How to coach employees through disappointments and changes

As we approach the end of 2022, most business leaders are shifting their focus to year-end responsibilities, such as delivering reviews, announcing promotions, and repositioning team or organizational roles.  It’s fun and rewarding to share good news, but it can be hard to communicate and manage disappointing news or potentially unsettling changes announced this time…

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Giving Feedback (and Feedforward) Is The Best Way To Develop People

Giving feedback is one of the most important skills a leader can have. It boosts confidence, boosts abilities, and helps people understand what they need to do. However, leaders can find it challenging to give feedback. Even harder is giving feedback in a way that allows their direct reports to develop, grow, and accept their…

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Working Beyond Scheduled Hours Is A Waste Of Time

It is now the norm for many workers to work flexible hours. There’s a good reason for that. A flexible work schedule can boost the performance of employees and enhance organizations’ profitability. Flex time enhances productivity, job satisfaction, and reduces employee stress levels. Not only that, but it also improves employee quality of life and…

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The truth about coaching and engaging a younger workforce (and how to win them over)

As Millennials reach their 40s, Boomers are retiring in droves. Workforce demographics are shifting quicker than ever, and so are the expectations of the young workforce. While it may seem like an easy task to engage a younger workforce, it is usually anything but. Younger workers are making up a greater percentage of the workforce…

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5 proven tips to keep your employee check-ins productive and effective

  Rock cairns are a marker for adventure-junkies like me, showing the right way on a not-so-well-defined hiking trail. It’s a neat solution! So how does this rock cairn relate to employee check-ins? Leaders need to build a metaphorical cairn each time they check-in with employees. Never has the metaphor of “building cairns” been more…

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A direct leadership style is a plus–not a minus–for leaders

Have you ever been told you are “too direct,” or questioned why you don’t sugarcoat the truth? HAVING A DIRECT LEADERSHIP STYLE ISN’T A BAD THING. With apologies to Nathaniel Hawthorne, let’s stop metaphorically branding directness with a “Scarlett D!” One of the biggest mistakes that leaders with a direct leadership style make is complicating…

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