Motivating

Align their goals with yours

Your essential job as a leader is to help your people reach their own goals in service of the organization’s goals. That’s why you need to set goals col­laboratively. Three reasons:

At Wegmans, every employee counts

On-the-spot, creative problem-solving is something that Wegmans’ team members are known for. That’s because Weg­­mans gives its talented employees the power to meet customer needs using creativity and flair—and good judgment.

How are your 'Mutual Fun' shares doing?

Rite-Solutions has created an internal stock market for employee ideas called Mutual Fun. Employees get $10,000 worth of “opinion money” on their first day, so they can show support for an idea by buying the stock. Later they’ll share in the proceeds if a project delivers real-world revenue.

Put oomph back into workplace awards

Every year, employees at SurePayroll anx­­iously await for leadership to an­­nounce who won the Best New Mistake award. Yes, the biggest mistake. Is your awards program a creaky tra­­dition or an injection of excitement? In­­vigorate your thinking with this advice:

Put feedback loops to work

Through a stream of information and re­­wards, feedback loops—already common in executive coaching and athletics—can turn around bad habits and redirect people toward good ones.

Praise in a way that counts

Don’t wait until it’s time for a formal review to dish out the positive words. Six guidelines for effective praising, from Bob Nelson, author of 1001 Ways to Reward Employees:

Not coaching staff? Stop the excuses

Executive coach John Baldoni hears a lot of excuses for why managers don’t coach employees. Yet evidence shows again and again that companies with the strongest leadership cultures develop people at all levels. What are the most common excuses?

Turn passion into action

North American Tool CEO Curt Lansbery couldn’t understand why his employees weren’t maxing out their 401(k) contributions, even though the company kicked in. They were throwing away free money. Here's how he prompted them to take action:

Focus on the 'what'

George Patton became a superb battlefield commander by focusing on what, not how. Patton viewed planning as only 5% of a leader’s job. The rest, he said, consisted of monitoring and executing the plan through your officers.

It takes a village ... and desire

The kids on the small floating village of Koh Panyee in Thailand had a problem: Though their village held not an inch of soil, they were determined to start a soccer team and play the game they spent hours watching on television ... Now the Panyee Football Club is regarded as one of South­ern Thailand’s best soccer teams.

Quick Search


Advanced Search

Leadership Topics