I don’t think firing employees comes naturally to anyone. Many new leaders avoid making this tough call. But keeping a poor performer on staff is detrimental to your bottom line as well as your team’s productivity and morale. Your staff knows when a teammate isn’t pulling his or her own weight, and that can lead to laziness (“If she can get away with that, why am I working … [Read more...]
Building Confidence as a Coach
Your role as a leader, new or otherwise, includes being a successful coach. And like anything else in life, when we are more confident at something, we are better at it. So in today's video, I am going to give you specific, practical and proactive strategies to help you be a better coach. https://youtu.be/tuH78sq4Dus?rel=0&showinfo=0 Tweet it out: Confidence helps … [Read more...]
Making Hard Decisions
Decision making is a perennial topic for leaders. It is one of those skills that we all use every day, yet we know it is sometimes hard, and we could probably be better at it. So how can you more confident when you have to make a hard decision? Science to the rescue! Today I am using science (yes, real science!) to help you make decisions more easily and more … [Read more...]
Making Feedback Timely
We were recently asking the question, How do I make feedback timely? And it's a great question, but before I can answer it, we need to define the word timely... Check that out and the answer to the question in the video below. https://youtu.be/DYu3S1wevdA?rel=0&showinfo=0 Make feedback more timely and it will be easier to accept and apply. @KevinEikenberry … [Read more...]
3 Times You Should Change Your Perception
Have you ever left a movie and talked with someone about it, and it seemed like the two of you saw two completely different movies? You each noticed different things, cared about different aspects and were moved in different ways by different parts of the film? Since we each have our own powerful perceptions, that is easy to understand. Each person sees what his/her brain … [Read more...]
Turn Lazy Employees into High Performers
Slackers can ruin the dynamic of any team—without doing a thing. When workers get lazy, their colleagues have to do more than their fair share. That results in overworked, stressed-out employees and mediocre projects. When they waste time on Twitter, make personal phone calls and take long breaks, lazy workers reduce productivity and, when their laziness goes unchecked, … [Read more...]
Making Feedback Meaningful
In our workshops and training, we always advise leaders to give "meaningful" feedback. And this often leads to the question of... What do you mean by meaningful feedback? In today's video, I'll give you four tips on what meaningful feedback is (or isn't). https://youtu.be/h5YBl3bammw?rel=0&showinfo=0 Feedback that is seen as meaningful is more likely to be … [Read more...]
1 Case Where Quantity is as Important as Quality
Every day can present an opportunity to improve employees' performance, and many of you are missing it. Not enough leaders, and especially new leaders, are discussing performance on a regular basis and, instead, are relying only on the annual performance review. That's just not enough. In fact, 65% of employees want more feedback from their managers. Study after study shows … [Read more...]
Coaching Success … In 10 Sentences
Coaching is one of your most important roles. When you do it well, it can also be one of the most gratifying parts of being a leader. While I have long shared insights and helped others learn to be better coaches, I wanted to see if I could summarize the essence of coaching success into seven sentences. I didn’t succeed. Instead, below you will find ten "rules," that if you … [Read more...]
Negative Vs. Positive Leadership (and Why You Should Choose the Latter)
If you're a leader, best-selling author Jon Gordon wants you to take this message to heart: Spreading negative energy solves nothing. In fact, it causes people to shut down. Morale suffers, employees disengage, productivity takes a hit, and profits fall. "It's easy to get upset and derailed by anger when things go wrong, but then the issue gets lost because you mismanaged … [Read more...]