performance

Leadership: There is No Substitute for Human Connection

March 1, 2011
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Or, “Don’t expect email to build trust”

One of my clients had recently started experimenting with how he responded to customer requests. His customers were co-workers —people internal to the company. He had been finding himself increasingly annoyed and impatient at their requests, and he wanted to change that.
To his credit, he knew most of the [...]

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You Mean I Knew What I Was Doing When I was 9 Years Old?

January 19, 2011
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I recently met a new colleague at a social media forum for  local business persons.  Through the course of our discussion Phil Woods told me his background in marketing started at age 9, in trying to find the right words to get customers to buy from his family’s business.  Hmmmmm.
It made me think about when [...]

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Employers Be Warned: Investigating Employee Complaints

November 28, 2010
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If you are interested in hearing about the top 2 areas of vulnerability for employers — the important reason you DO want to deal with”petty drama” and — the key to avoiding the fallout of employee complaints, then listen to this installment of Stephanie Thomas’s “The Proactive Employer: podcast. Stephanie and I discuss three kinds of workplace complaints…

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7 Down, 23 To Go – 30 Speeches in 30 Days

November 7, 2010
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Hello Everyone.  I’m furiously trying to catch up on my 30 Speeches in 30 Days Challenge.  Right now I’m experimenting with sharing some of my favorite posts, with the flair of the verbal delivery.
I would also love to talk to your group, live, via Skype, speakerphone or whatever you’ve got in store for me.  Check [...]

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Leadership: What We Can Learn from the Best Dance Instructors

November 4, 2010
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“A leader is most effective when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, [the people] will feel they did it themselves.”  ~Lao Tzu
I took a salsa dancing class a few years ago.  At one point I had the good fortune to be paired with the instructor.
[If you would [...]

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Managers: How to Ask Better Questions of Your Employees

October 29, 2010
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Had a long talk with a manager client today about asking good questions.  He sincerely wanted to have helpful one-on-one discussions with his employees, but he said, “I ask too many ‘yes/no’ questions. When they give me one-word answers, I get stuck.”  His excellent question was, “How do I transform my questions to get more [...]

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Managers: Do You Know the One Question that Can Improve Your Communications with Your Employees?

October 26, 2010
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Yesterday one of my manager clients was telling me about an interaction with an employee that did not go as expected.
He was assigning a project to Brenda — one he thought she would be interested in, and would be a real boost for her development.  He was enthused to be able to give this to [...]

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Managers: You Don’t Have to Carry Everything

October 21, 2010
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Many of my manager clients suffer from thinking they need to give everything their best.  And it’s really counter-productive for so many reasons.
It’s so perverse because it’s about very good intentions.  After all, who wouldn’t want to be their manager’s “go-to person,” or be known for being reliable, always cooperative, and agreeable?  Service with a [...]

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A Challenge from Naomi: “What Do You Do?”

October 7, 2010
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I was reading a post on IttyBiz (Naomi Dunford) that challenged readers to answer a very scary question. What do you actually do? Since I claim I’m fierce, I thought I’d try and give it a shot. Here goes.
What’s your game? What do you do? I speak, coach and train managers to help them [...]

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Managers to Employees: What Do I Talk to Them About?

October 1, 2010
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How to Learn Your Employees Motivations, Values and Skills & Begin Building a Relationship at the Same Time
I talk to a lot of managers.  As we talk about them being the leader they want to be, eventually they say they would like to get to know their employees better, and for all the right reasons.
They [...]

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Yes to Unvarnished Truth, No to “Unvarnished”

April 13, 2010
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I’m going to play my 2-year-old self today.  “No-no-no-no-NO.”  What brought that on?  Hearing the proposal for a new website called “Unvarnished.”  It allows for employees to be reviewed anonymously, for the world to see, with no way of removing a negative review.
Like the sites RateMyProfessors or RateMDs, the intention is to reflect a [...]

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Managers: What Are Your Good Intentions Costing You?

April 9, 2010
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Do You Know Diane?
Diane is both the supervisor and project team leader for her group. She is finding it hard to count on one of her employees, Robert.  He has a hard time juggling multiple priorities.  He gets bogged down to the point where he’s paralyzed and doesn’t know what to do next.  He shows up in Diane’s [...]

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