You Know You Can’t Motivate Anyone, Right?
Executives often ask me how to motivate employees who don’t carry out the things they’re asked to do, from behavioral requirements like showing up on time to work quality requirements like capturing customer source codes... Continue reading
How to Keep From Drowning in Your Own Thoughts
Are you stuck somewhere inside your head, talking to yourself about things you want to change? Are you stressing over how stalled you feel, or fixating on why the situation is so awful? No wonder... Continue reading
Who Should Be Responsible for Career Plans?
Not everyone wants to be a manager or should be one. Lots of people are more comfortable as subject matter experts, sole contributors, or administrators than as implementers. Not everyone needs multiple promotions to feel... Continue reading
Why This is the Time to Reassess the Annual Review
If you can’t draw a direct line from performance appraisal to performance improvement, then, seriously, what’s the point? Yet in many organizations, the definitions, criteria, and explanations for the annual review aren’t specifically pertinent to... Continue reading
Stretch Goals May Be Popular But Can Damage Your People
It’s demoralizing when you can’t seem to hit your targets -- even if your company’s still making money. In some companies, the compulsion to commit to stretch goals, unprecedented innovation, or drastic and immediate turnaround... Continue reading
Want to Give Good Service? You Need to Stay a Step Ahead
On Sunday morning, Daughter and I went to a local diner where the food is always good, but the service is often iffy. Our waitress had been somewhat unhelpful in the past, so I studied... Continue reading
Do You Suffer from These 4 Ways Colleagues Make Each Other Nuts?
You see your colleagues every day, or at least several times a week. You all get along, appreciate each other’s good intentions, and care about the company. And yet, some of your colleagues’ behaviors drive... Continue reading
This Is Why Good Leaders Want You to Call Home
Some time ago, James Altucher posted a piece on LinkedIn about bad leaders that I loved. The part I loved the most was his sixth point, relayed here exactly as he put it: “BAD LEADERS... Continue reading