Don’t Forget the Big Picture When You Delegate Work

“Just tell me what to do.” “What is the task list?” “Can you give me a checklist?” “What exactly do you need from me?” Those are all smart questions that you hear from employees from time to time. For the sake of avoiding confusion and misunderstandings, we recommend that you provide employees with specific details

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The Danger of Evangelism

An evangelist. A zealot. And I don’t know your beliefs, but chances are you have a strong reaction to these words in one way or another. Because while the purpose isn’t questioned and the intentions aren’t out of line, the approach, in many cases, gets in the way of the goal. But today I’m looking

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It’s Time to Hire: Don’t Botch This Critical Task

Most leaders can cop to hiring the wrong person at one point or the other. Perhaps they were dazzled by an impressive resume and overlooked key requirements for the job. Maybe they were tight on budget so they hired someone on the cheap, when much more experienced (and expensive) talent was needed. They could have

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Changing Employee Behavior

If you have been a leader for more than a week, you’ve asked yourself questions like . . . “Why won’t they __________?” “Why did they do it THAT way? “What are they thinking? “Can’t they just _____________?” In every case, you would like them to change their behavior. I know this all to be

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5 Biggest Myths Regarding Employee Motivation

Only 32% of employees in the U.S. are engaged, according to Gallup Daily tracking, and in the 15 years since Gallup started tracking the metric, it’s barely budged. So despite the general awareness that people are disengaged, companies don’t seem to be doing much to help the situation. Unfortunately as a new supervisor, you can

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Become a Better Boss with Wally Bock

Leadership is an ongoing process and great leaders continue to learn because they are curious. They don’t necessarily learn from their experiences but by reflecting on their experiences. Kevin and Wally Bock discuss learning goals, relationships, and why to “not be the event.” Wally learned leadership as a U. S. Marine, an executive in a

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A Much Better Way to Delegate Work During Stressful Times

Busy is a good thing, but if your employees are stretched too thin, it could be hurting the quality of their work. You may not be able to add staff right now, but you can do one thing to ease their stress: Show your employees how to prioritize work assignments.    Conduct a workload assessment    

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Coaching Employees to the Next Level

So does this sound familiar? I have an employee who is doing OK, but they’re basically coasting – meaning, they aren’t doing anything to get them to the next level. How can I coach them to take that next step? Given the number of times we get this question, our guess is that you’ve asked

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Mandatory Training Doesn’t Always Improve Behavior

What happens when an employee or customer survey indicates that the supervisors, customer service agents, or senior management team needs to behave in different ways? Often, someone in the organization creates a mandatory training program to teach the supervisors, customer service agents, or senior management team new skills in the hope that knowing about the

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How to Rebuild Morale After Negative Events

Imagine these disheartening scenarios: Your department just suffered a round of layoffs and you need to rebuild morale. Your organization just lost a large contract and your staff is feeling deflated. A popular employee just quit and you are left to inspire others not to do the same. Those negative events and many others cause

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