Why Stars Sometimes Fail as Leaders
A bright and promising software engineer, we’ll call him Jay, had made a real mark on his company, developing and innovating some of the most important products and processes in the organization’s portfolio. One Friday, Jay’s boss called him into his office and told him, “You’re so good at what you do that we’ve decided […]
Discretionary Effort…When the Show Must Go On
This past Sunday morning at 8:30, a leader named Ashley learned that a key member of her team had called in sick – totally legit – quarantined with the flu, and would therefore not be at work that day for her 2:00 shift. Not good. OK, you say, people call in sick all the time. […]
Don’t Overwork Your Horses
New supervisors quickly learn that it’s to their advantage to know at all times who the most willing and productive people are on their team, who the ‘work horses’ are. These are the people with seemingly endless capacity to reach for and find another gear, and crunch their way thru whatever pile of work is […]
A Little Less Conversation (About Race) and A Little More Action Please
First things first, I’m delighted that President Trump visited the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and afterwards made some solid statements about “bringing the country together” vis-a-vis race and anti-semitism. (Good job, @CraigMelvin) It’s a good step for him, one he’s been needing to take. Now it’s time to back up the […]
The Vision Thing…Passengers or Crew
Adapted from Contented Cows STILL Give Better Milk “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that in an environment where there is a shared vision of excellence…where people can be the best they can be on a daily basis…where, when they know what is expected of them…understand that reward is linked to performance…and BELIEVE they […]
Sometimes It’s the Little Things
When Alejandro Bustamante became president of Plantronics Mexico some years ago, he inherited, among other problems, a dispirited workforce with dysfunctionally high employee turnover. Nobody wanted to work there. Charged with turning around the plant, which makes telephone headsets and other communications gear, Alejandro knew he could do nothing to change the people working in […]
What Do You Mean, Contented Cows?
If you’ve been following our work over the last 20 years or so, you could skip this post (but please don’t). You know what the reference to Contented Cows is all about, and therefore our reason for titling this blog “Daily Dairy”. But keep reading. A refresher never hurts. However, if you’re new to Contented Cows, and a lot of […]
What to do if Politics are Taking a Toll on Your Workplace Productivity
This week, I contributed to a piece Noreen Seebacher @writeNoreen wrote for CMS Wire about steps managers should take to deal with the continuing decline in productivity owing to U.S. election-related politics and governmental affairs distractions in the workspace. Here’s a link: http://www.cmswire.com/digital-workplace/politics-are-taking-a-toll-on-workplace-productivity-heres-what-to-do/ If you find it worthy, I’m sure Noreen and CMS Wire won’t mind if you give […]
The ONE Thing that Builds Employee Engagement More than Anything Else
A young(ish) audience member came up to me at a conference I was set to speak at last year, and said, (I’m paraphrasing throughout, but not much) “Richard, I’ve read the conference program, and I see that you’re going to be speaking on Employee Engagement later today. What’s the one thing – the ONE thing,” he […]
Helping New Leaders Stay Out of the Weeds
Nearly every day we witness or experience the net effect of people having been thrust into front-line leadership roles without being vetted for leadership capability, and without the benefit of any management training. The evidence pile consists of long lines at retail shops because managers don’t know how to recruit, surly or inattentive front line employees who’ve […]