Don’t Forget Self Care: Four Ways to Take Better Care of Yourself

Is your energy tank running low?  Will you tough it out? Or, do you follow the old adage all travellers know: always put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others. We make choices every day that can either promote or hinder our well being. Follow these four simple suggestions, fill up your energy tank and feel refreshed.

Returning to the Office Provides an Opportunity to Demonstrate Trust

Sending people home at the start of the pandemic was a great trust experiment. The good news is the ‘experiment’ was a great success! As time moves on do we continue to build in this direction or do we go back to what was? How are you planning on progressing into the future? Read blog now.

Amid Constant Change, 3 Fundamentals of Leadership Remain the Same

Monumental change is happening in workplaces all over the world, but leaders must be as consistent as ever in the basics of supporting and caring for their people. In this article we visit 3 leadership fundamentals for helping your people and your organisation to thrive.

Legendary Customer Service: As Important as Ever

In this day and age, sales is a tough business—but customer service doesn’t have to be. Research shows that customers return because of the way the people or organisation providing the product or service make customers feel—before, during, and after the transaction. Sounds simple enough, right? In this blog we introduce you to a fresh way of thinking about the way you serve your customers. Read blog.

Don’t Call It Return-to-Work—Call It a Needed Conversation

Is it time for your organisation to return-to-office—and to what degree should you accommodate employee preference. How do you develop a strategy that both addresses safety and shapes policy? How do you flex and have conversations with your employees when preference and policy aren’t aligned? This blog should assist.

Succeeding with Your Post-COVID Re-entry Plan

The success of your return-to-work plan will be decided by your employee and manager cultures. If they want it to happen, it will happen. If they don’t, nothing will happen. You need your culture to roll with you, protect both return-to-work and future-of-work strategies. How are you standing up to the changed realities of these times? Learn more.

6 Strategies to Build Trust in Your Post-Pandemic, Return to The Office Plan

With COVID restrictions beginning to ease organisations have already announced plans to return employees back to the office full-time. Some are looking at a hybrid arrangement while most are still trying to gain clarity on their post-pandemic plans. Regardless of where your organisation falls on that spectrum, one thing is certain – This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for organisational leaders to build trust in significant and profound ways. Here are six strategies to help you develop, communicate, and implement a plan that results in building higher levels of trust with your employees. Read Blog now.

Servant Leadership: 11 Questions to See If People Would Consider You a Servant Leader

If you’re here to be served, you think leadership is all about you. You expect people to follow and obey, you don’t see any need for feedback or discussion, and you believe it’s your job to keep people accountable then THIS BLOG IS NOT FOR YOU.

Rediscovering Servant Leadership: 3 Key Practices

Maria Pressentin, Head of Learning and Organisational Development at The Ken Blanchard Companies hopes the three principles discussed in this blog will help you not only in your own leadership studies but also as you consider servant leadership for your organisation. What are these principles?

Becoming a Best Boss

People typically describe their best boss as someone who always had their best interests at heart, set them up to win, and was caring, motivating, and empowering. Are you a boss who is prepared to help your people at the level they need. Not sure, then read this blog. 

Are You a Servant Leader and Don’t Know It?

Robert Greenleaf first coined the term servant leadership in 1970 and published widely on the concept for the next twenty years. Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela are examples of great leaders who practiced this philosophy. If you think you couldn’t be in that kind of company, read on!

Overcoming Assumed Constraints: Activating Your Points of Power

Do you have stuff that gets in your way to achieve your professional dreams? Do they get you down and limit your ability to achieve your gaols? There are ways forward. In this blog we identify skills you can master to help you get out of your head and get out of your own way.

Use 5 Coaching Skills for Navigating Organisational Change

Taking a coaching approach to navigate organisational change could increase success with your next change effort. In this blog we focus on some tools a leader can use when managing a team through change. Read blog now.

Leading from a Distance: One Year Post COVID

Remote working will not go away after COVID, and organisations will need to transform how they manage their workforce in several important areas. This blog discusses these areas. With the number of employees permanently working from home to double from pre-COVID times are you ready to lead from a distance?

