Romance in the workplace
It happens all the time. Co-workers get attracted to each other and next thing you know…. Workplace romances can impact the productivity and morale of the protagonists and their co-workers. That impact is greater still when a supervisor and subordinate are involved. It happens all the time. Co-workers get attracted to each other and next thing you know…. Workplace romances can impact the productivity [...]
Bad Apples in your Workplace?
"One bad apple spoils the barrel." Intuitively we know this maxim is true. Research at the University of Washington Business School affirms it. Will Felps, Terence Mitchell and Eliza Byington defined three types of bad apples: • Slackers who don't do their share of the work • Perennially unhappy pessimists • Mean-spirited bullies The researchers found that team members will first try moral suasion [...]
4 ways to manage your staff better
“Why can’t I get my people to do what they’re supposed to?” “Why do I have to tell my team everything they need to do?” Everywhere we consult, we hear these pleas from exasperated, overwhelmed new managers and cynical, jaded senior long-time managers alike. Here’s the hard truth: We can’t make our teams perform well by telling them what to do. Maybe that was [...]
6 simple tips to combat burnout
Have you ever found yourself losing all interest in the job you used to love? Instead of feeling energized by your success, do you find yourself unfocused, disengaged and exhausted by the thought of work each day? You might be experiencing burnout, defined by psychologist Herbert Freundenberger as “a state of fatigue brought about by devotion to a cause, a way of life or [...]
How responsible are you for your employees’ success?
When I was a new CEO, I misunderstood why some employees performed well with my direction while others did not. Even worse, I allowed some employees to be mediocre for too long while I gave up on others too soon. Organization-wide, we were all struggling with this same issue: what are the appropriate responsibilities of managers in accountability? So we hired a consultant to [...]
When depression becomes a management issue
David Jones* first suspected something was wrong when Christy Wright missed three days of work and didn't call the store. "It wasn't characteristic of her," Jones says. He'd promoted Wright to grocery manager after three years with a strong track record. "She was as good as I've ever seen in dealing with difficult customers." With only 25 employees, the workforce of Jones' natural foods [...]