Articles

The First Practice of FIERCE LEADERSHIP

It�s my opinion that today�s �best� practices of leaders not only fail to resolve the problems they�re meant to resolve or achieve the results they�re meant to achieve, they actually escalate problems. I�d like to recommend alternative practices to take their place. After all, reality has shifted and those who cling to old practices that no longer serve them and perhaps never did, will fail to ...

Leadership and Management in 2009: Why Some Companies Will Experience a Quick Recovery (and Others ...

The VP of Operations still had no idea how to plan for 2009. Communication from the top was as clear as mud. The company budget was supposed to be finalized by year's end -- yet still no word. News drifted out of the executive suite that the management team was still trying to sort things out. As a result, this usually confident, successful, motivated leader had no idea what to do. Feeling ...

How the Best Leaders Build Trust

Almost everywhere we turn, trust is on the decline. Trust in our culture at large, in our institutions, and in our companies is significantly lower than a generation ago. Research shows that only 49% of employees trust senior management, and only 28% believe CEOs are a credible source of information. Consider the loss of trust and confidence in the financial markets today. Indeed, "trust makes ...

Motivating and Retaining Employees

Employee retention is essential to maintain customer relationships and minimize recruiting and training costs. The keys to employee satisfaction and retention are founded on strong leadership and sound management practices. By mastering these arts, you should have happy, loyal employees and customers, resulting in growth, profits and personal gratification. Operating Systems The ...

Booing hurts both on and off the field.

By Rich Milgram, CEO, Beyond.com, Inc. I recently read an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer referring to comments, made by Philadelphia Phillies Jimmy Rollins (MVP 2007), regarding booing of teammates at Citizens Bank Park by the Philadelphia Fans. I grew up in Philadelphia and have watched Philadelphia sports teams enthusiastically since I was a little kid. Before my time, my ...

Employee Management Advice for Employers

A business organization is as good as the way it manages its employees. An employer requires comprehensive policies and procedures to enable the employer to fulfill its obligations towards its employees. Poorly designed policies or poor implementation can lead to prolonged legal battles that can prove to be expensive for the employer. Hence, it is necessary for an employer to invest in ...

10 Management Lessons

Over the past five years, as iContact and Virante have grown, I've learned a lot about managing people. A business amounts to little without the people behind it. The two most important things I look for when hiring are initiative and work ethic. I cannot overestimate the importance to the eventual success of your business of bringing on good people. But once you have hired these good people, how ...

Tips to Keep Employees Focused During the Holidays

The holidays are quickly approaching! Yes it�s the season of togetherness and joy but it can also be a very stressful time inside and outside the workplace. We have to worry about buying and wrapping gifts, sending out holiday cards to friends and business acquaintances, managing work schedules, and the list goes on and on. During this frantic time, it is very easy for employees to get ...

Beyond The Vision

Successful leadership is not just about having objectives, devising plans, enforcing rules, developing relationships and executing ideas; it�s also about knowing who you really are, how you�re wired, why subordinates respond to you the way they do, and what it takes to obtain the respect and backing you expect. This is the first in a series of articles that will examine three common ...

Want to Boost Employee Productivity, Quickly and Easily?

Benefit from the Hawthorne effect. This is a phenomenon first noted way back in 1924�several years before the era's leading "can-do" guru, Herbert Hoover, led the nation into the Depression. Elton Mayo set out to study the effect of lighting on productivity at a Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, Illinois. He divided workers into two groups. For the test group, he increased the ...

Teamwork and Management Greed: Speaking of Negative Motivation

Many managers extol and even demand teamwork then set up situations, which destroy any possible team spirit. Tip: Don't expect team players, if you haven't made it a team sport. If you want team play then set up competitions in which one employee wins and others lose, you aren't going to get team play. At least not among those employees. If some employees have to work ...

Leadership is Not a Day Job

For most people, work is a job. For leaders, it's much much more. Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, conducted an employee satisfaction survey when he was chief operating officer to gauge how happy his people were with their jobs. One of the general issues brought up among junior employees went something like this: "At times we're made to feel that we're lucky to work at the NFL. ...

How To Effectively Delegate

If you are honest, delegating effectively is probably one of the toughest challenges you face and you are not alone. Managers in all types and size of business avoid delegating for a a whole host of reasons. I wonder how many of the following you recognize:

� They don�t understand the need to delegate

� They lack confidence in team to do what they require

� They claim they ...

Communicating Corporate Culture

What is corporate culture? A commonly accepted definition of corporate culture is the personality of an organization. Put in concrete terms, the corporate culture is "how things are done around here." The culture of a corporation encompasses how decisions are made and how those decisions are communicated to employees? It includes how rewards are determined and punishment metered out. The ...

Managing Creativity And Innovation, Part 1 Of 2

Leaders, consultants and managers must be competent in at least thirteen domains to even begin effectively managing creativity and innovation. Part 1 of Managing Creativity and Innovation covers the first seven of these domains.

a) The difference between creativity and innovation. Often used interchangeably, the two must be thought of as separate and distinct. One definition for ...

Effective Performance Reviews

The performance review is the most powerful tool in a manager�s bag to improve productivity. The goal of performance appraisal is to establish clear expectations, reinforce good performance, and improve unsatisfactory performance. Performance reviews are essential components of effective management. So, it is very important to get it right. Informal performance reviews and feedback should be ...

How to Retain Your Best Staff

What makes top performers leave?

It�s initially thought that it�s for more money or better benefits.

But the truth is that it is usually because their managers chase them away. It doesn�t matter how great the company is, what the benefits are or the great perks on offer � if the immediate boss lacks the necessary skills to manage effectively, it�s highly likely performers will ...

Appraising Performance

While working for many years in the banking and healthcare industries, I noticed that many managers and supervisors detest writing performance appraisals. How do I know they detest these annual evaluations? They often don�t complete them on time and, in some cases, a manager may never complete them before moving on to his or her next role.

That resistance can stem from a number of ...

Effective Talent Management

When three leading magazines (Harvard Business Review, Business Week, and Training & Development) all have cover stories about talent management the same month, it is safe to say you are looking at a hot topic.

Talent management (the recruiting, training, and retaining of good workers) has had many names over the years, but it is certainly not new. While the topic is not new, how we ...

Eight Ways To Motivate Part Time Employees

In most cases, part-time employees present a special challenge when it comes to motivation. They do the �grunt� work, have little career choices, are often focused on other goals outside of your organization (college, hobbies, etc.), and are treated as outsiders by full-time employees. So what�s a manager to do? How do we turn our part-time employees into outstanding employees?

The ...