Don’t Forget to Address These Five Concerns When Leading Change

People who are going to be impacted by a change should be involved in planning and implementing the change. High involvement strategies will increase the odds that you will be successful. Would you like to learn more? Read this blog.

Leading Change? Keep These 3 Personality Traits in Balance

Leaders who succeed at leading change cultivate courage, patience, and determination in the right amounts, at the right time. In this blog we ask you to consider these three traits in your own change efforts.

Engaging in Your Employees’ Development

Are you a stakeholder who could increase your involvement in your employees’ development? Or perhaps you are an employee who could benefit from more attention from your manager regarding your development? In this blog we provide some ideas for getting started.

Use the CARE Model to Serve Customers at a Higher Level

When an organisation delivers with such excellence and consistency that its service reputation becomes a competitive edge, that’s Legendary Service. It starts with leaders serving their people at the highest level, so that people on the front line can in turn serve their customers at the highest level. We call these types of leaders service champions. Are you a service champion?

3 Prerequisites for Earning the Right to Coach Others

In today’s workplace, business leaders are encouraged to coach their direct reports. To do this, leaders must develop a coaching mindset—a mindset that looks for the potential in others.  In this blog we provide four ways to get started.

The Leader as Coach — 4 Ways to Develop a Coaching Mindset

In today’s workplace, business leaders are encouraged to coach their direct reports. To do this, leaders must develop a coaching mindset—a mindset that looks for the potential in others.  In this blog we provide four ways to get started.

5 Ways Coaching Can Support Leadership & Development

Like most leaders, you may be struggling to find the best way to lead your people right now. Shouldering the responsibility of making tough decisions and taking on new challenges singlehandedly can be especially difficult. Having the encouraging support of others now is needed more than ever before. In this blog we consider ways how coaching could help you and those in your organisation. Read blog now.

Rules, Yes—but use Compassion and Common Sense

Is your business customer focused? Is your business innovative, adaptive and creative when it comes to customer service? Or is it like what Patricia Overland experienced at her supermarket. Read this blog and you decide.

Don’t Make Assumptions About Team Behaviour

Have you had team leadership experience? Was it a positive experience? Leading a successful team requires clarity, communication, and a process. Unfortunately, most people have never been trained in any of these. In this blog we identify the skills you need for your team to succeed. Read blog now.

Creating A Compelling Vision for Your Team

Good leadership starts with a vision. If you don’t know where you’re going, your leadership doesn’t matter. If your team is working without a vision, take the time to create one. This blog explains why investing in the creation of one is a good idea. Read now.

Presenting Your Training Initiative to the CFO

As gatekeeper of the financials, it’s the CFO’s job to ask the questions. It’s your job as the learning and development professional to come prepared when presenting to the CFO for budget allocation for training initiatives. How do we increase the odds of CFO approval? Read on.

7 Ways to Promote Healthy Team Debate

Do you confuse collaboration with simply getting along or being polite? Do you shy away from conflict or debate? Are you afraid to speak your truth? In this short blog we provide 7 ways to encourage healthy debate within your team. 

Stepping Boldly into 2021

“Business success doesn't happen by accident,” says Scott Blanchard, president of The Ken Blanchard Companies. “It happens when there's a clear strategic direction combined with strong operational leadership that brings that strategy to life." What are the strategies that leadership, learning, and talent development professionals can use to guide their organisations to greater success in 2021? Read this blog to find out.

5 Reasons You Need an Accountability Partner

An accountability partner can make the difference between someone who succeeds in their professional growth and development and someone who loses focus. What is an accountability partner, and what could you achieve with an accountability partner in your corner? Read this blog to find out.

An Open Letter to L&D Leaders: Reflections on the 2021 Trends Report

Did you watch our recent 2021 Blanchard HR/L&D Trends Report webinar? It was a surprisingly moving experience for our presenter Jay Campbell. More than 1,000 L&D professionals participated in this years survey. Your responses and comments painted such a vivid picture of the past year. It’s clear that so many of you took the hero’s journey, overcoming challenge after challenge in 2020. Read blog.

