Troublemakers in the Office
Trouble!!! Trouble!!! Trouble!!! Without wood, a fire goes out; without gossip, quarreling stops. Charcoal keeps the embers glowing, wood keeps the fire burning, and troublemakers keep arguments alive. Proverbs 26: 20-21. Gossip, quarreling, arguments and troublemakers seem to go together, and left alone may destroy a successful business. Here are some thoughts on this matter. It appears fuel of some kind is the source troublemakers use to cause problems. It’s important for business owners to limit or even eliminate fuel sources in their...
read moreEmployee Development: Treasures in Surprising Places
What joy it is to find an unexpected treasure in a surprising place. The other day I was searching through a winter coat I had not worn since before Christmas and found $20. Was I ever excited! Recently a client was relating an incident in which an employee surprised him by solving a very difficult, expensive problem. Try as he may, my client hadn’t been able to solve this problem and had decided his only option was to live with the matter, so he was very interested in how the employee had fixed the problem. The employee said it was very...
read moreEmployees Don’t Leave Businesses, They Leave Managers
Once I read in an HR Magazine, “Employees don’t leave businesses, they leave managers.” This bold statement caused me to consider what it takes to be a great manager. Here are some of my thoughts: First, managing is a foreign responsibility to most business owners and executives. The majority of business owners/executives we work with at executive advantage didn’t initially intend a career in management, so they hadn’t received formal management training, whether in a college or otherwise. The majority of them trained (whether in...
read moreManaging Employee Performance: Overcoming Fear
Possibly the strongest fears managers have are fears of failure, conflict and rejection, especially in situations which require confronting employees regarding performance or behavior problems. Many of you know that, in addition to executive coaching, we act as Human Resources Managers for businesses that don’t typically have HR Managers. In such a role, we often receive requests for assistance from business owners and top executives who are uncomfortable communicating sensitive information to employees, often because from fear of...
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