I once had a really great sales team leader who lived by the motto “if you do the right thing, the numbers will just come.” What he meant by that is if you spent time building real, caring relationships with your customers so you know, understand, and solve their pain points, the sales will happen automatically. Any time a sales team member had a unique customer request and they went to that leader for approval, the conversation always went like this: Sales team member: “The customer needs X, but that will mean we need to do Y, which requires us … Read More
Cutting Off the Ends of the Ham
A young girl was watching her mother bake a ham for a family gathering and noticed her mom cutting off the ends before placing it in the oven. “Mom, why do you cut the ends off before baking the ham?” she asked. “Hmmm… I think it helps soak up the juices while it’s baking. I’m not sure, though. That’s just the way your grandma always did it, so I’ve just always cut them off. Why don’t you call grandma and ask her?”
Leading the Charge for Onboarding
Hiring a new employee is the gift that keeps on giving. New team members bring new energy, excitement, ideas, and perspective to the team. A single new employee with a positive attitude and engaging personality can shift the mental energy of the entire team. New employees also ask innocent but tough questions that force you to question how and why you do things a certain way. They don’t accept “this is how it’s always been done” as an acceptable answer to their questions. And when training a new employee, skills gaps for the rest of the team may be uncovered. … Read More
If You Thought Millennials Were a Challenge…
When Simon Sinek (noted author, speaker, and expert on leadership) was asked about leading Millennials in the workplace on Inside Quest, his response went viral. With millions of views and social media shares, he clearly struck a chord with the workforce. He noted 4 characteristics about Millennials that present a challenge in the workplace: parenting, technology, impatience, and environment. Simon explains that through no fault of their own, Millennials are significantly affected by failed parenting strategies where parents forced recognition/awards on all kids whether their performance merited it or not. They also grew up being told they can have anything … Read More
Everyone Gets a Three
One of the most daunting tasks for new leaders is the first annual performance review of their team. Let’s set aside the usual laundry list of reasons why annual performance reviews are ineffective including the cumbersome talent management systems used to track them, the fact that the goals were set and forgotten a year ago, and time it takes to complete the process. The most frustrating part of it all is that they really don’t matter. A colleague of mine shared her first performance review experience as a manager:
How Not to Communicate a Layoff
On Friday, a friend of mine received news that her position was being eliminated and effective immediately she had been laid off. This, of course, was horrible news. Being laid off unexpectedly right before the holidays is just awful. She had worked for the company for 22 years. How do you tell a loyal employee of 22 years that she is being laid off? In this case, the HR rep left the employee a voicemail. The employee received that voicemail during the 15 minute break she had while on jury duty. “Hi Jane, this is Mary from HR. I’m sorry … Read More