An important part of a leader’s job is empowering others.  Your goal is to have employees that are, for the most part, self-sufficient.  You are, of course, there to help them as needed, but the key to having great employees is having empowered employees.  Offering positive feedback is an important part of the process. #1: Focus on behaviors, not accomplishments.  Instead of offering “Great job” accolades, focus on the behavior that you like, “I like your perseverance.”  This is a great way to ensure that you see more of this behavior from the employee in the future. #2:  Be specific.  Let ...

Many managers believe that it is their responsibility to exert as much control as possible over their employees to create the desired results.  In reality, is it truly possible to control another person?  Ever dealt with a toddler having a melt-down in a store?  How’d it go when you tried to control that situation? The truth is that even when dealing with full grown adults, we can’t control other people.  They are free to melt-down, act out and think for themselves, even if we don’t want them to.  When it comes right down to it, the only person we can ...

How motivated is your team?  And by this, I mean how inspired are they to do what you want them to do?  Top performers know that true leadership is about getting people to want to do what you need them to do.  In fact, if they think it’s their idea, you’re just fine with that. Because this is a beautiful thing when you have created an environment where everyone is passionate and driven to deliver on the vision that you have created.  If this doesn’t sound like your team, you’re not alone.  And here’s the trick that so many managers ...

I’ve always said that people will even things out when they think there has been an injustice.  For example, you lower someone’s pay, whether they admit to it or not, they will adjust something in the relationship with the orgranization to compensate.  This may take the form of slower work, more sick days, a bad attitude, you name it, but they will even things out, if you’re lucky.  I say if you’re lucky because they may punish you far beyond what you have done to them. Research at the University of Chicago by Boaz Keysar reinforces this idea.  Participants in ...