Don’t Hold People Accountable—Do This Instead

Managers often miss the most important part of performance management conversations by focusing only on results and accountability, says Susan Fowler, author of the new book Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work … and What Does.  In an interview for The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Ignite newsletter Fowler recommends that managers shift their focus from holding people accountable…

Sticky notes of to do list on wall.

Making Employee Motivation Matter

In a recent online Forbes article, a start up CEO shares how he gets things done.  He explains the mechanics of creating his master to-do list each week and how he transforms his many big projects into smaller to-dos on his daily action plan. He says that the process he uses keeps the projects moving forward…

5 Ways to Help Improve an Employee Alignment Problem

My discussions with managers about employee motivation often center on getting employees to be more motivated for their work.  Managers then describe the reasons they need employees to be “more motivated.”   Usually it is to achieve the important goals (or tasks) for which they are responsible. But discussing motivation in terms of how much someone…

The Reality about What Really Matters at Work

Complete this sentence: In business, the only thing that really matters is _______. The answer to this entrenched belief is so obvious that at a recent speaking engagement, I had over 300 people spontaneously fill-in-the blank by yelling in unison, “Results!” I then asked them to consider the affect this tyranny of results has on…