In working with businesses and organizations of all kinds, I hear the same concerns everyday:
Even if you aren’t thinking about or concerned with every one of those questions, I’m sure at least one of them has kept you up at night in the past.… Read the rest
“One day a donkey fell into a well. When the owner discovered what had happened, he frantically
searched for ways to rescue the animal, with no success. Regretfully the owner decided that since the donkey was growing old, he should give up the idea of rescuing the animal and simply fill in the well. Hopefully, the donkey’s demise would be quick and painless. The farmer then called his neighbors to help with the task, and soon several men began shoveling dirt into the well. When the donkey realized what was happening, he brayed, and struggled … but finally the noise stopped.… Read the rest
Whether you are a business, a charitable organization, or an association, the relationships you have with customers, donors, or members is critical to continued success. That relationship needs to be one which builds loyalty. At the root of success is the loyalty of those, in many cases employees, within the organization to the mission. A lack of employee loyalty may result in the inability to achieve goals and dysfunctional communication. Morale and culture issues may develop. On an overall basis, there is no alignment of systems, people, and strategy.
Every morning I have a routine to start my day. I get up, brush my teeth, floss, rinse with mouthwash, shower and put in my contact lens. If for some reason that routine is disturbed, I might find myself later in the day wondering why I can’t see well. Have you ever found yourself leaving home and going in the wrong direction in your car because you are not going to work that day, but to a different destination. These are two examples of the habits that develop over time into routines… Read the rest
One of the greatest lessons in time management is to realize the difference between spending time and investing time. The dictionary defines spend as “to use up, exhaust, consume.” If you spend, you have no return. On the other hand, when we invest we “spend with expectation of some satisfaction, of obtaining an income or profit.”
Have you ever sat at your desk and literally played this mental game. Have you ever heard these types of questions or statements rolling through your mind?
… Read the rest
As a business or organizational leader, we often need to consider ways to motivate people. One business owner was lamenting about the lack of motivation in his sales staff and remarked that if they were all on straight commission there would be a much greater level of performance. Let’s consider two of the most common approaches to motivation; rewards and recognition.
Webster defines rewards as, the giving of either money or another kind of payment for something good which has been done. Reward practices we have seen include piecework incentives, sales commissions, and prizes for performance. Piecework was very common in the manufacturing of goods where an employee was paid by the number of products they produced.… Read the rest
In difficult situations, when companies are in crisis and can only be saved by major effort, group morale often rises to far higher levels than before. Individual objections and objectives are bypassed in the collective drive to do what must be done. This is where recognition awards take importance. High group morale can enrich individual motivation and performance remarkably! These are two types of awards: planned and unplanned.
On its basic concept, recognition awards are effective ways of increasing and boosting people’s morale. It encourages them to be accepting of and have a desire for change at all times. The change they will make is not entirely for the advantage of the company, but to their own personal achievement as well.… Read the rest
Performance Management is a system developed out of the best practice of top performing 
organizations to provide managers with a structured approach to the key retention criteria.Simplistically, most people will feel motivated and will want to stay in their job if their manager:
Most Performance Management processes contain critical opportunities for recognition.
Traditionally, the annual appraisal is the only meeting during the year when an average or better worker will meet his or her boss to discuss performance. People with poor performance can and do have a regular audience with their manager; sometimes on a weekly basis.… Read the rest
As a manager or organizational leader, you must be constantly aware of the environment you create. The environment can prove to be one where people perform well or one where people feel unappreciated and destined for failure. In a March 1998 article in Harvard Business Review, The Set-Up to Fail Syndrome, Jean-Francois Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux discuss this exact situation.
Have you ever experienced a situation in an organization where, although you have been appointed to a responsible position, you don’t seem to be part of the in-crowd. Meetings are held without extending you an invitation. Your superior by-passes you, talking directly with your subordinates when requiring information or making decisions. You inclusion in social functions is often an afterthought.… Read the rest
If you’re an employer or manager, then work place absence is costing you money, inconvenience, and upsetting your customers. So we all know, not all days taken off work are due to genuine sickness. Many employees “take a sickie” because their morale is low and they just don’t like or can’t do their work.
The challenge for employers and managers is to make people happier at work. If people are happy at work, they are less likely to take a day off every time they wake up with a stuffy nose.
Some bosses think that paying more money, improving job security, or working conditions is the answer. It isn’t and it’s also something that can be very hard to achieve.… Read the rest
Do you want to know the big difference between due diligence and a core competency? Here’s a classic example: Collecting 50 business cards per day is an act of data procurement, while training to a 60% conversation to appointment ratio is focusing on an essential component to ensure your sales team’s success.
Don’t focus on accountability to tasks but enlighten to identification. It’s much more important to teach your people the ‘business’ of the business they’re in. If you currently have your sales team accountable to tasks, then you’re merely ‘managing’ tasks. In order to become more effective, you should be training on measurement of competencies so your people can ‘run their own business.’… Read the rest
So often we hear from the owner of a business or the manager of an organization lament about the performance of employees or associates. They speak of it as though they were having an out-of- body experience in which they were completely separated from the activities of the group. When I hear these types of comments, I am reminded of an old Greek phase, translated to the fish rots from the head down.
Leaders often feel helpless in changing the performance of a group. There are many practices and personal work habits that they can adapt which will make a difference. Let us look at three areas and look at behaviors and how each affects others in the group.… Read the rest
In fact many organizations are faced with the reality that they need to get more results through smaller and perhaps more fragmented teams. As your employees have added and shifted roles, positions, and responsibilities, how do you know you have the right people in the right positions in order to maximize your organization’s efforts and outcomes?… Read the rest
Many managers fail to realize how their actions, attitudes, and communications affect the performance of a team or group of employees. They place the responsibility for performance on others and not themselves. Management success only comes when they learn to practice some basic principles of leadership and become someone who the employees wish to follow. Here are seven of these principles.… Read the rest
Most businesses invest in marketing and advertising each month but overlook another vital investment that they are already making–that investment is their employees. Your employees can make or break your company, and recently I ran into a very poignant example of that fact.… Read the rest