We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths – Walt Disney In Bits & Pieces there was a story told of a sign in the window of an English company that read: We have been established for over one hundred years…
People often think that for employees to perform well all they need are the appropriate ability and skills and the motivation to achieve great results. But there is a missing ingredient: opportunity. So says John Boudreau in a recent issue of Talent Management Magazine (p. 10). He is spot on. You can be well trained…
If you’re going through hell, keep going. – Winston Churchill A story is told of a group of friends who went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under the weight of an eight-point buck. “Where’s Harry?” he was asked. “Harry had a…
Remember when we would ponder our direction? Nowadays we have to do it all (and then some). There are products to learn, people to hire, alliances to form, markets to penetrate….and a whole lot of technology that is supposed to make things less complicated. Some times the path of least resistance beats the information highway. Does…
When presenting the Evaluate to Win™ system, I always get a positive response from executives with the idea of aligning every employee’s efforts with corporate strategies and priorities. It’s called “embedding” your strategy. It makes perfect sense. It ensures that the contributions of your staff are optimized toward the success of the organization…that is, assuming…
In our lives, we get feedback from others. Positive, negative and befuddling. It’s too easy to let that feedback become part of our self-image, personally or even as an organization. That’s a huge mistake, because often, feedback/criticism/stereotyping is just one glimpse into the fabric of who/what you are. It’s just an opinion. One of my…
Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement. – Henry Ford I came across some interesting statistics recently that underscored what could happen if 99% were good enough: 12 newborns will be given the wrong parents daily 2.5 million books will be shipped with wrong covers 315…
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…
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…
Towers Watson recently published their 2011/2012 Change and Communication ROI Study Report. Unlike their four previous reports, which focused solely on communications ROI, in this study they expanded their inquiry to include change management. This study encompassed 604 organizations, six global regions, and more than eight industries, and provided new insight into the role that effective…
In his short, wonderful book, Helping, Edgar Schein presents us, whether we are a professional coach or a manager playing a coaching role, with three ways to respond to a request for coaching/mentoring help (or, for that matter, advice with a problem on the job). We can be: an expert resource who provides information or…
A 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…
For at least 40 years we have had the idea of “lattice” organization as an alternative design to the traditional hierarchy which assumes employees all want to climb up the ladder. In lattice organizations (and, beyond W.L. Gore & Associates, there weren’t many of them out there back then), you could go in any direction–up,…
How leaders can impact employee’s motivation using the 4-Drive Theory The 4-Drive Theory of Employee Motivation states that there are four main drives that motivate employees, these are the drives to: Acquire & Achieve, to Bond & Belong, to be Challenged & Comprehend, and to Define & Defend.
Many people believe that psychological type consists of four pairs of opposing preferences. Learn the pairs and the behaviors associated with each one, and that’s all there is to it. When you read Jung’s (1921/1971, paras. 570, 571, 575, 588, 608, 637, 736, 764, 956) Psychological Types, you discover there is a lot more to…
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…
The Four Drive Model of Employee Motivation was presented by Lawrence and Nohria in 2002. The model is a holistic way of looking at employee motivation beyond the typical “pay” model that is prevalent in the corporate world today. I will not go into detail regarding the model here, but just give an overview and…
Here’s one of the great truths of selling — if prospects can’t tell the difference between your product or service and your competitor’s product or service, they’ll make their buying decision on price. Now, this isn’t the only reason for the price objection coming up but it’s a major one. It’s absolutely amazing how many…