Many of you are finishing up year-end performance reviews and working with your team members to set goals for the coming year. But have you thought about how you’re going to help your staff keep working on target toward those goals? The key is to provide consistent feedback on their performance along the way. I […]
One Simple Strategy to Be More Effective as a Manager
People often ask me how they can be more effective as a manager. One approach I recommend is to meet one-on-one with each of your direct reports for 15 to 30 minutes at least once every two weeks. Having one-on-one meetings is a simple strategy and just plain common sense—but it’s not common practice, according […]
5 Keys to Connecting With Your People
I was talking with some friends at a recent morning men’s group. Our focus was on the importance of being connected to other people and what it means. We came up with five things we think help you really get connected to others—at work, and in all aspects of life. How would you rate yourself […]
Great Leaders Walk Toward Wisdom, Part 2
In my last blog I talked about walking toward wisdom as one of the four major areas of growth for leaders and aspiring leaders, along with gaining knowledge, reaching out to others, and opening your world. During your lifelong pursuit of wisdom, it is necessary to do a thorough self evaluation and also to be […]
Great Leaders Walk Toward Wisdom, Part I
As I continue on with the lessons from Great Leaders Grow, my latest book written with Mark Miller, you may notice that all three of the previously mentioned areas in which leaders must grow—gaining knowledge, reaching out to others, and opening your world—are lifelong pursuits. Our fourth way to assure growth as a leader, Walk […]
Is Conflict at Work Ever a Good Thing?
Many people assume that conflict in the workplace is always bad. But I think there are times when conflict is good—because if everybody always has the same opinion about everything, somebody’s not needed around here! I love to gather a team around me where people have different opinions and feel free to disagree with each […]
I try to be a leader but it seems no one is listening to me
This is a tough question that especially haunts younger leaders… If you think you’re a leader and you turn around and nobody’s following, you know what? There’s probably some feedback there that you can learn from. Why aren’t they following? Because your leadership might be all about you. People want to follow someone who appreciates […]
Should You Reprimand or Should You Redirect?
Before you give a reprimand—think! In many cases an employee needs to be redirected rather than reprimanded. In today’s workplace with constant changes in technology, people are continuously learning new skills. With all that learning, mistakes are bound to occur. For this reason, generally speaking, the need for redirection is much more prevalent today than […]
How to Evaluate Your Leadership Style
Today, I’m going to give a short, one-question quiz. Here’s the question: How do you rate as a leader? I don’t ask this question flippantly. It is a question I’ve asked countless people at the leadership seminars we conduct. As leaders, most people rank themselves as being very close to a minor deity or at […]
Feedback is Great Motivation
If you went around your office and asked each person, “Are you doing a good job?” what would be the answer? Would most people respond by saying either “I don’t know” or “I think so”? And if their answer was, “Yes, I think so,” and your follow-up question was, “How do you know?” would you […]