How often do you praise your employees? Do you hold it for the annual review or for those times when people have been truly exceptional? Or do you spread it around consistently and frequently? I'm hoping it was the latter. I firmly believe you should praise often if you want to see employees maintain a high level of performance. Continual positive reinforcement acknowledges … [Read more...]
6 Steps to Ensure Individual (and Team) Success
You are only human, right? You can set goals, offer coaching, and hold your employees accountable for meeting expectations, but how much control do you really have over ensuring their success? After all, your employees are adults. You can't make them do anything they don't want to do, right? That is largely true. If employees check out, you can't force them to take the … [Read more...]
The Most Challenging Issue Companies Are Facing Right Now
This is a guest post by Stephan Schiffman and Gary M. Krebs. I don’t mean to frighten you, but I am about to alert you to a dire circumstance many companies are dealing with right now: turnover. According to Gallup, one fifth of employees born between 1980 and 1996 changes jobs each year, which is three times greater than other age groups. Six out of every ten people in … [Read more...]
Prevent Regretful Behavior at the Holiday Office Party
According to a recent study by Four Loco, office holiday parties often leave employees full of regrets. You can see the full survey results here, but here are a few highlights: 1 in 4 respondents has done something he or she regrets at a company party 36% say they've witnessed their boss do something embarrassing at a work party 1 in 10 has been reprimanded for … [Read more...]
5 Employees to Thank Your Lucky Stars For
Thanksgiving 2018 has come and gone, but don't let your gratitude disappear with the last of the leftovers. If you have the following employees on your team, you should be incredibly thankful! So don't forget to let them know just how much you appreciate them. Optimists. Even on Mondays, these employees arrive at work cheerful and energized. They look at challenges as … [Read more...]
8 Qualities the Best Managers Possess, According to Real Managers
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...]
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...]
Take Accountability for Your Mistakes
Leaders often lament about the lack of accountability in employees. We write about it on this blog often. After all, it's critical that employees take responsibility when they fail, rather than point fingers or place blame on others. But how about when you mess up and it hurts the team? Do you own your mistakes? Or immediately find a way to shift the blame to someone else? … [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...]
Do You Communicate Like You Rake? Little by Little or All at Once?
Fall foliage is beautiful, so if you are lucky enough to live in an area that experiences it, like me, I consider us very lucky. Still, while the trees are beautiful as their leaves turn from green to yellow, orange and red, they pose a problem too—if you're responsible for removing them after they've fallen. Most yards, parks, green areas and so on, contain different … [Read more...]