Motivation « Small Fish Business Coaching

If I’m leading, why is nobody following?

ASTD-NRC: Northern Rockies Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development

Join us on January 20th for this skills-focused work session where Carl Dierschow will explain to us the five powerful principles of Leadership Coaching. This will change the way you coach those who work with you – both as a [...]

Flexibility results in trust

I read an interesting article in the Financial Times today entitled Flexible Leaders Reap Reward of Trust. This reinforces what I’ve been talking about with the connection between leadership skill and employee engagement. This is based on a study from the Institute of Leadership and Management, a London-based organization which supports the development of leaders.

A recent survey of 5,000 employees shows a strong correlation between management actions in recent years and the trust of employees. Those leaders who chose to employ the most draconian downsizings resulted in extraordinarily low trust levels. Continue reading Flexibility results in trust

Creating healthy competition

I ran across an interesting HBR article today entitled “Is Your Culture Too Nice?“ It’s pretty thought-provoking, because I’ve become accustomed to polite work cultures, feeling uncomfortable with those which are more confrontational.

Why can’t we all just get along?

But the challenge here is to distinguish two ideas which tend to get muddled together:

Continue reading Creating healthy competition

Leadership principle #7: Value

When it comes down to it, your employees want to spend their days doing useful things. People can only exist in a limbo of inaction for so long, and then they become restless.

Granted, there are many different kinds of “doing.”

Continue reading Leadership principle #7: Value

Will your upcoming leaders disappear?

The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article yesterday, titled Leadership Training Gains Urgency Amid Stronger Economy. They remind us of some important dynamics in leadership development:

Existing leadership continues to age, many now getting dangerously close to retirement age.
Leadership ranks have been downsized as the workforce has experienced the same crunch.
Investments in leadership development have waned (or have been eliminated) due to the recent economic turmoil.

Continue reading Will your upcoming leaders disappear?

The servant leader

You might have heard the notion of leader as servant. I imagine that it might be based in concepts from Christianity, but I don’t know for sure. At any rate, I’ve had a chance to learn about the concept and apply it to my leadership in volunteer groups and the workplace.

You’d like to think that the idea is simple:

A leader’s results are delivered because of the work the team does.
The leader can help his team to deliver those results by helping to remove obstacles and facilitate action.
As a result, the leader can be the most value by thinking of himself as a servant of the team.

But this is just a starting place, it’s not the full story.

Continue reading The servant leader

The Top Tens of Employee Engagement

I ran across a very useful e-book today: The Top Tens of Employee Engagement.

It’s a huge number of “top ten lists” from various writers, all with ideas about how to increase the passion and engagement of your workers.

Check [...]

Staff turnover will return with a vengeance!

This morning I had a chance to read a powerful article by Bob Kelleher, entitled The Storm is Approaching: Staff Turnover Will Return with A Vengeance!

Loving what you do

Today, we understand that motivation — and therefore engagement — comes from loving what you do. You love what you do when you are in the right job, feel valued and are given opportunities to grow. Get your people to love what they do, and they are yours — fully engaged.

- Terri Kabachnick

I’m going to take this discussion in a different direction than you might expect, given this quote.

The concept that Ms. Kabachnick conveys here is true, but … limited. It’s true that loving what you do leads to engagement.

Continue reading Loving what you do

Leadership principle #6: Recognition

It’s vital that your people know that you value the contributions they’re making. But this is a trickier issue than you might expect!

There’s been a backlash lately against the idea, promoted in the 1970s-1990s, that our kids need to develop high self esteem. Some would say that we’ve created a generation of spoiled adults who need to be constantly fed praise and recognition, even when not warranted. There may be some truth to this, but it’s not my point. I’m talking about a timeless human need, which is much deeper than being praised for the tiniest flicker of initiative.

Continue reading Leadership principle #6: Recognition

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