Stretch Out of Your Comfort Zone
For constant improvement, take a lesson from a baby – stretch out of your comfort zone. Why does a baby learn to walk? She gets bored. How does she learn to walk? She takes baby steps. First, she learns to stand, then bounce, then hang on to something and take a step. Eventually, she lets […]
Speaking Clearly – How to Make Your Point
As a leader, you have to communicate, persuade, and sell your ideas – and you do it all day every day. Maybe you’re speaking one-to-one with an employee. Or, you might be bringing up a motion for approval at a board meeting. And, how about those times when you have to step up to the […]
You Reveal Your Leadership Style When You Play
Sometimes you can get excellent leadership lessons from a fun little teambuilding game. If you think about it, you reveal your leadership style when you play. And play isn’t just for kids – it’s a great way to analyze and improve your leadership style. I attended a meeting over the weekend that had a “zoom” […]
Frustrating, yet Fortunate Failure
Waaaaa! She was really looking forward to the taste. She was so careful, but she dropped her ice cream cone. The specifics don’t matter. As a manager, you’ve been there. Maybe it was a project you tried, a job you wanted, or an event you planned. You worked. You prepared. Yet, you failed. Try to […]
5 Ways to Avoid the Great Resignation
Managers have always worked hard to keep their business fully staffed with trained people. Trying to keep just the right number of employees in the right positions to run your business is a challenge. But lately, you’ve found it harder to get good people and even harder to keep the ones you have. Let’s drill […]
The Simplest Way to Build Rapport
As a business leader, you know that building rapport paves the way to smoother relationships. It helps you benefit more from the people you contact. Want to know the simplest way to build rapport? I watched a young couple in a restaurant the other day and got a refresher course on how to build rapport. […]
Level Up People Skills in Your Team
You want your people to be friendly and service-minded to each other and to your customers. A smooth running operation is desirable, so people skills are important. Do you find it hard to schedule employee training time to hone and develop interpersonal skills in the workplace? People skills are essential to keep your teams collaborating […]
Don’t Treat Employees Like Employees
What makes good employees want to work for you? Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s the money. Employees grow accustomed to their wages very quickly, even after getting a raise. They see those wages as a fair trade for doing the basic job. So if you want to improve performance, don’t treat employees like employees. […]
Leadership Behaviors Affect Staff Development
Your leadership behaviors impact staff development and employee performance. Let me illustrate with this example from the world of grade school education. A pool of students, who all tested the same academically, were divided between two teachers. Each teacher heard a different backstory. One teacher learned that his students were the cream of the crop, […]