Coaching & Motivating

Getting top employees out of a workplace rut

June 1, 2005
When good workers seem to be simply going through the motions, it may be because they’re riding on the career merry-go-round—wanting to try something new, but unable to get away from what they’re already doing. Here are some questions to ask them:

Light up low-energy workers

April 1, 2005
Employees who are competent, yet complacent pose a challenge to many front-line managers. Sometimes, it’s best (and easiest) to chalk their lack of drive up to personality and leave it at that. But managers need to get their people to work at their full potential.

Coaching undependable workers

February 1, 2005
Dan knew that in the long run, working with Andy was a better investment than starting over with a new hire. Here’s the strategy he used to coach his promising but undependable worker:

When your team won’t speak up

January 1, 2005
Your team is made up of talented people, each of whom can excel individually. But the team’s collaboration, decision making, and problem solving aren’t what they could be; usually, you end up making the important moves. Why? And what to do about it?

Leading Teams: Turning a workgroup around

December 1, 2004
Imagine you’re newly assigned to lead a critical unit within your organization — only to discover a long backlog, high turnover, high absenteeism, and low morale. That’s what happened to Eunice …

Fighting employee burnout

December 1, 2004
With today’s workers feeling the strains caused by higher performance requirements, greater responsibilities, and more frequent downsizings, it’s important for managers to be able to identify and deal with burnout.

Creative problem-solving

November 1, 2004
Think about “effective problem- solving.” What does it look like on your team? How do you define success? How long does it take? How often does it happen?

Employees motivating employees

September 1, 2004
It’s important that managers catch their employees doing things right — and offer praise and recognition. You can expand the impact of that motivation by helping employees recognize each other.

When a worker resists change

August 1, 2004
It’s not unusual for workers to resist new responsibilities. Sometimes, what drives this resistance is not fatigue or laziness or resentment, but fear — of change and of failure.

Working with naysayers

August 1, 2004
How do you deal with employees who seem to have negative attitudes about every decision you and your teams make? Here’s some expert advice: