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Empowerment, Trust and Letting Go
“I’ve empowered my employees, but nothing has changed,” the executive whined with a frustrated tone reminiscent of an eleven year old tween. I had to smile at the common refrain that often plagues...
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Purpose Motives
Everyone’s familiar with the age-old carrot and stick motivational model, right? Do something well, do more of something, and you’ll be rewarded. Do worse or less of something, and “doom on you,”...
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Developing Skills AND Passions: A Sign of True Leadership
“If you don’t know your people, a manager is all you’ll ever be.” During my first overseas tour of duty in the Navy, many such statements were thrown my way by the Executive Officer of Naval Security...
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The Downside of Intelligent Employees
“In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.” ~Ingersoll Growth in many industries continues to be problematic and corporate leadership reactions oscillate between frenetic (sometimes insanely...
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Motivational Make-Up: A Key to Engagement
Motivation. Intrinsic or extrinsic rewards. Carrots or sticks. Empowerment or engagement. The level of attention given to these dichotomies in leadership studies is astounding. Yet, in the drive...
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Seeking Standardization? Focus on Accountability, Not Process
For months now, colleagues have been encouraging me to pick up the latest gem by Seth Godin, Linchpin. Having grown tired of their nagging, I ordered a copy to my new Kindle (a brilliant device, I...
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Leveraging EI to Overcome Lagging Productivity
“I don’t get it,” Beth sighed. “She was always my best employee, but lately, her sales numbers have really been slipping. If things don’t turn around, I’ve got some tough decisions ahead of me…..”...
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Fresh Starts: Part of a New Talent Management Strategy
Everyone knows that the era of lifelong employment and reciprocal employee loyalty have gone the way of the dinosaurs. So, it’s perplexing when one runs across yet another example of an organization...
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Corporate Terrorism or How to Become an Employer of Last Resort
Immediately after 9/11, we saw an incredible boom of cooperative purpose in the American people. There was a true sense that we were “in this together.” Who could forget the images of the smoldering...
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Political Intimidation in the Workplace: It’s Just BAD BUSINESS!
In Leadership Musings of a Skeptical Positivist, I do my best to avoid references to messy American politics. It’s tough, as I personally have very strong opinions about most of the key policy issues...
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Retention Rates and Mediocrity: A Match Made in Heaven
The tears welled up and were pushed back. Five minutes later, the same thing. Over and over, for about 30 minutes, this repeated. Never overflowing, but always threatening like the summer sky that...
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Engagement: It’s Leadership, Not a Program
Within the telecommunications industry, ACME was considered a giant. It’s shareholder value continued to rise, slowly, but always on a positive trajectory. For customer service, in a field known for...
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Stop Engaging Your Workforce, and Simply Lead!
Over the past few years, I’ve written more about engagement and efforts by organizational leaders to create engaged cultures than nearly anything else. There’s a reason for my laser focus on this...
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