Customer service and quality is highly talked about and rarely delivered. Consequently, many companies pay a high “marketing tax” to counteract damaged brand perceptions and bad buzz from poor customer service. Part of the problem is because service/quality is a very slippery concept. It’s exasperatingly difficult to define and a source of great confusion to […]
Read post »Are you concerned about building leadership skills in your organization’s supervisors, managers, or executives? Would you like to help leaders… Increase employee engagement by up to 8 times? Double/triple their motivation to implement a personal development plan? Build coaching and leadership skills around natural strengths? Make performance appraisals an inspiring event people look forward to? […]
Read post »My last blog “How Leaders Cause Their Direct Reports to Sink or Soar” gave examples and research on the power of expectations. The impact of teachers, coaches, parents, or manager’s expectations of the people they were leading on their performance has been well documented. “Leaders Have Great Expectations” reports on the pioneering work of Robert […]
Read post »“Tell me about the people at the organization you just left,” said the senior manager who was screening candidates to fill a key leadership role. “They were uneducated and lazy,” the candidate responded. “You always had to keep an eye on them because they were constantly trying to goof off or rip off the company. […]
Read post »As I was preparing my slides for next week’s coaching and leadership development webinar I rediscovered a powerful description of coaching I’d cited decades ago in one of my first books. In A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference, Nancy Austin and Tom Peters write, “Coaching is the process of enabling others to act, of […]
Read post »Are you interested in learning from world class leaders and practitioners in coaching and leadership skill development? Would you like insights to new and ground breaking approaches you can apply immediately and bring back to your organization? Do you want to see the latest research and practical applications that break traditional molds to produce measurably […]
Read post »Many managers either don’t address performance issues and negative behavior or do it poorly. Both cases lead to disengaged and demoralized team members. Survey after survey shows that a great source of frustration for most of us is not being given effective feedback when our behavior creates problems or performance falls short. It’s one of […]
Read post »Focusing on Strengths and Not Weaknesses Tricia is preparing for a performance review meeting with Tom. She’s very happy with his work and sees lots of potential for him to grow further in his role and move up to higher leadership roles. Tom is a strong communicator, good at building relationships, and inspires his direct […]
Read post »Ignorance may be bliss, but it’s deadly to leadership effectiveness. And it’s often the mark of a blind and weak leader. Feedback-impaired leaders often mistake compliance for commitment. They might, for example, proclaim an open door policy and when no one enters their office to raise problems, believe there aren’t any serious issues to be […]
Read post »We once worked with an organization where “coaching” was a term that meant reprimand. When a manager said to a team member “I’d like to give you some coaching” it created fear and anxiety. Coaching is a more positive term in most organizations. Many time-pressured leaders know this skill is pivotal to their team member’s […]
Read post »Many organizations have increased their efforts to strengthen the coaching skills of their supervisors, managers, and executives. That’s because of mounting evidence showing that coaching effectiveness dramatically improves employee engagement, levels of customer satisfaction, productivity, safety, and profitability while reducing turnover, absenteeism, and costs. Coaching skills have an especially vital impact on “volunteerism.” This is […]
Read post »Most of us intuitively know that leadership affects the bottom line. But how strong and clear is that relationship? Which leadership behaviors have the strongest impact on financial results? A key reason The CLEMMER Group decided to partner with Zenger Folkman is because of ZF’s evidence-based approach to leadership development. Rather than approaching leadership development […]
Read post »A University of Scranton study on New Year’s resolutions reports that 2/3 of Americans make one. 47% of these are “self-improvement or education related.” The study found that only 8% are successful in achieving their resolution! Many New Year’s resolutions are aimed at correcting our deficiencies or shortcomings. So is it any wonder that 92% […]
Read post »Happy New Year! To help you ring in 2015 with some fun and frivolity we asked our team to offer their favorite bits of “brain candy” and funny bone ticklers! Below are links to some amusing, clever or inspiring videos, podcasts, and website favorites from all of us to you. Enjoy! Video clips: Even monkeys […]
Read post »I am publishing just one blog post this week as I enjoy holiday relaxation with family and friends. So I’ve packed this blog post with enough resources to last the week! Here is a recap of our most popular resources over the past year. I hope you’ll have a little extra time over the holidays […]
Read post »After Ebenezer Scrooge has his life-changing Christmas Eve experience, he enthusiastically sets out on a new pathway to personal growth on Christmas Day. When he gets back to work what would you suggest he do to increase Bob Cratchit’s workplace engagement? In his entertaining and insightful Forbes column, “Lead Like Scrooge: The Surprising Research Results“, […]
Read post »We’re working with the leadership team of a multi-billion dollar project that’s critical to the future of the company. Through a series of offsite retreats with dozens of the top managers and key professionals we’ve developed strong alignment on core Strategic Imperatives for the next year. We’re now forming SI Teams and solid implementation plans […]
Read post »American president, Thomas Jefferson, once said “the glow of one warm thought is worth more to me than money.” Reinforcing feedback produces a powerful afterglow that raises the positivity ratio, energizes and inspires, and provides the pause that refreshes. This is the perfect time of year for you and your team to reflect back looking […]
Read post »One of my favorite Holiday traditions is watching numerous movie versions of Charles Dickens’ powerful classic, A Christmas Carol. The story centers on Ebenezer Scrooge a selfish, cold-hearted miser who cares only about maximizing his profits. Donald Duck’s uncle, Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character named after Ebenezer Scrooge. In those cartoons he’s the world’s […]
Read post »Employee engagement is a critical issue for many organizations. And for good reason. Highly engaged employees are more productive, less likely to leave, have lower absenteeism, create happier customers, contribute to safer workplaces, increase revenues, and decrease costs. A new research study from Zenger Folkman shows that many organizations are overlooking their most disengaged people: […]
Read post »