How To Run Great Team Meetings
Have you ever sat through a team meeting and thought it was a total waste of time? Yeah, me too. But guess what? Meetings don’t have to be the workplace equivalent of a root canal. Meetings have the potential to be powerful and productive… if you do them right. Harvard Business Review found that 71% […]
How To Deal with Negative People On Your Team
Have you ever worked with someone who’s like a human raincloud…or more like a thundercloud? Are they constantly casting a shadow over you and your team’s spirit? I bet you have. It’s a challenge we all face at some point. A study by doctoral students William Felps and Terence Mitchell, published in the Harvard Business […]
How to Create a Simple Budget for Your Organization
$20 for food. $10 for technology. Which leaves…$150 for me! If only budget creation were as simple as playing with Monopoly money. However, I’m the guy in Monopoly who buys hotels on Park Place but has zero cash in my bank. While Monopoly money won’t actually buy you anything in real life, a well-constructed budget […]
What Are Hygienic Motivators, and Why Are They Crucial for Team Retention?
They call it a flash fire because the fire happens so fast. That’s what it felt like when the group’s manager asked for feedback on ways management could better support their employees. With 400 people in the room, you can see how quickly the venting session ramped up and soured the mood in the room. […]
Creating an Effective Onboarding Process for New Members in Your Organization
Keep burning your cash in the bonfire, or create a successful onboarding/orientation program for your new people and watch retention rates skyrocket. Considering the fact that 50% of all hourly workers leave new jobs within the first 120 days and what a student does within the first 90 days of entering college determines their behavior […]
Vision, Mission, and Values Part 4: Creating Your Team Values
At this point in the journey, your team should have a clear sense of what mountain you will climb (Vision) and which path you will take up that mountain (Mission). Most teams might stop here; however, there always comes a point in the journey when challenges happen and tough decisions must be made. Sometimes you […]
How To Run A Strategy Retreat For Your Organization
It didn’t take long for the celebratory election smiles to fade to confusion and fear as we realized we didn’t know what we would do for the next 12 months. Six people, including myself, were elected into leadership positions in our local National Speaker’s Association chapter. We accepted our new task of running the chapter […]
Dirty Marketing: The Negative Impact of Mixing Marketing with Relationship Building in Business Communities
It felt like he had just dropped a dirty towel into our perfectly purified community, and it didn’t sit right with me or anyone else in the group. As a forum moderator for a community of business owners, I facilitate peer groups for members to learn and grow from each other. For example, one section […]
Three Effective Ways to Increase Productivity and Focus in Meetings
I felt naked without my cell phone next to me during the meeting. As I entered the room for our two-hour meeting, someone greeted me with a briefcase filled with cell phones. I was told that everyone was required to place their cell phone into the briefcase before entering the room. My first reaction was, […]
Extroverts Can Be Scary And Decrease Engagement
Now I know how a matador feels when they get trampled by a bull. No, I wasn’t in a bull ring, but when the group of leaders charged at me as I entered the meeting room, I saw parts of my life flash in front of me, thinking it was my final moment in life. […]