Learning and Development Trends for 2021

One thousand leadership, learning, and talent development professionals took part in The Ken Blanchard Companies’ 2021 HR/L&D Trends Survey. The analysis of the data is complete. This blog reveals some of the results.

Diversity Beyond Lip Service by La’Wana Harris

True change will take place only when people make a fundamental shift in how they approach diversity. Harris explains that to build a sustainable culture of inclusion, we all must become aware of our own biases and then do the self-work to move forward with actions that have a positive impact. Want to be part of the solution? Read blog now.

5 Strategies for Surfacing and Resolving Concerns about Change

Constant change is a way of life in organisations today. How do managers and leaders cope with the barrage of changes that confront them daily as they attempt to keep their organisations adaptive and viable? In this blog we provide 5 change leadership strategies and their outcomes describe an effective process for leading change. Read blog now.

Manager as Coach: Honouring Personal Intuition

As if the job of managing people in the workplace isn’t difficult enough, and adding in the recurring need to coach them through challenges and issues may seem daunting. The skill of coaching is not one that comes naturally to most of us, but it’s a competence most leaders can learn and master. There are tools to help. Interested to know what they are? Read this blog.

4 Ways To Gain Power and Use It For Good

𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿. The word itself evokes a reaction. The way we use power is what determines its value. But what is power? How do we get it? And once we have it, how do we keep it? Are you interested to develop and sustain power in a way that allows you to influence others to make a positive difference? Read this blog.

COVID Has Set the Stage for L&D Reinvention

COVID-19 has caused a lot of less-than-optimal virtual training to be developed. However, to create truly memorable learning experiences, we need to be thinking about more complex architectures that look at ways to maximise existing resources and technologies. What can we do? Can we rethink this?

4 Ways to Provide Individual Attention Like a Coach

For most, if not all organisations, their employees are their number one asset. This makes the wellbeing, the engagement of employees very important. Is engagement an issue in your organisation? Consider some of these ways a coach provides individualised attention to those they serve. Read blog.

4 Keys to Great Customer Service

Do you consider taking care of customers is the responsibility of every person, not just people who work on the front line of your business? Most businesses recognise the need for great customer service–but few really get it right. Organisations that have a true service culture look at customer service from three equally important perspectives. Want to know what they are?

It’s Time for a Trust Tune-Up with Your Remote Team

Whether your team has performed with flying colours during this pandemic, or if they are clearly in need of help, there is no better time than now to do a trust tune-up. The only way to know if your team has high trust is if you measure it. If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it. To help you in this effort, we’ve included in this post a survey you can use to gauge the level of trust in your team. Read blog.

Leadership Development: Finding Your Place in the Digital Future

COVID-19 saw a rapid change from face to face to virtual production in the learning community, and not all learners responded favourably to what was created for them. It’s important to step back and consider all of your design options. Where is your place in the digital future?

Creating Authentic Executive Presence

Our true authentic self already exists within each of us. Are you on your career path following your true internal compass? Not sure? This article may provide some clarity.

Your Managers May Not Be As Trusted As You Think They Are

How can an organisation have a problem with low trust yet none of its leaders consider themselves untrustworthy? Are you as trustworthy as you think you are? Like any leadership skill, the ability to build trust can be learned and developed. Are you ready to learn?

The Power of Clear Expectations–Identify What and Who

When leaders set clear expectations, outcomes are much more likely to hit the mark. And it’s just as important for leaders to set milestones en route to the outcome. Do you keep your people on track, provide support and redirect when needed so they do their best work and hit their deadlines? Read blog

Developer of Others: The Leadership Competency That Makes the Difference

It is an accepted truth that training is more effective when the manager is involved. How can managers support direct reports who are going through a learning and development or coaching journey? Here are some ideas.

