If you’re human, there’s been a time when you’ve tried to change something about yourself or your team at work or in your family and you’ve failed. Welcome to the club! If you’re a leader or manager, you can remember a time (or many times!) you wanted to pull your hair out trying to help someone […]
I’ll never forget the morning I was in an emergency meeting called by the regional sales manager for the very large and well-known company I was selling for many years ago. I drove to the meeting in a company car that was a part of my compensation package. I loved the company but wasn’t so […]
We’re in a challenging market that makes it harder for companies to find the talent they need. Now is the time every leader and manager should be thinking, “How can we improve the performance of the employees we currently have?” Given that, it’s time leaders paid more attention to the connection between happiness and human […]
Years ago I had a friend who sold life insurance. He didn’t really like it and he only made enough money to pay his bills. I suggested he find another kind of sales job; one he was better suited for and one he enjoyed. He insisted he just needed to be more disciplined and focused—that, […]
When it comes to “motivating” others (and ourselves) there are three well-known phrases I see and hear a lot: “Just Do It!” “No excuses!” “No one owes you anything!” As a former psychotherapist and now as a coach for the past decade, I have spent thousands of hours with individuals and couples and also with […]
A couple of weeks ago The New York Times ran a scathing article portraying the Amazon work culture as anything but a happy environment. Whether that’s true or not, the question of happiness in the workplace is on our minds again and that’s a good thing. We need to keep the conversation going because […]
Over the course of the past two weeks, I’ve had discussions with three senior managers about various challenges their organizations are dealing with. Or to be more precise, challenges the senior leaders are not dealing with. For instance: A middle manager with a history of claiming credit he’s not due—while denying credit to those who […]
I’m happy to feature a guest post from Bill Treasurer, Chief Encouragement Officer at Giant Leap Consulting and author of the book Leaders Open Doors. It’s a refreshing book on what makes extraordinary leaders and it’s a short read. Originally published at Thin Difference on 5/15/2013. Getting Real about Leadership – by Bill Treasurer […]
One of my all time favorite songs is “Stand By Me.” Whether it’s the original version by Ben E. King or Bono and Springsteen or others, the heartfelt plea of the song never fails to get to me. Here’s another one: “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers. Truer words were never put to music: Sometimes […]
According to the most recent research from Gallup, our “employee engagement” problem isn’t getting better. What is employee engagement and what does it mean to be engaged at work? Being engaged at work means you have an emotional connection to what you do and to the people you do it with and you’re willing to […]
