Articles
Gregg's articles are full of pithy observations on recognizing employees, retaining employee moral, and building effective team players. He takes motivational leadership seriously and answering the question, "Why teams fail?" Take a moment to ponder Gregg's insights on workplace relationships.
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Texting- Not Just for Teens Anymore
How many text messages have you sent in the last 30 days? Depending on your age this number could range anywhere from zero to over a couple of hundred. And if you are at one end of this spectrum, you do not understand how anyone could be at the other end. Well they are and sending text messages are the latest in how communication is done – not just in the classroom but in the board room as well. Read more >
Talent Turmoil as Baby Boomers Bid Bye Bye
Are you getting ready to retire in the next 5 years? If yes then you are in the segment of the population referred to as the baby boomers – but I am not telling you anything you did not already know. The potential challenge is what the boomers are leaving behind. – A talent turmoil where many organizations will not be able to fill the void in retiring workers. Read more >
Are Leaders Born or Are They Made?
When do we learn our leadership lessons anyway?
As Kurt Russell said in the movie “Miracle” – You think you can win on talent alone - - - Gentlemen you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone.” Of course he was referring to the 1980 US Olympic hockey team after a dismal showing against the Norwegian national team. The same is true about leaders today. Talent alone is not enough. Read more >
Six Quick Tips to Terrific Teamwork
Have you ever wondered why some teams are so quick to work together and others are not? The ultimate understanding is the chemistry. When the chemistry is right teams work. Read more >
Sheryl was good mortgage processor – mind you good-- not great. Her performance evaluations showed just this. She got the job done with minimum error rates and in a timely manner. She was good. Read more >
Everyone Is a Morning Person- Right?
Theresa is the type of person who is up by 5:00 AM working out in her home gym by 5:30. She showers, has the kid’s lunches packed and is at the office working by 7:00 everyday. By all accounts Theresa is a morning person.
Theresa scheduled an important team meeting for Wednesday morning at 7:30 AM. She felt this was best since this way they could get the meeting done before the office opened at 9:00 and everyone was enthralled in their work. She got a memo out to everyone about a week in advance letting them know of the upcoming meeting along with a short agenda.
Wednesday morning came and everyone was there – at least physically anyway. You see while Theresa is a morning person along with a couple of others, Jason and Sheila are midday people and Rob, Dave and a couple of others are definite night owls.
What are the challenges facing Theresa Wednesday morning? Now there are some organizations that need to have meetings like this. One example is UPS and their drivers. They need to leave the distribution center early so an early morning meeting is when they are all together. Think about your team and what are the types of people on your team. Read more >
Bob was out one Sunday afternoon and dropped by a new concept house. With soaring utility prices Bob thought the concept was pretty interesting. Bob owned some land and thought he would take the ideas he saw in the concept house and build one of his own. He called Carol, a good friend and architect. He gave Carol the specs of what he wanted and she went to work on the design. Several weeks after the design was completed, they contacted Ted a mutual friend and home builder. Ted liked the design and went to work on the construction. This took about 4 months to complete and once it was finished they held an open house. Bob’s mother Alice came to the open house and almost immediately asked Bob, “where is the laundry room?” They had totally forgotten it.
You see every project has a process it goes through and if a process is skipped it usually requires significant work to make the correction.
New Leadership Challenges In The Workplace
Jason is an entry level manager/leader and he was interviewing several candidates for front line position in the bank. As he reviewed the next e-application, Jason was shocked at what he saw. This applicant had attached a letter of recommendation. Normally this would not necessarily seem rare or unusual but in this case it was. You see the letter of recommendation was from the applicants parents. That’s right the parents. Read more >
How Are Your Followership Skills
How many leadership programs have you attended in your adult life? When did you attend your first program? Now when did you attend your fist followership program?
I find it somewhat ironic that organizations are spending massive amounts of money developing leaders (don’t get me wrong they need this too) and almost nothing to develop the followers. It is like they expect everyone to understand how to follow. Think about your organization; how well do the members follow?
What is interesting is that each and everyone one of us while we may be a leader we are also a follower. Read more >
Six Strategies to Hire Right the First Time
When Rob extended the offer to Kyle, he was sure he had hired the best candidate for the position. Rob had checked all of Kyle’s references and previous employment records, and based on this information along with his interviewing skills, Rob knew Kyle had the skills necessary to do the job. After all, Kyle had nearly four years of experience with another company performing many of the same duties.
