by Michael Holland You’ve heard the noise. The car next to you has a booming base radiating out through its closed windows. You can feel the sound in your car. Is it techno or is it classical or is that a pop beat? Are you moving to the beat? Or maybe you’re looking in disgust [...]
by Michael Holland A recent study showed that paying someone a compliment activates the same reward center in the brain as paying them cash. So what’s the cost/benefit factor of positive feedback? Potentially priceless. You can effectively influence behavior through regular positive feedback. It increases a person’s energy, motivation, makes people more receptive to new [...]
by Michael Holland We’ve all gotten into those conversations where at some point we realize we’ve made some incorrect assumptions. That happens when we are managing an employee’s performance also. As managers, we frequently think we know why a person did what they did, or know what they intended, or draw conclusions about someone’s performance [...]
by Michael Holland About four months into their new role, young leaders struggle as they hit their tipping point with the realization that they have all this “management stuff” to do and they still have “real” work to do. They are executing the same behaviors and habits learned from years as an individual contributor and [...]
by Michael Holland Did you know that what you are saying is not always the message you are sending? There are numerous factors that impact our communication and often create unintended messages and miscommunications as we work with employees. In face-to-face communications our non-verbal communication will have a greater impact on how someone interprets our [...]
by Michael Holland Are you really listening to what people are saying to you? Many people – your employees included – “test the waters” when they are talking with you. They may start out with “safe” topics, or share what they think you want to hear, leaving valuable information below the surface, deciding on how [...]
by Michael Holland For most people their weakest communication skill is their ability to listen. Why is that? Most of us can process information faster than another person talks, so we have lots of extra time to think of our response, judge or evaluate the speaker or just let our mind drift off to more [...]
by Michael Holland When you are interviewing, pay attention to how much talking you are doing. Your goal is to learn as much as you can about the candidate and this is best accomplished when the candidate is talking and you are listening. Too often, we spend too much time talking, telling the candidate about [...]
by Michael Holland Can a leader be impoverished? Absolutely! Impoverished leaders detach themselves from their teams, and basically allow their teams to manage themselves. Often these leaders “Delegate and Disappear.” While delegation is a strong and effective way to manage, delegating without follow up, not providing adequate direction and not keeping track of an individual’s [...]
by Michael Holland In your quest for leadership success you must leverage every minute of every day. Back-to-back meetings, constant emails arriving, new initiatives, demanding deadlines, uninitiated employees and a personal life. Lunchtime is reserved for squeezing in whatever work can be accomplished while rushing to inhale some semblance of food. Catching up on emails [...]
