Dear Madeleine, I have been described as a high achiever—and a lone wolf—for much of my career. After more than 20 years as an individual contributor, I finally succumbed to the pressure to become a people manager. Here’s my problem. Most of my people are fewer than five years away from retirement and not very…
When you look at all of the stats pointing to the low levels of employee engagement in the US and around the world, you might start to believe that people are naturally lazy and disengaged—or that people wouldn’t work if they didn’t have to. But that’s not true. In fact, that kind of misinterpretation of…
A few months back, I asked a group of leaders for a show of hands on who had experienced either oversupervision or undersupervision. Almost every hand went up. But then I asked how many had themselves oversupervised or undersupervised their direct reports. Only one or two hands shyly peeked out from the crowd.
So what’s going on? Well, leaders can sometimes be unaware of what they should and should not be doing. And this lack of awareness separates good leaders from great leaders. Great leaders know that leading is a never-ending journey that can be filled with treacherous obstacles.
So what do you need to know to become a great leader?
Have you ever found yourself repeatedly procrastinating, not taking action on a task that needs to be done, or not having the boldness to act—even on a good idea? Or have you felt your energy drain away just thinking about an upcoming task, such as conducting performance reviews? Your motivational outlook is probably to blame,…
What is “Passion”? The dictionary says: “a strong and barely controllable emotion”; “a state or outburst of strong emotion”; and “an intense desire or enthusiasm for something”. Passion is the positive emotional state of mind – which drives a willingness to apply discretionary effort; long-term commitment; peak performance; and satisfaction. The Passionate Leader Leaders need to…
Employee engagement is a hot topic these days. According to a Gallup poll estimate, disengaged employees cost the US between $450 – $550 billion each year in terms of lost productivity. Could you be contributing to that figured by not finding out what’s truly meaningful to your employees? According to The Ken Blanchard Companies own…
If you’re not familiar with the term “quit & stayed”, it is the act of mentally quitting, yet staying in the same physical environment. More specifically, it’s the act of becoming disengaged in the work you complete, whether that’s for a business or just in general. Chances are that you work with one or more…
As I walked out the door of our air conditioned building to go to lunch, I stepped though a stifling wall of heat that took my breath away. It was high noon and the temperature was 95 degrees farenheit…a stunning 20-25 degree difference from the comforts of my office. At that moment, I felt my…