Blog
If Not You, Who is Coaching Your Team?
A new software for small business owners is called “17 hats” – and I think this accurately reflects the roles of a small business owner. You are chief everything officer (sales, people, operations, marketing, accounting, customer service), cheerleader and...
Who killed your summer vacation?
The average manager has 2-3 weeks of paid vacation each year, but most do not use every day off. Time Magazine cover article for the 6/1/15 edition asked “Who Killed Summer Vacation?” In fact, this has become so prevalent, there is a commercial featuring kids asking...
Want employees to tune out? Ignore them
Perhaps you are you frustrated by a poor performer, so you avoid her as much as possible (you don’t want to be mean.) Or you are getting tired of mentioning the same instructions to the new employee, so you have stopped giving him guidance at all. Or you are “too...
4 Things High Performers Want From Managers
Zenger Folkman report that employees who are the most satisfied and committed work for leaders who do 4 crucial “behaviors that focus on achieving challenging goals” Inspire them to high levels of effort Energize them to achieve exceptional results Create an...
Employee’s want feedback – really!
“Doing performance coaching right means 42% higher productivity.” (Bersin report: High-Impact Performance Management: Using Goals to Focus the 21st-Century Workforce) The jury is not still out, the key to the care and feeding of great employees is coaching them...
Always a Crisis -Part 2
My last article (Always a Crisis- Part 1) gave an example of “Chase” – a newly promoted supervisor who is struggling with his promotion to a new role. I outlined the three main causes of performance gaps and four action steps to uncover the underlying cause and...
Always a Crisis- Part 1
“Chase left our conversation abruptly. Across the plant floor, he had spotted a problem and rushed to make a correction. He was apologetic on his return. “Sorry, but this is why I called you today. I feel like a two armed octopus. There are eight things that need to...
Employees “get” their purpose with cascading goals
The Balanced Scorecard Institute calls it “cascading goals.” I love this term, because you can visualize how the organization has a strategy and a big goal for the year, and important bits cascade down to departments (sales, customer service, production, even...
Half of managers fail at employee goal setting
If your soccer team cannot see the goal post, and players don’t know what steps they need to take to score a point (can I use my hands?), you can’t expect to win many games. You can always hope the other team is more clueless. Yet most managers (even at large...
What does a High Performer Look Like?
"10 Competencies of the High Performer" A great infographic image from management consulting firm CEB gives you a quick list of the 10 competencies in high performing players. (I have grouped them by categories.) Interpersonal: Works well on teams Able to influence...
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