Blog Posts

6 Ways To Reduce Employees’ Stress During The Holidays

Employees’ Stress

Let’s face it.  The holiday season is a very stressful time, both at work and at home.  Great managers will be looking for ways to make the holidays a lot less intense for their team members.  Here are six basic ways of doing just that: Eliminate the pressure of “Secret Santa.” First, ask your employees if they want to discontinue this age-old tradition that often ends up being harder to execute than people expect.  Explain how forgoing Secret Santa gives the “gift of time,” since everyone will have one less gift to buy and wrap....

The Best Bosses Say These 9 Things

best bosses

Employee engagement is always greatly heightened by excellent communication. That’s why the most tremendous bosses use these 9 statements on a regular, and in some cases, daily basis. Start using these phrases regularly and watch your success as a manager take flight: 1. “Thank you.” As discovered when we did the key driver statistical research for my New York Times Best Seller, recognition is the number one driver of employee engagement. Furthermore, Millennials crave feedback and recognition. Make sure your recognition efforts are both consistent and meaningful. Your team members will really appreciate it. 2. “Regarding your career development, ...

The Top Three Reasons Employees Quit

reasons employees quit

You have seen it play out time and time again. Someone in the workplace says, “Hey, where is Mary today?” Someone else says, “Oh, she quit.” Or equally as common these days is when Mary just doesn’t show up for work one day. No notification, no resignation letter, and maybe no ID Badge turn in. The sad fact is that many of these resignations could be avoided by simply studying Exit Survey data and applying solutions to the top three reasons employees quit. While running my HR consulting firm from 1996-2012, we did a lot of research on ...

9 Lessons on Employee Engagement From Willy Wonka

Lessons on Employee Engagement From Willy Wonka

I was saddened to hear the news of Gene Wilder’s passing on August 29th, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease, a terrible illness that my Father has as well. Born on June 11, 1933, in Milwaukee as Jerome Silberman, Gene Wilder touched the hearts of millions as the character Willy Wonka, in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Although the film was not a commercial success, it later gained a cult following and an Oscar Nomination for Best Score. Wilder also earned a Golden Globe award nomination. In Wilder’s memory, I’d like to highlight nine best practice lessons on employee engagement ...

What is stuck in your workplace?

progress in the workplace

Ever notice how progress in the workplace sometimes moves at a glacial speed or seems totally stuck? If yours is like most workplaces in the world, you have not only noticed this, but found it frustrating. This blog promises to give you and your team a surefire way of getting things “unstuck” and back on track. It was one of the great managers at the last company I owned and sold (HR Solutions), Joe Collins, who prompted us to examine this by suggesting that we have regular “What’s stuck?” meetings. Brilliant. His suggestion got us right out of the ...

The Manager’s Employee Engagement Checklist

Gallup’s recent State of the American Workplace Study highlighted the single greatest thing you can do to increase employee engagement: hire the right managers. In fact, the study said that if you hire a manager who is disengaged, the workgroup they manage is three times more likely to be disengaged. So even if you hire the right, highly engaged managers, they still need to know, and do, the most effective things to bring their work group to higher, and hopefully best-in-class, levels of engagement. And even if they know these engagement management “to dos,” they often forget to implement them, ...

Behaviors and Traits of Best Bosses

Best Bosses

One of my most popular blogs this year was 19 Ways to be a Bad Boss. So I thought it would be equally as valuable to outline behaviors and traits of a Best Boss as well. As fortune would have it, I discovered a fascinating leadership study conducted by Lead Well LLC in partnership with Chicago-based Vantage Leadership Consulting. The 2013 study identified five common traits of a Best Boss: Leads From a Higher Purpose – The Best Boss demonstrates a purpose beyond self-interest and self-profit and/or a purpose beyond the organization that is put into action on behalf of ...

Becoming Someone’s Best Boss

Best Boss

Nearly every expert on employee engagement agrees there is a single, most impactful, means of increasing employee engagement and performance: the Manager. Taken from the Leadership Development workshops I conduct, here are the five simple ways to elevate the effect your managers have on your corporate culture and employee engagement. 1. Ask all of your managers to think of who their best boss was throughout their entire career. Have them write that person’s name down on a piece of paper. 2. Have them write down the three key qualities that made that person their best boss. 3. Encourage them to ...