I’m a Girl Scout leader. They’re called Brownies here in the UK, and the girls are between seven and ten years old. I help run the activities the girls take part in. Last weekend, our Brownies went on an adventure day to a local woodland where they were tasked with building dens in the woods.…
Are your leadership practices based on outdated assumptions about the true nature of human motivation? Think about how you might approach leadership differently if you took into account some of the latest findings: – Our basic human nature is to thrive. No one wants to be bored and disengaged. People want to contribute. People appreciate meaningful…
Most leaders began their careers as high functioning individual contributors. They had their sphere of responsibilities and took pride in their ability to accomplish tasks. They were self-starters effective at how to get work done. These qualities likely contributed to their eventual promotion into a management role. But when they became a manager, their role…
What is it about the word why that makes people so defensive? Perhaps it’s because we believe we have to defend our position. Perhaps it’s because of the way it is sometimes said with a certain tone. Or maybe it’s because we find it irritating when our small kids relentlessly use this word. I remember…
Dear Madeleine, I am a relatively new manager at a not-for-profit organization. During my first two years working here, my boss told me exactly what to do all the time. A classic micromanager, he constantly breathed down my neck. He left the organization and I now I report to the woman who was his boss.…
This Coaching Tuesday guest post is from Blanchard network coach Antonio Estrada. I recently coached an ambitious sales person with ten direct reports after he attended a three-day Managing People workshop customized for his employer by The Ken Blanchard Companies. This leader was very busy, working an average of twelve hours a day. Due to…
Dear Madeleine, I’ve been in my job for 18 months and I’m good at it. I’m basically pretty clear about what I’m supposed to be doing, and I know my coworkers see me as dependable. My problem is that I can’t get any time with my boss. I send emails and leave voicemails with questions,…
Recent research into motivation has shown us that, at least in the corporate world, we don’t have the complete story. In their latest column for Training Industry Magazine Ken Blanchard and Scott Blanchard share that typical variations of the carrot and the stick—money, incentives, fear, or goal pressure—either don’t work very well or don’t have…
Carrot and stick motivational schemes may drive short term compliance, but they don’t work very well when it comes to increasing long term performance, retention, effort, endorsement, or even intentions to be a good organizational citizen. That’s what researchers at The Ken Blanchard Companies found when they looked at the impact different motivational outlooks have…
Motivation expert Susan Fowler believes that leaders are spending too much time trying to fix disengagement after it occurs instead of questioning the approaches to motivation that may have led to it in the first place. In a new article, Missing the Point on Motivation, Fowler stresses not to wait until people have become disengaged…