6–Week Online Class Provides Better Experience than 1–day Classroom Design, says Industry Expert

Recent technology advances have made it a lot easier to create the type of collaborative learning experiences today’s organisations are looking for.  By creating a richer experience technology enables the mindset and provides the skillset to put the new learning into action. Like to learn more. 

5 Keys to Leading in the Great Acceleration

“Compared with the Industrial Revolution, we estimate that this change is happening ten times faster and at 300 times the scale, or roughly 3,000 times the impact.” What change are they talking about and how does this effect leadership? Read Blog Now

Learn How to Master Your Motivation with Susan Fowler

Do you ever wonder why you reach some goals easily and struggle with others? In her latest book Susan Fowler fashioned a condensed description of three basic needs we must create in our lives in order to master our motivation. What are these needs?

4 Key Elements of Emotional Intelligence–A Coach’s Perspective

Have you ever interacted with a person with low EQ? If you have, it’s safe to say the interaction may not have been very pleasant or productive. How good are you at adapting your behaviours and leadership styles to create productive interactions? Like to learn more?

15 Attributes of Great Managers

What are some of the attributes a great manager should either have of be working on? Here is a list of 15 attributes that serves as a good starting point—these suggestions are taken from notes that Blanchard coaches have made from what they focus on during coaching calls.

The Coronavirus: An Unexpected Opportunity to Change the Way We Change

The coronavirus pandemic upended our world in a matter of weeks but it has acted like a microscope by magnifying how courageous, curious, agile, and resilient we (individuals and organisations!) can be. It gives us new ways of thinking about how and where work gets done. What are some of the lessons we’re learning? Click here to find out.

Building Your Conversational Capacity

“In our rapidly changing world, everyone's scrambling to figure out how to work together in this new context. How do we work together in a virtual environment? How do we provide valuable service to our customers? What does the future hold, and how do we prepare for it?” Click here to find out. 

3 Ways to Meet People Where They Are on New Tasks and Processes

Your goal as a leader if to keep the conversation flowing. That’s the secret to productivity–clear goals, people aligned on performance, and being able to diagnose and then give what is needed to ensure they get the job done. Here are 3 ways to help you get this done.

The Best Way to Show You Care during Difficult Times

The best bosses care about each direct report as a person. They see something the person doesn’t see in themselves. That’s especially important today with everything we are facing in our lives. As a leader, how can you demonstrate this caring behaviour? Click this link to find out.

The Top 5 Characteristics of Servant Leaders

In their academic paper identifying primary characteristics of Servant Leadership, researchers Adam Focht and Michael Ponton share the results of a Delphi study they conducted with scholars in the field of servant leadership. The five most prominent servant leadership characteristics are raised in this blog.

Leading Others in a Disrupted World: 5 Coaching Mindsets

With all of the change and disruption in today’s world, leaders are being asked to lead their teams through new situations never navigated in modern history. It can be overwhelming when everyone is looking to you for the answers. Leaders can take a cue from the coaching world on serving people and meeting them exactly where they are. Here are five things that can help you coach in a challenging time.

Remember to Fly The Airplane – 5 Principles for Leading in a Crisis

Much of what we face as organistaional leaders during the coronavirus pandemic is out of our control. Yet we can prioritise the key issues we need to tackle, decide which options are the best course of action, collaborate with each other effectively, communicate with clarity and purpose to our teams, and the see the job through to completion.

Here are five key principles from Captain Sullenberger’s experience of successfully executing an emergency water landing, that we can all apply when leading in a crisis.

9 Frequently Asked L&D Questions about Creating Learning Journeys

Blanchard solutions architect Britney Cole, in an online session shared three keys to learning journey success. At the end of Cole’s presentation, she held a Q&A session with the L&D professionals in attendance. Here are 9 questions from that session, with Cole’s responses.

Nine Lies About Work with Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham believes some basic assumptions about work are simply no longer true in today’s business environment. He shares his insights in his latest book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World, coauthored with Ashley Goodall. Click to read blog.

