Retaining Employees – Give Them What They Need

Feb 24, 2014 | Leadership Development

For most employers, the objective of filling a staff position, is to find the right person, with the right attitude, with the right skills. Quite often, once that's done, we cross off that 'To Do' item, give a sigh of relief, and move on to the next issue that's demanding our attention. However, if we consider our jobs as managers and leaders "done" when we find the perfect person to join our team, we're making a tremendous mistake. I hate to say it, but the journey with this new employee is...

Why Do You Attack Instead of Talk?

Nov 20, 2013 | Leadership Development

Why is it so hard for so many managers to simply talk with their employees about less-than-expected performance? Why do so many managers become mean when they simply need to make employees aware their behaviors are taking them down the path towards disciplinary actions or possibly -- termination? Why do so many managers default to "attack mode" instead of "talk mode" to tell employees they are performing in unacceptable ways? Typical Reasons People Attack Instead of Talk From my...

Performance Reviews – They’re Not Just A Once A Year Thing

Nov 5, 2013 | Leadership Development

A client was experiencing some employee performance issues and asked us to present training to their managers on their new employee performance evaluation form. Terrific. However, they weren't thrilled when I told them that the training should focus - at most - 10% of the time on the actual use and mechanics of the form. The remaining 90% of the training needed to focus on managing performance and preparing for the reviews all year long. They couldn't expect a form to solve the performance...

The Middle Management Mess

Oct 8, 2013 | Leadership Development

I started focusing on what I call the Middle Management mess after I read an article in the March 2006 issue of the Harvard Business Review by Robert Morison, Tamara Erickson, and Ken Dychtwald entitled “Managing Middlescence.” Their article addressed the mid-career employees, aged 35 to 54, who “should be at their peak of productivity,” but instead “are the most disaffected segment of the workforce.” With one in four of these employees holding managerial or supervisory positions, this was a...

Find Your Key to Professional Happiness

Sep 10, 2013 | Leadership Development

While working with a client recently, the conversation turned to the business partner who was absent. That partner had recently been described by one of the employees as “an unhappy person.” The partner I was meeting with asked, “What can I do to make him happy? I've tried altering his responsibilities these past few years, and nothing appeals to him.” My response was “You can't make him happy. He has to do that for himself.” In my first job out of college I learned from my boss, that I was...