Leadership, motivation, and employee engagement are among the most discussed subjects in business these days. Various studies are available indicating a large portion of the workforce is not engaged and there seems to be no end to suggestions for how to motivate people. I’ve created this brief employee engagement survey… Read More »An Employee Engagement Survey
Employee coaching is a critical element of your leadership development. Good coaching is a key to effective team development, but it can be a difficult skill to master. Here’s an example of an employee coaching session that did not go well. … Read More »Is Your Employee Coaching Effective or Are You Just Talking?
O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! Robert Burns Improving leadership communication is a critical part of your leadership development. One way to be more effective is to understand what we don’t hear. With apologies to Robert Burns, we also don’t hear ourselves as… Read More »Leadership Communication: Did They Hear What You Really Meant
By Perry J. Martini, Ph.D. Most of us have fond memories of the fairy tales we read (or that were read to us) as children. They were entertaining, often times humorous, but without our knowing taught us important lessons for later life. One of the most universally read fairy tales… Read More »Why Set Goals?
Early in my leadership career, I was at a dinner with about 100 other Air Force officers. The speaker that evening was Colonel Mal Wakin, a long-serving professor at the Air Force Academy. The subject was ethics. Col Wakin presented an interesting question. There had been a cheating scandal at… Read More »Leadership Development: The Importance of Trust
Are you treating all your employees in a fair and equal manner? Those two words are often considered synonymous; Roget’s Thesaurus even lists equal as a synonym for fair, but understanding them as very different concepts is a critical leadership skill to embrace in your leadership development. I often write… Read More »Leadership Development – The Difference Between Fair and Equal
Recently, time management has been a recurring topic during my coaching calls with clients. Then at breakfast this morning I read a great article on conquering the email monster at Entrepreneur.com. This, of course, led me to read additional articles. The great thing for me is, when I call it… Read More »Time Management Link Roundup
Jill[*] was a little depressed when I spoke with her. She had just started a new job and should have been happy. She wasn’t. A little probing revealed that her previous supervisor, Jack, had made some negative, and completely unexpected, comments in her final performance report. Apparently, Jack didn’t like… Read More »Leadership Tips – The Courage to Coach
Some of the most effective leadership development happens outside of formal leadership skills training. A leadership peer group can be a terrific training opportunity. A difficult situation was developing in one of my teams. I was at a loss for just the right approach to deal with the issue. Fortunately… Read More »Continuing Leadership Development: A Leadership Peer Group
As 2015 faded into memory many of us raised a glass and sang Auld Lang Syne, even if we don’t know what the words mean. Then a new year began. Have you made your resolutions for the new year? Hopefully you haven’t. Here’s a better idea. First, review your goals, both personal and… Read More »New Year’s resolutions? Resolve to set real goals instead!