Uh-oh. You caught an employee in a bold-faced lie, and now you're not sure what to do next. A single lie has the power to destroy your trust in the employee, but what is more concerning is why the person told the lie in the first place. Is he hiding something? Does she fear your response? And if the person lied so easily this go round, does it mean he or she has lied before? … [Read more...]
Encourage the Right Behaviors, Eliminate the Wrong Ones
It’s not true in every organization, but it is true in many: Leaders don’t understand their employees. They don’t know how to motivate, inspire and correct people effectively. As I work with my clients, I hear the same questions repeatedly: “How do I get my employees to … Quit complaining?” Do more than the bare minimum?” Contribute in meetings?” Show up on … [Read more...]
How to Encourage Employees to Speak Up
As you take on a new management role, you want to make sure that you’re communicating effectively with your team members. But how are you going to get them to open up to you? Many employees have trouble being forthcoming with any boss, let alone a brand new one. Try out these encouraging phrases to get the words flowing: “Help me understand …” Put the blame for … [Read more...]
Be the Victor, not the Victim
In much of my work, I see a tendency that many people have (including me) to play the victim during interpersonal conflict. I encourage my clients, and I strive myself, to overcome this tendency to blame every conflict on the other party. I call this tendency to blame others a victim mentality. When I am blaming others, I am a “victim” of their behavior with no power to … [Read more...]
7 Ways to Build Stronger Relationships With Remote Staff
This is a guest post by David Deacon, author and HR expert. In your new leadership role, are you responsible for leading remote employees? Most leaders have at least one partial or full-time remote employee or freelancer who reports to them. It's not easy. With employees working remotely or on flex schedules, it can be tough to create the kind of connection you need to help … [Read more...]
Unmotivated Employees? Start Here.
While motivating and inspiring employees (and keeping them that way) requires a good bit of strategy, a good place to start is simply to shift your language to be more positive. When people are constantly bombarded by negative messages, they can't help but feel negative too. It wears on them and can even convince them that nothing they do will be right. With some simple … [Read more...]
Become a Strong Delegator (And Take Back Your Time)
Delegation is something that every leader has feelings about. Some feel they do it well. Some don’t even know where to start. Some have seen a good example of it. Some feel like every time someone has “delegated” to them, it felt like they’d just been dumped on. Some think it is something they should do. Some resist it. Regardless of your feelings and experiences, there … [Read more...]
5 Steps to Become a Much Better Listener
How much we actually retain when we listen to people speak is up for debate. I've seen research that suggest it is as low as 17%. I don't know if I believe it's quite that low for most of us, but I do believe many of us have lost the art of listening. We're too distracted to offer our full attention to one person. We multi-task, constantly deal with the ding of our phones, … [Read more...]
Are Communication Style Tools Valuable? It Depends.
Why is communication so hard? One of the top reasons is that not everyone communicates in the same way, with the same tendencies or styles. To simplify things, we have access to all these useful tools that provide assessment takers with acronyms, colors, letters, animals or other designations to identify their personality and communication style. They're often fun and can be … [Read more...]
Resolve Conflicts Much Faster With This Surprising Advice
“How do you resolve a conflict quickly?” You may think this answer is counter-intuitive, but it's true: To solve conflict quickly, you must slow down. Just about everything I do professionally centers around resolving conflict, improving communication, enhancing leadership and inspiring teamwork. I work with teams of all kinds: work teams, non-profit teams and even … [Read more...]