” And companies have improved their capability to measure dozens, or sometimes hundreds of data points that reflect how the business is performing. Unfortunately, managers are falling into the trap of “teaching to the test” which means that they harp on the metrics without coaching the…
The latest issue of McKinsey Quarterly contains a case study titled Developing Better Change Leaders. Using the backdrop of a multi-national operations improvement initiative, it addresses leadership development and organizational change and highlights the factors that make it possible to drive and sustain profound transformation. The case study underscores a number of important change leadership practices. Below, we touch on…
That which is compensated, is motivated. Nothing more, nothing less. Between my speaking and consulting, I have many opportunities to compare comp plans and the resulting corporate cultures they create. If you want to have a strong customer service culture, for example, you’ll need to aim all compensation plans at achieving it. If you want…
Blind Spots. In cars, we have blind spots where we can’t see what is going on right around us. The larger those blind spots are, the more dangerous we are. We can have blind spots in our life as well – things and behaviors that we do that we don’t understand or appreciate the impact…
For me, a coach who specializes in executive communications, the topic of attire is like an unwelcome neighbor who keeps popping over. It’s a subject I’m not entirely comfortable talking about as it seems superficial and off-topic. (I’m a business coach not a style consultant, thank you very much.) But we all know it matters.…
Piggy-backing on a blog post by Morag Barrett on the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce site titled How to Avoid Mistakes New (and Experienced) Managers Make, we address the new manager’s role in supporting change within the organization. To clarify, by “new managers” we are referring to individual contributors who have recently been promoted into roles…
For many of you, finding new leaders is an on-going challenge. In HR world, they call this the “bench-strength” issue and it can be a game changer. As companies expand, new divisions are formed, requiring fresh leaders to guide them to effectiveness. For startups, this is even more critical. Pick the wrong one and you…
By Derek Murphy If there is one thing movies about the workplace tells us is that Hollywood believes bosses come in all shapes and sizes, and they are all pretty terrible people. Why the bad rep for leaders? Well, it’s no secret most employees have been disappointed and let down at some point in their…
Historically, trainers and coaches rely on the trickle down method of impacting an organization: train or coach the boss and then everyone who reports to that person will change their behavior and the organization will benefit. Or sometimes the opposite approach is taken – put the staff/employees through training, thinking that will change things, only…
For leaders of all types, here’s an assignment: Hand out some praise today. Think about how long a weekend can be for someone who feels under appreciated or over worked. It’s emotional stew time, and you aren’t around to defend yourself. When Monday rolls around, your team members are not refreshed. They are back to…