Hannah was a young person volunteering at a community dinner. She sure seemed like she didn’t want to be there. She was listening to her iPod and had earbuds in both ears as she served peas to the public. She was surrounded by about twenty adult volunteers.
At one point, Harold, one of the adult volunteers, finally said something. He scowled, and
When I was young teacher, I often found myself in the middle of student disputes. My response was always something along the lines of, “You need to learn how to solve your own problems.” I was thinking I was doing them a service by empowering them grow up and solve problems on their own. In … Read more
When I read the (rightly) popular Good to Great, I found myself agreeing with nearly everything in principle, but thought that some concepts were a little too idealistic for a small- to mid-sized organization. Massive businesses, like his examples, have more luxury to move people around, for example.
That’s why I had a touch of a problem with
If you are a leader, it is your job to keep your people motivated, and stave off any demoralization.
But what if YOU lose your mojo due to some cranky folks in your organization? It’s so easy to be derailed by those one or two “downers” who complain, or scowl, or cross their arms at you all the time.
“Hey, Tom, if you could get some of those account reviews done by Thursday, that’d be great.” Sometimes to sound “nice”, we make requests like the one above. It’s casual (good), general (bad), with a deadline (good), but without a specific request (bad) or a way to measure (very bad). The result can descend into … Read more
Everyone has moments, or even periods, of insecurity.
Situation One:
Once, about 15 years ago, I was struggling to
These are my least-read posts. Maybe they hit on the wrong week for people, or the titles were bad, or I tweeted them at the wrong time, but I share them here because they need love, too. And they have value. Leaders increase effectiveness by changing things up Yeah, Effective Leaders have “Vision”, but What … Read more
These are the posts that have gotten the most comments over the last year. Please comment yourself to keep the discussion going! Effective Leaders Stand Out (part two) Why “Tabatha” smokes “Boss”… What three things make the biggest difference? (part one) Effective Leaders Stand Out (part one) Things successful leaders avoid saying (Part 1) The … Read more
This week, five posts that will help you understand the value of great customer service, everyone’s role in it, and some ideas to make it happen. Disney’s Magic Trick Dig the Little Things Pause and Listen One of my favorite bad service stories… Non-leaders can lead, too… The plus one: Check out the Unsecret Shopper … Read more
Several posts have had a focus on behavior and giving frequent specific feedback. These things are among the wisest a leader can do, and yet they can be quite uncommon. Here are five posts that deal with these issues, and the “plus one” is one of my favorite sources on the topic… What’s the Magic … Read more