Liz’s Leadership Insights Blog

7 Training Tips from Laura Stack

  Laura Stack stopped by the blog today to share her "7 Tips for Training Small Business Employees without Blowing the Budget". 7 Tips for Training Small Business Employees without Blowing the Budget Employee training is an important aspect of business growth. However, with today’s major focus on cost cutting, training is often one of the first things to go when budgets are tight. However, because motivation or skill level can be impacted, which in turn affects engagement or productivity,...

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Are You Asking Enough of Your Managers?

    Are you frustrated with your managers, supervisors, or project managers? Do they blame others when budgets are blown and deadlines are missed? Do they point fingers when their teams are deadlocked over problems? Do they throw their hands up in frustration when their team's internal conflicts get in the way of servicing the customers? If so, are you asking enough of your managers? Or let me put it this way: Are you being clear enough with your managers as to what you really expect...

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What’s Your Job?

I had the opportunity to see one of my clients make the leap from being a manager to being a leader a few days ago. I was preparing for our strategic planning session with his senior team, when my client – the company owner – walked into the conference room and said, "I finally understand what my job is. My job is to build a strong management team and to ensure this organization survives me." That's it!  He "gets it"!  He finally understands – deep in his gut – what his job is.  A manager...

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Directors Direct. Managers Do.

Recently a colleague asked me for advice to help him with one of his clients. My colleague's been working with this particular client for several years, but it's getting to a point of frustration where my colleague's ready to walk away. The manager -- or as my colleague now calls him -- The Teflon King, is incredibly skilled at deflecting responsibility and accountability. He's also amazingly skilled at bamboozling the board of directors by not bringing issues to their attention that would...

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Accountability Allows Leadership

A senior manager recently asked what the difference was between a manager and a leader. I told her: "A manager is responsible for taking care of the here and now. A manager ensures the resources are used efficiently, and plans for maximum utilization of staff, equipment, materials, and capital. A manager knows how to multi-task and deal with ever-shifting priorities.   A leader focuses on "What's coming next and how to take advantage of it?" Given that definition, she said, "I'm...

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