Leading in the New Normal

“Change is an inescapable fact of life—at home and at work,” says bestselling business author Scott Blanchard. “But it’s how we react to change that makes all the difference. We can choose to ignore the change, lament the way things used to be, or deal with the new reality, find some firm ground, and move forward.” Read more!

7 Steps to Virtual Training Success

Venturing into virtual territory without a road map for success can lead to a bumpy and uncertain journey. Although virtual delivery differs from classroom delivery, there are similarities. Click here for a few simple guidelines that will ensure success with your next (or first) virtual venture. 

Infographic: Developing and creating successful online learning

Content developers and Learning and Development professionals alike are jumping on the digital learning bandwagon. And with good reason. Click this link to download a highly informative infographic and find out why.

Engaging Your People Through Virtual Learning

Virtual learning has become mainstream and when done effectively, organisations find it can reduce time away from the office and decrease the cost of training by eliminating the need for travel. Studies show virtual learning can also reduce instruction time, save energy, and increase the learners’ retention of the content. To learn more click here. 

7 Common Reactions to Change and how to Respond to Them

For L&D professionals, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased the pace and importance of creating flexible learning options for people, but may of us have a lot of emotions and assumed constraints around change. In this article we have a  change exercise. Interested to learn more?

Managing a Multicultural Team. It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it!

It is easy to confuse leadership style with communication style but did you know that research shows that organisational culture is actually a much stronger driver of leadership behaviours than is country or regional culture. Like to know more click here.

Improving Leadership One Conversation at a Time

Do you have bad communication habits that prevent you from having the types of conversations that bring out the best in your people? If you do, and you want to do something about it, this is for you. Click this link. 

Is a Hyper-Connected Work Environment Causing Bad Management Habits?

In today’s extremely busy, always-on work environment, communication is often driven by what needs to get done right now. How can you get productive communications happening between manager and direct reports to develop competence, motivation and confidence? Click this link.

4 Types of Team Conflict—And How to Deal With Each Effectively

Can you differentiate between the different types of conflict teams experience? Do you have a plan for helping the passionate people in your team to move forward? Need some help? Click this link.

Focus on Who, In Addition to What, When Designing Learning Journeys

“Instead of going right into solutioning, it’s best to understand the person being designed for. We’ve been used to designing for stakeholders and sponsors and their vision on the learning journey. Rarely have we had the end user in the room.” What can this mean for learning design?

Where Companies Go Wrong with Learning and Development

Can companies go wrong with Learning and Development?Organisations spent $359 billion globally on training in 2016, but was it worth it? Not when you consider the following: Click this link to read more.

The 1 Factor That Determines How Hard Your Team Works

High performing teams are a joy to watch, aren’t they? What causes some people to fully commit to the team and give their max effort while others don’t? Click this link to find out.

Engineers, Programmers, Scientists: Start Here to Lead a Technical Project Team

Do your engineers, programmers or scientists have a charter? How can you get your experts to agree to one and make it work for your team and organisation? Click this link to read more.

2020 Leadership Development Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities

“There’s a lot to unpack in The Ken Blanchard Companies’ 2020 HR / L&D Trend Survey,” says Scott Blanchard. The challenge, according to Blanchard, is how to identify the leadership, learning, and talent development patterns in the data and discern how those patterns could influence planned leadership development initiatives. Want to read more? Click this link.

3 Ways Coaching Can Help Teams and Work Groups

Sometimes coaches are hired to facilitate team performance. When coaching in a team setting, there are three principle objectives to focus on. Click this link to learn what they are.

2020 HR and L&D Trends: 12 Expert Predictions

HR and L&D experts are already predicting that a changing landscape will require new thinking and strategies for the coming year. Here are 12 of the most recent predictions about changes in the work environment and what’s needed to successfully meet these challenges.

Are You and Enabler Boss? 4 Steps to Developing Your People Instead

Are you regularly asked by members of your team for details on how to perform a task? Do you tell them again and again–or worse do it for them? Click here if you would like to set your people up for success?

