Last week a friend of mine shared a powerful link on YouTube by Daniel Pink and his work from his book Drive on motivating employees.  The message although not entirely new is shared well with subtle insights that are valuable to leaders.  For a long while now we have known that money is not the [...]

Ah meetings, you love them or you hate them.  Of course many meetings, if not most,   are poorly run. Isn’t that amazing after all the books and training classes on holding effective meetings they still can be painful and wasteful.  People have been making jokes about bad meetings for over a decade and yet they [...]

Today’s blog is  by our Program Director for the Coaching Cadre, Chuck Allen. Imagine getting paid a generous salary for this job: Comfortable window office New computer No one looking over your shoulder Generous deadlines Predictable eight-hour day Freedom to listen to music and surf the internet at your desk Sounds pretty sweet, huh? It’s [...]

Got a few emails from the previous post that I would like to address in general terms. Every company has these processes (Recruiting, Performance Management, Rewards, and Employee Development) in place.  But we all know from personal experience that some companies and some managers are better at implementing and leveraging these processes. If you are [...]

So if you want to magnetize yourself to attract, keep and leverage the best talent and high performers you need to start with the basics. And the best place to start is by maximizing the Talent Lifecycle process which includes Attraction and Selection, Performance Management, Individual Development and Rewards & Recognition. So here are a [...]

I am in the process of finishing up a presentation for an upcoming conference.  I have been asked to speak on ways how managers can become “Talent Magnets.”  Formally speaking, this topic is about how managers can utilize the talent lifecycle (recruiting, performance management, development and recognition) to get, develop and keep  the best employees [...]

The current economic downturn has been going on for a while and many indicators suggest that it will continue for quite a bit longer.  This is depressing even to type out.  It has been a long haul for sure.  I have seen firsthand companies responding to this reality with important measures including layoffs and/or reductions [...]

We all have heard the timeless saying “Think before you speak.”   And it is a good one to heed especially in our jobs.    It however has become more difficult through the past years to take the time to think things through as the pace of work has increased almost beyond comprehension.  Additionally, I believe along [...]

As was said earlier in this series, it can be hard for managers to get candid and honest feedback.  The bigger your title, the less of a chance people will volunteer feedback to you, especially tough feedback. Great leaders set the stage early with the people they work with–their boss, peers and direct reports– so [...]

An amazingly effective way to get feedback as a leader is by participating in a 360 Feedback process.  As most of you may know this is a formal process by which to gather feedback in a safe and anonymous environment from a variety of perspectives all around you, hence the term 360 from a 360 [...]