Many kids have already started back to school. Others will be heading back in the coming weeks. In the past, this was a time of joy for parents, almost a kind of a liberation that their kids were heading back to school Monday-Friday. That’s not the case now. For some, there’s still the financial stress

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Meetings can be a complete waste of time (and drain the life from your employees). But even when meetings are useful and necessary, spending hours in the same conference room week after week can make you and your staff a little stir-crazy. Consider these alternatives to shake things up: Chat with employees. You can discover

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There have been a number of stories in the news about workplace bullying. Most of them revolve around incidents of physical intimidation and threats. So, working from home seems like a good answer to the problem. But a recent conversation with someone brought something else to light: Can you be the victim of workplace bullying

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For some, delegation is like cod liver oil – it might lead to a good outcome, but it is so distasteful, they don’t try it. Others see delegation as the solution to all their time management problems – give the work to someone else, and all will be right with the world. Neither is the

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I talk with leaders nearly every day, and often I hear strains of angst and consternation about problems with their teams and team members. There is nothing wrong with identifying problems or issues. Unfortunately, too often after describing a problem, the conversation shifts to blame, frustration, and surrender. When we feel as if there is

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One of the most important things leaders can do is coach effectively. And leadership is leadership, whether you’re in the same place or not. So, it makes sense that remote coaching is one of the most critical jobs we have. It’s also one of the hardest parts of being a Long-Distance Leader. Our survey (you’re

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I love hearing people’s ideas. I love outside-of-the-box thinking, and I regularly—my teammates might think too regularly—ask for people’s input. So just to be clear, I want people to offer ideas. That said, I’m less than excited when people send ideas—and nothing more. They don’t offer any insight into how an idea will be executed.

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I don’t think firing employees comes naturally to anyone. Many new leaders avoid making this tough call. But keeping a poor performer on staff is detrimental to your bottom line as well as your team’s productivity and morale. Your staff knows when a teammate isn’t pulling his or her own weight, and that can lead

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For years, I have helped leaders think about and clarify their expectations for the performance of others. Without this clarity or a mutual understanding of those expectations, people don’t know how to succeed in their work. As important as this is, it is just the starting point. The band of excellence is a concept that

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While I mention Performance Reviews in the title of this post and throughout the video many times, that is NOT my biggest focus today. Today, I am talking about coaching and giving four specific pieces of advice to help you focus more on the coaching and less on the performance review. Tweet it out: Leading

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