What skills do the best leaders possess? The answer might depend on whom you ask, the industry you're in, your organizational culture, and even your team dynamics. Still, it's a question worth considering, and who better to answer it than real managers doing the work everyday. The folks at MindTools.com set out to gain some insight by surveying 15,242 managers and … [Read more...]
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Struggling to Find New (Great) Employees? Try These 5 Tips.
Unemployment rates are holding firm at 3.7 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. While that's great for the country, if you are an employer looking for talent, not so much. It makes it even harder to find exceptional talent to hire. Dan Iny, author of Leveraged Learning: How the Disruption of Education Helps Lifelong Learners and Experts with Something to … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Improve Mental Health in Employees
This is a guest post from Marcus Clarke. The best step that leaders can take to improve an organization is to promote mental health among employees. Statistics have revealed that employees experience depression and anxiety each year, and these mental health issues affect employers and lead to huge losses. The nature of work and its expectations is often a leading source … [Read more...]
Be Ultra-Productive This Week
Make this week your most productive week this year. Josh Davis, Ph.D., author of the international bestseller, Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done and Director Research at the Institute for Personal Leadership offers his advice for drastically improving your productivity. He advises "Adapt to the fact … [Read more...]
[Infographic] Top Tips to Remain Healthy at Work
![[Infographic] Top Tips to Remain Healthy at Work](/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Healthy-at-work-348x180.jpg)
For many managers (and their employees), this time of year brings end-of-the-year and holiday stress, more over-indulgences of unhealthy foods and beverages, and less physical activity. Being healthy is the key to feeling good, remaining productive, avoiding the deluge of illnesses already hitting the workplace, and managing stress. To keep yourself feeling tip-top and your … [Read more...]
Avoid These 7 “Flowbreakers” That Are Killing Your Productivity
If you're concerned about your own or your employees' productivity, you may be dealing with one of the following flowbreakers, say James Manktelow and Julian Birkinshaw, coauthors of Mind Tools for Managers: 100 Ways to Be a Better Boss. Keep reading to learn their advice for managing distractions so that you all can be more productive: Personal technology Smartphones and now … [Read more...]
How to Make an Impact as a Manager
After 30 years of working, reading and studying the topic of manager’s development the quote above is still my favorite when it comes time to characterize how managers need “to be” as they perform their roles. The great Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu advised that the fundamental character of a “good manager” (He actually said leader but please allow me the poetic license!) is one … [Read more...]
The Most Important Thing You Can Do This Weekend
As a new manager, do you find it hard to stop thinking about work, even when you go to bed? Do you struggle to fall asleep because you worry about how your team will handle work the next day, how you will deal with a poor performer or what you must do to retain your top staff members? You aren't alone. Many new managers lose sleep over the stress of the job, especially managers … [Read more...]
Good Management CREATES Good Employees
This is a guest article by Charlyne Meinhard. You can hire the right employees, but if you don’t manage them well, those good employees may wind up messing up, rather than stepping up. Consider this scenario: Jen and Tim are managers of two totally different functions within Mid-Road Company, but they share the same frustrations about their employees. “You won’t … [Read more...]
Ensure Your Employees Don’t Quit YOU
Unemployment rates are low, and your employees have options. What's more is that employees are more likely to quit because of you, their manager, than anything else in the workplace. So if you want to avoid the high financial and productivity costs of turnover, guess what: You play a key role in keeping them from jumping ship. In fact, you have a hand in every aspect of … [Read more...]