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...]
Bolstering Equality and Diversity in Your Organization
Today is International Women’s Day, a global day that encourages us to take a minute and celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. This year’s theme is #BalanceforBetter, and raises the question: How can you help forge a more gender-balanced world? For leaders, this question is vitally important. You have the potential to take actions every … [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...]
Make Everyone Feel Acknowledged and Respected
Few people get as much positive feedback as they need or deserve, especially at work. So if you see morale taking a nose-dive (or even if you just want to do something nice for your employees), complete this super simple activity to give everyone a big morale boost. Create an envelope with each team member’s name on it. Inside, include a piece of paper that also has that … [Read more...]
4 Really Great Reasons to Write Positive Feedback Down
Every leader has been told that offering positive feedback is one of the most valuable things you can do. You've heard of all the benefits. You may have heard that you don’t do it enough. If you’ve been reading this blog, you've likely learned the basics of giving positive feedback successfully, such as: Make it timely Make it meaningful. Make it about the behavior, … [Read more...]
2 Words You’re Probably Not Saying Enough
Memorial Day is Monday, and we'll honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. We'll attend parades, picnics or other celebrations, as a way to remember and show our gratitude to all the soldiers who died for this great nation and to thank the vets and soldiers still with us for their service. It has me thinking a great deal about saying "Thank you." … [Read more...]
Boosting Self-Esteem is the Key to High Performance
Self-esteem is relatively scarce in the world and in your workplace. If you don't believe that, it's probably because: You have a healthy self-esteem and so you assume others do, or it never crosses your mind. You don’t have it, and are in denial, (or think you are the only one with weak or low self-esteem). Your people seem to have good self-esteem Self-esteem … [Read more...]
Hiding the Cheese (and Tearing Down Other Barriers That Make Change Hard)
I often say that facts dictate the need for change, and emotions create the barrier to it. Changing from one way of doing things (behavior) to a different one always involves loss, and loss triggers powerful negative emotions. You must understand and address those negative emotions to successfully influence change. I've often talked about about the power that having a weight … [Read more...]
Don’t Forget Your Manners When You Become a Leader
"Please." "Thank you." "Excuse me." "I'm sorry." Most of us were taught by our parents or other well-meaning adults to use those phrases liberally. Yet, says Keith Martino, author of Expect Leadership and head of CMI, a global consultancy that customizes leadership and sales development initiatives, “Simple as they sound, those phrases are often difficult for many people in the … [Read more...]
Disengagement is a Huge Problem, But YOU Can Fix It
The most recent Gallup "State of the Global Workforce" report tells us that 85% of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged at work, and it's costing $7 trillion in lost productivity. Is it possible that only 15% percent of your employees are engaged at work? If that's the case, how much is it costing you? As a manager, you have so much control over employee … [Read more...]