Employee Support Investments – A Smart Move

Sep 3, 2013 | Leadership Development

When was the last time you gave a co-worker a compliment? When was the last time you even acknowledged a routine task they do? Now ask yourself, when did I last receive a compliment? If it's been a while, it may be time to focus some energies that way. By simply saying "Congratulations" or "Nice Job" to a co-worker, your words help them by reducing stress, increasing their sense of worth, enhancing communication, and creating a greater sense of team support. That's quite a return for a...

Employee Motivation Check-up

Aug 13, 2013 | Leadership Development

If you were asked to describe your employees, would "motivated" be one of the adjectives you'd use? If not, why not? If you respond by saying something such as "They just don't care…," or "All they want is a paycheck…," those statements are not true for most employees. Your employees want many of the same things in life you do; things such as a means to provide for and protect their families, strong family and social interactions, a stable work environment, and the opportunity to utilize their...

Creating Procedures – Keep It Simple

Jul 16, 2013 | Leadership Development

I was recently asked to provide some insights into how an organization can easily, yet effectively, create documented procedures (i.e., systems). If you've followed any of my writings over the years, you know I'm a huge proponent of checklists, procedures, and simple documentation to ease a leader's and the team's working lives. I don't like to create complicated bureaucracies of paperwork, just easy-to-follow guides. Simple, clear checklists or standard operating procedures, when created...

Dealing with Difficult People

Jul 9, 2013 | Leadership Development

We've all come across difficult people in our workplace and typically, we've found that the “safest” way to deal with them is to ignore them. However, by ignoring the difficult behaviors of our team members, we are by default condoning their poor behaviors. We are passively accepting their bad behaviors. As professionals, as leaders, we need to stop condoning their behaviors if we want our team members to stop behaving badly. So what do we do? Interact with them assertively. Most...

It Doesn’t Take Much to Say Thanks

Jun 18, 2013 | Leadership Development

I again heard a group of managers raise a common problem during a training program this past week, "How are we supposed to keep our employees motivated? We don't have any money for bonuses, raises, or gifts, and we can't afford to buy them stuff out of our own pockets. Why should we have to do that anyway? How can we blame them for not wanting to work any harder than necessary when they're not going to get paid for it?" Yikes! In addition to showing very little imagination, there are so many...