Featured Articles

  • Debunking the Myths of Remote Working

Courtesy of http://switchandshift.com/debunking-the-myths-of-remote-working

When Yahoo! famously disbanded its remote working program in 2013 it directed a lot of attention to the concept of employees working remotely. Contrary to Marissa Meyer’s actions, remote working has continued to grow in popularity.

Now, twelve months later, we thought it the right time to debunk some of the myths surrounding it and to offer advice on how it can be managed effectively. More...

  • Everything You Need to Know About Giving Negative Feedback

Courtesy of http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/06/everything-you-need-to-know-about-negative-feedback/

There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there on giving corrective feedback. If you really need to criticize someone’s work, how should you do it? I dug into our archives for our best, research- and experience-based advice on what to do, and what to avoid. More...

  • Busting 3 employee-engagement myths

Courtesy of http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2014/05/15/busting-3-employee-engagement-myths

I recently read another post about why people hate their jobs and what employers can do about it. The post, published in USA Today and titled “The Motley Fool: Why you hate your job” is just another mainstream media attention grab. It really contains very little from a fresh or new perspective. More...

  • Conversations and stay interviews are the work of a leader

Courtesy of http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2014/04/30/conversations-and-stay-interviews-are-the-work-of-a-leader/

I recently conducted a few exit interviews for clients, asking people about their reasons for leaving. What did they value about the organization? What advice would they offer that could benefit the organization? What would they like to see changed, if they were to want to come back? I asked these and other similar questions to help them reflect on lessons learned, and to help inform senior management about specific ways to seek continuous improvement. More...

  • Listening is Our Most Important Skill

Courtesy of http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2014/06/09/listening-is-our-most-important-skill/

A friend of mine, a key leader with a major insurance company, regularly comes around her desk when one of her team members comes to speak with her. She feels that sitting side by side rather than across a desk leads to a better discussion. Why? Because she is putting that person at ease, she is conveying that she genuinely cares about him, and she is listening intently to what he has to say. More...

  • 7 Roles of an Exceptional Team Leader

Courtesy of Let's Grow Leaders at http://letsgrowleaders.com/learning-development/7-roles-of-an-exceptional-team-leader/

Your strategy is only as strong as the ability to execute at the frontline. You can have all the great plans, six sigma workouts, and brilliant competitive positioning in the universe, but if the human beings doing the real work lack the competence, confidence, and creativity to pull it off, you’re back to muddling through. More...

  • 3 Simple Questions To Help Ensure Effective Employee Evaluations

Courtesy of Forbes Website at http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/12/02/3-simple-questions-to-help-insure-effective-employee-evaluations/

I’d argue that employee evaluations are one of the most important but misapplied elements of management. As a longtime corporate manager, I’d say the problem is most often management – not the evaluation tool itself, but the way that tool is used. more...

  • 5 Easy Ways To Motivate - And Demotivate - Employees

Courtesy of Forbes Website at http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/03/18/5-easy-ways-to-motivate-and-demotivate-employees/

With a recent national study showing that less than 1 in 4 non-management employees is fully engaged (aka, fully motivated and productive), there is, shall we say, ample room for improvement. And since an employee’s relationship with his or her direct manager is the single most important factor influencing engagement, the responsibility falls to management to improve motivational levels. more...

  • 90-Second Leadership

The main thing to remember is that leadership is NOT about position or title or authority. True leadership is about influence. While clearly a more complex relationship—you can in fact do so much more than just "manage up" or "manage your boss". You can truly go beyond simple tolerance and LEAD your manager and people at all levels of the organizations. It all starts with values, mission focus and setting the example. more...

  • 8 Steps for Prioritizing Work and Getting Things Done

Are you being asked to do more with less? Here are 8 simple steps to help you prioritize and stay on top of all your goals. more...

  • Disengaged Employees? Do Something About It

New data on employee engagement is in, and it’s downright discouraging. As this post by HBR’s Gretchen Gavett noted, Gallup’s research shows that engagement among US workers is holding steady at a scant 30%. This means seven out of ten people are either “checked out”, or actively hostile toward their employers. Seven out of ten. more...

  • Reduce Employee Turnover with Stay Interviews

What’s the best time to find out what your company can do to keep employees from leaving? It isn’t during the exit interview -- by then, it’s too late to effect change. To influence employee attrition and reduce employee turnover, managers must measure employee job satisfaction and engagement on an ongoing basis. Stay interviews, an interview in which employees discuss what they like and don’t like about their current position, can help reduce employee turnover rates. more...

  • How Employee Engagement Drives Growth

It's great when companies try to improve employee engagement and even better when they measure it. Measurement is the first step companies must take before they can implement meaningful actions to improve engagement. But if they don't measure the right things in the right way, those actions won't matter -- and they won't have a measurable impact on business outcomes or the bottom line. more...

  • A Low Cost Way to Improve Engagement — Give 'Em Goose Bumps

A number of years ago I received an unusual request from the AARP, an association headquartered in Washington, DC, dedicated initially to serving retirees and now (as fewer retire), older Americans broadly. Deeply committed to being an employer of choice, to having top-tier human resource practices, AARP’s progressive HR leaders asked me to audit their current employment policies. more...

Applying Employee Engagement to a Specific Business Problem

Courtesy of the Gallup Business Journal

Often when managers review and evaluate their team's level of engagement, they treat it like an annual affair. Employees take a survey, discuss the results with their supervisor, and commit to taking some actions. For the most part, the manager and the team deal with engagement in general terms not related to specific, real-time business problems. more...

 

  • Best Practices for Employee Onboarding - commongoodcareers.org

    Imagine it’s your first day at a new job. You arrive at an office where no one seems to be expecting you. After locating your workstation, you realize that no one has shown you how to log into your computer or get an outside line on your phone. You do not have a clear idea of what you are expected to do first in your new job. Your supervisor is nowhere to be found, and you are starting to question your decision to accept this position. more...