Taking a Heart and Head Approach to Integrity

Are you able to create the opportunity for greater integrity in your life? Rather than using your mind to have the last say in all your decisions, can you allow yourself to check in with your heart, your body, and your soul? Would you like to expand the use of all aspects of yourself ? Click this link.

3 Things to do when you are Failing

Have external factors seriously derailed your plans? Do you want it all fixed and gone out of your life? If you are faced with something similar you should be doing these three things. Click this link to find out what they are.

Proving the ROI of Leadership Development

Senior leaders mostly want to know that the money being spent for development initiatives is having a positive impact on the bottom line. There are actions you can take that can make the process of showing the financial impact of training easier. Want to know more? Click this link. 

Taking a Top-Down, Bottom-Up Approach to Leadership

Leadership works best as a partnership, with managers and direct reports working together toward achievement of company goals. But most organisations only focus on one half of that partnering equation. Do your direct reports speak the same language as management? Are your direct reports skilled in asking for what they need to succeed? To answer these questions click this link.

7 Tips for Letting Go as a Manager

Are you a leader that recognises the importance of delegation and how it can serve you, but still struggle with letting go. In order to free up space to be more strategic, have a greater impact, be more efficient, and achieve work/life balance, delegating appropriate tasks to others is necessary and even required for managers today. Click this link to start letting go.

Goal Setting, Mental Toughness, and the Manager’s Role

Managers who are effective at goal setting with their people keep two things in mind. The first is “the big picture” and the second,”the short term”. There is a third thing. Know what it is? Click here to find out.

Building Conversational Capacity to Address Conflict in Today’s Work Teams

Team leaders can facilitate constructive, learning-focused dialogue about difficult subjects by balancing candour and curiosity.  Click this link to learn how? 

New Managers: Are You Having Trouble Letting Go of Old Habits

How have you dealt with moving from a high functioning individual contributor into a management role? The move requires a significant change of focus from the tactical to the strategic. Have you made the shift? Here are some suggestions to help make the move.

Stop Taking on Other People’s Problems—3 Tips from an Executive Coach

Do you take on “monkeys” that aren’t yours? Click this link for a couple of tips that managers can use to help their direct reports deal with their own “monkeys” and solve their own problems and tasks.

Not Feeling Confident on That New Task at Work? 5 Ways Your Manager Can Help

Confidence is a belief in one’s ability to succeed. It comes from within and must be nurtured. To build a direct report’s confidence on a specific task, a manager should follow some simple steps. What steps are these? Click this link to find out.

Suffering from Burnout? 3 Ways to Get Yourself—and Your Team—Back on Track

If much of your work consists of tasks you don’t enjoy doing, you may find yourself getting frustrated and beginning to dislike other things around you. Here are for three things you can do to help move past it.

Leading Effectively from Start-up Growth to Maturity: Identifying the Four Stages of Development

Ken Blanchard believes that senior leaders need to diagnose the development level of their organisation before they consider how to best manage performance. The leader’s role is to diagnose where the organisation is at any given stage. How does this work?

Reduce Turnover with One Simple Management Technique

Any organisation can begin to improve employee engagement by implementing a simple and practical strategy. This one technique will immediately increase the frequency and quality of conversations taking place between managers and direct reports. Make this relation critical.

Don’t Underestimate Your Points of Power at Work—5 Places to Look

An essential mindset for achieving your goals and contributing to the goals of others is recognising and appreciating your power at work. This transformation begins by recognising an important truth about power: not realising our own points of power may be one of our greatest assumed constraints. Identify your strengths. 

Resilience at Work—Focus on Thriving, Not Just Surviving

"Resilience at work is about thriving—not just surviving", says David Witt. We need to provide conditions that let people and organisations thrive and flourish with meaningfulness and purpose. Bring out the best in your people.

Leading by Serving—5 Essential Ingredients to Becoming a Leader People Want to Follow

Regardless of their formal title or position, people who want to be great leaders must embrace an attitude of service to others. There are at least five critical ways leaders must serve if they want to be as effective as possible. Click this link to discover what they are.

