Looking for new ways to keep your employees motivated? Don’t trust your team’s motivation to quick fixes that promise to boost morale. Instead, depend on these good old-fashioned management strategies: Make sure workloads are reasonable. The current mantra is “do more with less.” Be extra diligent in ensuring that employees’ workloads are realistic. How do you know if … [Read more...]
Beyond Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way
A guest post by Richard Lee, author of Work That Counts. On a Saturday morning years ago, I distinctly remember a CEO bringing his execs together for a meeting to discuss a critical problem. These were all senior people, competent, forged at the best schools with the best companies. I was there as his organizational consultant. After about an hour, he became increasingly … [Read more...]
Using Apology to De-escalate a Conflict
Apology is a powerful — and often underused — conflict resolution tool. One reason for not apologizing that I often hear in my work with clients is the concern that apologizing either totally admits fault for the conflict or reveals a weakness. While those concerns may be legitimate in some situations, they are overblown in most cases. Conflicts usually escalate because … [Read more...]
7 Fundamentals of Successful Problem Solving
Everyone has problems. Big problems, little problems, work problems, relationship problems. Pick an area of your life, and you probably have at least one issue you are dealing with. When you step into management, you pretty much become a professional problem solver. And if you haven't received any kind of training on the subject (like many first-time supervisors), the role … [Read more...]
Do You Have a High-Performance Culture and Why Does it Matter?
CEOs and C-level team members are generally focused on building the right company culture, and the “right culture” for many is a high-performance culture. The term has become a buzz word for company growth, and many executives believe that they have already mastered this culture. But does your company actually have a high-performance culture, and why does it matter if you … [Read more...]