I received a group email from a colleague the other day and I couldn’t stop laughing. The topic of the email was on communication and this is how he summed up his communications skills: “I love to hear myself talk. It’s nice to have others hear me sometimes, too.” He was joking, but it got […]
A few weeks back I spent a couple of days with a senior leader who wanted to develop his “leadership intelligence.” He has produced outstanding results in many ways and he has superb “technical skills,” but his people skills were suffering. As a result, his relationships were suffering as well. Great leaders produce great results in one or […]
Families and companies have a lot in common. After all, both families and companies are made up of people. That means there are plenty of opportunities for misunderstanding, unresolved conflict and power plays. On the positive side, there are plenty of opportunities for connection, collaboration and the option of sharing power. When we aren’t connecting, collaborating and sharing the […]
I had an interesting conversation with my client Paula* yesterday. The week before had been tough at work, and she was down on herself for not “doing better.” Then, yesterday, Paula was in a much different place and told me about all of the great things that had happened in a week’s time. Curious, I […]
Creating a culture of engagement isn’t a matter of rocket science–it’s pretty simple. It’s not that we don’t know what to do to solve our employee engagement problems–it’s that we fail to do what we know. For instance, most every leader knows how important it is to: Have a compelling vision Be someone we can […]
Nationwide CEO Steve Rasmussen was recently interviewed by businessjournal.gallup.com on employee engagement and said, “Engagement is a state of mind. People either are engaged or they’re not. You can feel it. I can walk into any company, and I can tell you in 15 minutes whether people are engaged or not just by talking to them. […]
A consulting colleague told me today about a four day leadership meeting he facilitated. Everyone was excited. The CEO had been talking the event up and made sure everyone knew he would be there ready to participate. But the leadership event came and went–without the top leader–and without any explanations as to why he wasn’t […]
“Employee engagement” is a hot topic in the workplace today–and for good reason. More and more “employees” are feeling stretched beyond their capacity, feeling under-appreciated and under-valued. (Please note that I didn’t say “under-paid.” For the most part, money isn’t the problem and more money isn’t the solution to the “employee engagement” problem.) Meanwhile, more […]
Perhaps you’ve bought into the myth that if you work really hard, work well with others, put in a few extra hours, do above average work, or get another degree, you’ll have earned a raise. Don’t be too hard on yourself—millions believe the same story. In order to earn a raise, you might or might not have to do all the above. I say “might not” because plenty of people get raises without working extra hours, getting along well with others, or doing stellar work. Huh? How is that possible, you might ask?
Our careers are important for many reasons. We spend a great deal of our life at work and it represents an investment of our talents, passions and desires to make a contribution. If you are like most people, you want to do work that is meaningful and that allows you to make a difference. It’s […]