Don’t Confuse Collaboration with Being Nice: 7 Ways to Promote Healthy Team Debate

For leaders interested in taking some first steps toward improving collaboration in their organisations, here are seven suggestions—for promoting healthy debate in your organisation.

4 Basic Human Needs Leaders Must Meet to Have Engaged Employees

Everyday the spirits of millions of people die at the front door of their workplace. Only 20% of people say they are truly passionate about their work, and the rest are still being paid to under perform and ultimately undermine the effectiveness of your business. What can you do? Here are four basic “needs” that can keep your people passionate and engaged.

Do You Focus on What’s Wrong-or What’s Right?

Managers sometimes have difficulty focusing on both people and results. You don’t have to chose between one or the other. Here are some points to help any leader focus on helping people develop and move forward with planned actions.

4 Questions to Help You Clarify Your Core Values

Have you lost focus? Do you need to get back on track? Are your values being compromised?  Perhaps a values identification process can help you with your choices. It’s time to ask yourself a few questions.

4 Key Conversations to Help Your Customer Feel Welcome

Do you fail to make your customers feel welcome? Here are 4 key conversations to have with customers to make them feel welcome and want to come back.

9 Things I Learned from My First Difficult Conversation

Effective leaders must know how to conduct difficult conversations with employees. Because of the common perception that conflict at work is bad, it’s no surprise that so many leaders shy away from having these discussions. Here are 9 ways to help prepare for the experience.

Stop Driving Yourself Crazy Trying to Hold People Accountable

When you drive for results and declare you are holding people accountable for those results, you are also sending the message that you don’t trust people to perform or achieve their goals. What should we be doing instead? Read on and find out. Click this link.

The Power of Clear Expectations–Identifying What and Who

When leaders set clear expectations, outcomes are much more likely to hit the mark. Stating clear expectations, however, is just the start. What else should you be doing? Click this link to find out.

The Curse of Unspoken Expectations – 3 Ways to Improve Teamwork and Collaboration

Unspoken expectations are a curse upon relationships. It’s a surefire way to guarantee you will have conflict and discord that leads to poor teamwork and collaboration in the workplace. Here are 3 ways to improve teamwork and collaboration.

Focus on Competence and Commitment to Improve Productivity

Most people will tell you they are working as hard as they can, says bestselling business author Vicki Halsey. “The problem is, they still aren’t able to keep up with the workload. Today, people need to work smarter, not harder,” says Halsey. To read more click here.

Ethical Behaviour in Leadership

Examples of non-ethical behaviour in business and leadership are all around us; and recent well-publicised ethical breaches in organisations have brought a great deal of attention to the issue of ethical behaviour. How can we work to become ethical leaders? Click this link for some suggestions.

Don’t Confuse Collaboration with Being Nice: 7 Ways to Promote Healthy Team Debate

Do you confuse collaboration with simply getting along or being polite? It’s a common mistake–and one of the most difficult to address. Here are seven ways to encourage healthy workplace debate.

Are You an Excessive Collaborator? 3 Warning Signs to Look for In Your Working Calendar

Wondering if you may be an excessive collaborator? Your calendar can offer some hints. Over the past four months, how many times have you:  Click this link to read more.

What Do Workers Want? Better communication with their leader for starters

Employees want communication, a trusting relationship, and clear measurement standards from their immediate supervisor. Leaders can help create the type of environment people are looking for at work. Want some ideas? Click this link.

Leaders: Don’t Let a Little Motivation “Dip” Become a Big Performance Management “Fail”

It’s a common pattern anytime people take on new tasks that require time, persistence, and effort. Initial enthusiasm turns into disillusionment. Take these steps to make sure that this little dip doesn’t turn into a big fail with people quitting the task before accomplishing the goal.

Performance Coaching – If You Wait, it May Be Too Late

If an employee’s performance is poor enough that a coach is called in, it means the manager is in a last ditch effort to save them. If it’s done too late, it does not work. What can we do about this? Click this link for more.

