August seems to be the month for annual treks to see family, rediscover roots and take vacations. If you’ve tried to do business this month, then I’m sure you discovered clients and colleagues who were “on vacation/visiting family back home.” My entire life during the first week of August, my family has traveled from all…
DetailsBe a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. – Steve Jobs While you may be familiar with the many inventions of Thomas Edison which include the incandescent light bulb and the microphone, but there is a back story to one invention that is of great significance. It…
DetailsA recent study reinforces the value of coaching by managers throughout the organization. Here are a few key points it makes: Business results were 21% higher in enterprises where senior leaders very frequently make an effort to coach others. This increased when organizations had a culture that supports coaching and makes managers accountable for engaging…
DetailsThe 2008 economic crisis was terrifying times, to say the least. Millions of jobs were lost and many people faced difficulty trying to obtain a new line of work. As a result, many struck out on their own, not by first choice, but really out of necessity. I applaud those individuals who took that route.…
DetailsMany 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…
DetailsThe best morale exists when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy. – Dwight D. Eisenhower Two recent studies have put the spotlight back on employee-employer relations and more specifically the issue of performance and morale. The two separate reports combine to give us…
DetailsWhat do you do with an employee who thinks she deserves a raise or a promotion but there is one thing holding her back – her attitude? Frequently the entitled employee is in a state of denial. Any attempt to confront and correct the attitude is met with contempt. In her own mind, she thinks…
DetailsCompanies are turning to employee recognition as an internal strategy to boost employee engagement and positively impact such metrics as productivity, ROA, ROE, and retention of both employees and customers. For example, companies that have a formal strategic recognition program in place had a voluntary turnover rate (i.e. people choosing to leave) of 14%, vs.…
DetailsToday we look at the one or two bottom performing employees you might have on your team or in your company. It could be job performance related or it could be negativity or behavior problems. Can they be ‘fixed’ or should you let them go and move forward with hiring a replacement? An HR Manager…
DetailsEmployee motivation, in my view, is key to creating long term successful companies. While there are no magic bullets out there, here are 9 tips that we’ve gathered over the years that can help any manager improve the motivation of the people working for him or her.
First there was Maslow who created an avenue to employee benefits, then Employee Rewards, and more recently Employee Engagement. Today, Culture seems to be the buzz word. We are consistently evolving employee rights into human improvement strategy. The fluff is gone and even kindness has an ROI metric: ~ Does a rewards strategy cheapen the…
DetailsYour attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. – Zig Ziglar In Valladolid, Spain, where Christopher Columbus died in 1506, stands a monument commemorating the renowned discoverer. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the monument is a statue of a lion destroying one of the Latin words that had been part of Spain’s…
DetailsPositive self-talk expands your power; negative self-talk restricts it. Your personal power dramatically shapes your professional, personal, and social destinies, all with multiplying impact. Take the situation of entering a large ballroom full of unfamiliar faces. Immediately, if fearful thoughts take hold, you can talk yourself right out of a positive experience and the potential…
DetailsWherever you look, news about the economy is bad. Layoffs abound. Pfizer, a pharmaceutical giant, recently announced 8,000 job cuts. Home Depot, the biggest home improvement retailer in the U.S., said it will eliminate 7,000 jobs. Even the State of California is letting 20,000 go. The economy lost 2.6 million jobs last year, the most…
DetailsIf you lose readership of your email, your influence wanes at work. If you misuse it enough, you’ll turn partners into detractors. If you mismanage it as a resource, you’ll force everyone to do more work and they’ll despise you for it. To quote TechStars grad and Vanilla founder Mark Sullivan, “Don’t suck at email.”…
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