Have you ever wondered who is responsible for employee engagement? The reality is, everyone is responsible for employee engagement, including you. Leaders do their part by ensuring they themselves are engaged and for creating a culture that promotes engagement. HR is responsible for partnering with leaders to help them understand and support their employees’ development…
It can be overly tempting for some recently hired leaders to want to put their stamp on the department or division that they’ve just been hired to run. This is particularly understandable when the business or unit has been underperforming. But with an all too common regularity I’ve observed new leaders enter successful situations and…
I have never fully bought the idea that the divide between the generations is all that wide. A little while back, I had the privilege of doing a keynote at the Sauder School of Business. In speaking with these future leaders and decision makers it really hit home how much more in common the generations…
In business, as in life, pernicious myths abound about what it takes to be a skillful leader. Perhaps the most common and odious one is that if you were a really capable leader you’d be able to figure out on your own whatever problem you were faced with. Sadly, many corporate training programs reinforce this.…
You’ve worked hard for your employer. You’ve been passionate about your job and have made many contributions. You’ve been recognized as a star player and are well thought of by everyone, team mates, bosses and customers alike. Yet, you’ve just been kicked to the curb by the new incoming boss. If you think this scenario…
From the file of WTH comes an interesting tidbit of research regarding surfing the web while on the job. Like many productivity minded bosses, you might think that such practices should be banned, similar to those ‘spandex’ days at work. In fact, while seeing your staff surfing the web might not make you happy, it…
Underlying most personal or leadership development efforts is the need to change some aspect of the way you do things. Whether it be learning to engage your team more effectively or improving how you handle difficult situations, some form of doing things differently on your part is par for the course. If you’re like many who venture down this road of self-awareness and growth, you may well underestimate just how difficult behavior change can be…and that can set you up for failure.
We’ve all been there. Ruts are no fun. In fact, they can be downright nasty, exacting heavy tolls on our productivity, health, and morale. They can be our biggest obstacle towards achieving our goals. While it can be easy to blame outside circumstances, the fact is it’s usually a reflection of our own occasionally skewed…
As a busy professional, putting out fires, conquering evil doers and making the world a better place is all in a day’s work for you. While this unfailing commitment to working on your company’s success is virtuous, it’s kind of a pity because you could add so much more depth and creativity with a mere…
Are you a scary boss? Chances are that if you are, you don’t mean to be. I hope. The problem is that if your team does somehow fear you they likely also don’t trust you. Fear is the enemy of trust and it is trust that underlies your ability to fully engage your teams’ talent.…