3 Conversations All Managers Need to Master

Managers don’t have enough high quality conversations with their direct reports. This deficiency can have a negative effect on both productivity and morale. Managers can learn to be more effective in their work conversations. Here are three conversations to get started.

3 Ways to Help Managers and Direct Reports Collaborate to Achieve Goals

“Make sure managers and direct reports are taking a collaborative approach to performance,” says Susan Fowler. “It starts with agreed-upon goals.”  What does this mean for you in your workplace? Click this link to find out.

Sharing Feedback: 3 Ways to Help Others Improve

As people move up in their career many find they receive less and less meaningful feedback of any kind. Though many say that corrective feedback has helped their career they also say they themselves are resistant to giving it? Is giving corrective feedback a skill worth having? Click this link to find out.

From Performance Management to Contribution Management: 3 Keys to Making it Work

Who wants to judge — or be judged? How can you turn performance management into a positive “How can I help you succeed?” approach? Click here to find out.

When It Comes to Performance Management, Employees Want More, Not Less!

Are your employees wanting more from their leaders than they’re getting? A survey found a gap between what employees desire from their leaders during performance management conversations and what they were receiving. What do they want? Click here to find out.

This TV Show Illustrates The 3 Fundamentals of Effective Performance Management

How can a kid’s cooking show illustrate the three fundamentals of effective performance management: goal setting, coaching, and evaluation? Click this link to find out.

3 Ways to Combat Perfectionism

Most people agree that striving to continually grow and develop and to achieve one’s goals is a desirable trait. Perfectionism, on the other hand, can be a different story. Are you a perfectionist? Want to learn more?

A Coaching Take on the Annual Review

As your year comes to its end there’s an opportunity for a “year in review” assessment. Mary Ellen Sailer suggests we think beyond our work achievements and consider our life achievements. What would we like to be remembered for?

Rethinking Performance Review: A Lesson for China's College Exam

Do performance evaluations overstate or underestimate an individual’s actual contribution with an organisation? Do we over look the subjective nature of measuring performance at work? Click this link to find out.

4 Tips for Mastering the Most Difficult Performance Management Conversations

Do you find feedback conversations challenging? “Redirection” conversations tend to be especially challenging. Here are 4 time-tested, key takeaways you can use to improve your feedback skills.

Performance Review: Feedback Has to Happen More than Once A Year—Here’s One Way to Get Started

Offering feedback only once a year makes it hard to provide people with meaningful or actionable information. Should there be a rethink of this process. Click this link to find out.

Quit Focusing on Accountability and Follow These 5 Steps Instead

Responsibility breeds accountability. How can leaders help their people develop an inherent sense of responsibility? Click this link and check out these 5 steps to get started.

Leaders, Use this Approach for Better Employee Accountability

The most effective leaders realise that leadership is not about them–they are only as good as the people they lead. What have you done to help your people succeed? Click this link for a better approach.

Are You a Serving Leader? A 5-point Checklist

Is the purpose of your leadership to serve—or is your expectation to be served. Would your direct reports identify you as a servant leader? Click this link and consider the checklist.

Innovators—3 ways to invite others to your next big idea

It takes a lot of energy to develop an idea and implement it successfully in an organisation. Innovation also requires collaboration. Here are three ways to innovate and collaborate more effectively.

Your Leadership Training Is Probably Missing These Two Components

It takes a lot of energy to develop an idea and implement it successfully in an organisation. Innovation also requires collaboration. Here are three ways to innovate and collaborate more effectively.

Six Tips for a Work-From-Home Policy That Works

Working from home can provide tremendous benefits to both the employer and the employee. One thing is certain  — trust is at the heart of a successful work from home policy. Can a Work-From-Home Policy work for your organisation? Click this link to find out.

3 Activities to Build Virtual Team Spirit

How can you build team spirit when you can’t have a face to face for team building? Click the link for three enjoyable activities to build relationships and team spirit.