How do you handle the weak links on your staff? My guess is that in most cases you wait too long to take appropriate action. No matter what your experience is, it’s human to avoid conflict, and weak links are, de facto, conflicts.
You know the basics: can the employee improve from skills training? Would the person be a better fit in another department in the organization? Can the person benefit from one-on-one mentoring?
One managerial flaw that reinforces a “no win” scenario pertains to encouraging the people who always say “yes” when asked to go above and beyond.
Let’s be clear: this is not a criticism of those who contribute generously by doing more work. Rather, this is a warning about employees who automatically say yes to everything and eventually become choked.
Two months of the year have whooshed away and before too much more time passes, it’s worth taking time to look at what you’ve accomplished so far this year.
Are you on track? Are you pacing the way you expected late last year when you finalized your plan for 2023? What has changed and how are you accommodating those changes?
There are days when so much is going on that everything seems blurry. When this happens in the workplace, people can get distracted by the dangerous combination of chaos and minutia and miss important things. Lack of clarity can lead to one big blur.
When this happens to you, it’s important to regain focus and clarity as soon as possible.
Sorry managers, but training employees is not just a necessary part of your job, it’s essential. Employees may go through corporate training programs to learn the basics of their jobs, but knowing the basics isn’t enough to succeed.
Managers often complain about how much time it takes their people to get up to speed. When I begin asking questions, inevitably it’s clear that no one is shepherding these people through what they need to learn.
CEOs who aspire to spectacular growth have expectations of nothing short of exceptional results from their leaders. They rally these leaders with optimistic views of the future and eyes on the rewards that will be given for achieving KPIs and other metrics.
Strong leaders take the nod and push their departments forward with similar focus. The drive for growth is pushed down through the organization where outstanding results are expected consistently.
Sometimes leaders make decisions that impact clients that may also inadvertently have a negative ripple effect on your employees. For example, you could change policies, terms of service, pricing, or even account executives.
Those are perfectly justified decisions. But sometimes your clients may resist the change and take it out on your staff. They may resent the changes and instead of discussing it with leadership, they display negative or passive aggressive behavior with your employees.
No one has a crystal ball to the answer to this question, in fact, economists seem to be all over the map in terms of their predictions. Since the outlook is uncertain, leaders need to use their best information and insights to decide how economic conditions will impact their organizations.
Your business strategy will determine decisions you make in terms of growth in 2023, but as important is to understand how the undercurrent of this uncertainty affects your employees. Here are three key factors that are on their minds:
As much as a new year can inspire a fresh start, sometimes the opposite happens. Some people may feel unmotivated to jump start the new year and will lay low as long as think that no one notices.
It’s worth exploring whether such malaise is affecting any of your staff, and if it is, you need to help them reframe and redirect. The longer the discontent, the more likely it can develop into a negative pattern.
The Chinese New Year (also known as the Lunar New Year) begins on Sunday, January 22, when the Year of the Rabbit will be ushered in. China, Korea, Tibet, Singapore, Vietnam, and other Asian countries celebrate this holiday. Over a quarter of the world’s population celebrates this holiday.
Chinese New Year is celebrated for 7 days in China. In the U.S., it is also celebrated as a state holiday in California and New York City recognizes it as a school holiday.