Advice for New Leaders, Employee Engagement, Succeeding as a working leader
“Be yourself” is a simple suggestion given to countless children on their first day of school. The same advice gets much harder to follow when one enters the professional world. The stakes get even higher when you become a leader by responsibility or title. If...
Employee Engagement, Small Business Advice, Succeeding as a working leader
LEAN has been around long enough to have been used selfishly. Just mentioning it will cause an eye roll in a lot of people. Sadly, I have experienced it myself as well as “total commitment” to LEAN that ended within 4-5 months of when it was launched. While my team...
Leadership, Outsourcing, Small Business Advice
In a time of great confusion, would chaos erupt in your company? Disasters come in all forms — it may not be a hurricane, tornado or wildfire that slows your operations to crawl and sends your customers rushing to the competition. There is no way to avoid every...
Employee Engagement, Leadership, Succeeding as a working leader
Engaging your team members is always a good idea. Here is how to do it using LEAN. Lean is legendary with regards to streamlining operations, cutting costs, slashing cycle time and improving relationships with customers. Successful LEAN transformations get every team...
Advice for New Leaders, Small Business Advice, Succeeding as a working leader
Resolving disputes is a critical part of being a leader. Passionate, motivated people will fight – it comes with the territory. They take ownership seriously and seek to bring about conditions where they and hopefully everyone else can succeed. When titans fight and...
Advice for New Leaders, Small Business Advice, Succeeding as a working leader
I hope you have a Greg or two on your team. Meet mine. Greg was a magician and a craftsman. In custom optics fabrication, he was my top performer by a considerable margin. I am comfortable in stating that without him, a lot of the most lucrative projects we would...
Employee Engagement, Small Business Advice, Succeeding as a working leader
Too many leaders make the mistake of conducting ONLY annual performance reviews. Their reviews are little more than a laundry list of things that went right and wrong. The employee may not remember what happened. These performance reviews are likely to be viewed as...
Advice for New Leaders, Employee Engagement, Leadership Development
One of the biggest struggles for any leader is showing their team and the world who they are. At first, I was misled by the notion I had to be tough and not show any real emotions. I should not show when I was feeling low or had any doubts. I believed that I could be...
Advice for New Leaders, Leadership Development
Beware unofficial arraignments and undocumented transfer of responsibilities. One employee expected that I would let her oversee the shop even though no one ever told me she did it from time to time for her predecessor. It came up as a complaint in her first review...
Advice for New Leaders, Employee Engagement, Leadership Development
Mentors play a critical role in employee success, engagement and job longevity. They invest time to integrate the employee into everyday operations, provide timely advice and keep them engaged. Some mentors elect to help new employees while others may be “volentold”...
Advice for New Leaders, Leadership Development, Small Business Advice
Too many managers do not risk anything because of the fear of failure. They play small and don’t give it their all. They will ensure ANY effort to improve will not succeed by demonizing anyone who might embarrass them. They are doomed to mediocrity and frustration....
Advice for New Leaders, Leadership Development
I encourage new leaders to experiment with new tactics. Leadership is very situational until one gains experience, confidence and familiarity. The caveat is to be selective, deliberate and cautious. You must be patient. Give each change time to succeed. Wise leaders...
Advice for New Leaders, Leadership Development
It is important milestone when you have won your team’s hearts and minds. This is not a dominance or now I am the supreme ruler. This is we trust you, we understand your motives and will perform as you expect us to. We expect you to support us, challenge us and listen...
Advice for New Leaders, Leadership Development, Small Business Advice
For new leaders and high performers, stress is a part of the job. When striving for excellence on limited time frames and shrinking budgets, stress will be experienced by every team member. Wise leaders teach their teams how to manage their stress and encourage them...
Advice for New Leaders, Leadership Development, Succeeding as a working leader
Perfectionism kills innovation and morale. New leaders feel the pressure and know the eyes of the world on upon them. They are afraid to rock the boat or take a risk. They want to control everyone all the time. This mindset ensures they won’t ever succeed or...
Advice for New Leaders, Leadership Development
Middle managers are a critical link between the team and c-suite. Middle managers have the daunting task of leading their team, handling customers, managing suppliers and meeting the boss’ expectations. They stand between the reality of a team that needs their time...
Advice for New Leaders, Employee Engagement, Succeeding as a working leader
Motivating others is the factor which separates average teams from extraordinary ones. It is a key skill to master and perhaps the most difficult for new leaders. If you are lucky, you will have highly motivated team members. Their attitude will help others to get and...
Advice for New Leaders, Leadership Development
Every new leader wants to be liked by their team. New leaders experience a myriad of emotions until they feel comfortable in their new position. It takes time for this to happen and it can be comfortable at times. Getting along with your team makes the multitude of...
Outsourcing, Small Business Advice
Outsourcing is a brilliant strategy but there are significant risks. The path to successfully bringing a product to market can take unexpected turns. There have been a number of interactions with potential clients that are very memorable. All managers know it is...
Advice for New Leaders, Employee Engagement, Small Business Advice
Training programs need a foolproof way of testing knowledge. Medical schools rely on the see one, do one and teach one method. This is a robust, effective and efficient way to transfer and verify the knowledge of a medical student. Companies should use the same...
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