About two months after Kyle started, Rob noticed that Kyle was not performing as he’d expected, and was actually performing at sub par levels. To top things off, he was showing up late to work. While Rob had gone through the interview process designed by his company, taking all the precautions did not seem to help, and somehow he ended up with “evil twin” of the man he interviewed.
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and How to RETAIN More of Them
Vickie left the mortgage company she worked with for several years for a competitor and a promotion. No one could blame her for leaving; after all, she had dreams of her own to pursue. Vickie was well-respected by her co-workers, therefore two of them contacted her almost immediately wanting to come work for her. Vickie knew the talent each possessed and brought them both on board.
Several weeks later, Vickie ran into the President of her previous company. He was outraged, screaming across the parking lot and warning her not to steal any more employees. Click here to read more >>
Six Steps to Effective Conflict Resolution
We have talked a lot this year about teams and how to get them working more effectively. Let’s face it not everyone is going to get along with everyone else. That would be too easy.
Let’s start with a simple question – Is conflict good or bad?
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Leaders Play A Major Role for the Employee
Think of the best boss you have ever had in your adult work life. Now what are the top three reasons you said this is your best boss? Read more >
In 1985 Marybeth was a closer for a mortgage company and it was the very first refinance boom. She and the rest of her team worked almost 80 hours per week the last two weeks of each month, for most of the year. It was “expected” of them if they were to get the loans to closing. Her team was amazing –while there was some tongue in cheek comments the overall energy of the team was strong and the work got done and if a weak link joined the team and could not handle it, they chose to leave pretty quickly. Marybeth’s team was absolutely committed to getting the job done and was at the performing stage of team development. Was it always that way? Not a chance!
What Makes You Happy -- at Work?
Ron constantly complained about the work load. He was always telling his co-workers that he is so busy he is not sure when he will be able to get to the project they want. Week after week a new challenged was introduced. Can you relate?
Also know as ID-10-T
Why can idiots at work drive away your best employees? How do you describe a person with a bad or negative attitude? Can you do anything about it? Stop and ask yourself these questions and do they affect you and your work team?
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10 Tips For Solid Team Development
We have been talking about teamwork for quite sometime. I am often amazed at the questions I get about how to structure a team and how the team actually develops. The biggest challenge goes back to something that my father told me when I was in the third grade. He used to always tell me; “You can’t put the roof on the house until the foundation is complete.”
Now as a young boy and my Dad being in real estate I just thought he was talking about building a house. Well quite frankly I thought to myself – DUH –
Actually he was talking about everything but real estate. I don’t know when I came to understand what he was teaching me, though I am sure I was well into my 20’s if not older. In life we have to have a foundation just as in construction. Read More>
Coping with Different People –
So that we do not make them difficult
Have you ever worked with that difficult person, who just drove you and everyone around you crazy? What characteristics did they possess? Were they the type who could be set off at any time like a time bomb? Maybe they just sat there like bumps on a log and never participated. Did they whine about how much work they have?
Have you ever noticed that the person who complains about how busy they are is never as busy as those who do not complain? What is a difficult person to you? Is it the person who yells, screams and curses at you? Is it someone who is needy? What about the show off? The fact is that each of these and others are considered by many to be difficult people. Read More>
Getting Off of The Charted Course ---
Seven mistakes made by new (and even some seasoned) captains
The challenges facing leaders today is never ending and we get caught up in the stuff necessary to accomplish the immediate task at hand and we sometimes loose site of the ultimate goal or mission.
It is here that mistakes happen and not just to the new leader. Even a well seasoned leader can fall into any one of these traps.
Here are seven of the most common pitfalls that will blow any leader off course:
Healthy Conflict Can Keep Your Team On Course
Using RESPECT to work through conflict on your team
Many people believe that conflict is unhealthy and in reality the opposite is true. The main secret is that the conflict must be directed towards the issues and not at individuals or their personalities. When conflict gets to the point of needing resolution I like the acronym RESPECT.
Getting New Hires From Old Employees
Does your organization have an alumni program in place? A couple of weeks ago traveling from Atlanta to Washington, I sat next to a woman who works in the marketing department for a large law firm in Washington DC. As we talked she told me of a way her firm attracts and hires new and talented people. She actually heads up the Alumni program. And just like your high school or college they have alumni parties and gatherings as well as newsletters to their alumni. Read More>
More great articles by Gregg... page 1 2 3