by Michael Holland How effectively are you integrating new employees into your company? Into your team? To be honest, orientation programs usually suck. From an employee’s perspective, being loaded down with hours of mind-numbing data and stale presentations on the vision-mission-values of the company sets the stage for personal soul searching regarding whether or not they [...]
By Michael Holland Have you ever had an employee come to you with a complaint about someone else on the team? What do you do? Do you take the problem on, go talk with the other employee, having created a triangle? The Bermuda Triangle of Employee Enablement – or “triangulation” for short [...]
by Michael Holland I recently read this story about a school teacher. . . a kindergarten teacher who at the end of an exasperating day had to put boots on all 31 of her students before she sent them out in the snow. As she struggled to lace up the last boot on the foot [...]
by Michael Holland Advancing in an organization provides fantastic opportunities for you to leverage your loyalty and relationships. Some of these relationships may have been forged before you were a manager. A difficult challenge for most leaders is developing a clear demarcation line with regard to friendships and the leader’s authority role especially when managing [...]
by Michael Holland Some people think that just having positional authority – title of Manager, Director, Vice President, etc. – will provide them the authority they need for people to listen to them and follow their directions. But having truly effective authority goes far beyond a title. People want to respect the people they report to. They [...]
by Michael Holland Yes, there are some things you gain when you become a manager, but you lose things as well. Make sure you’ve left these behind or they could be impacting your effectiveness: Being one of the “guys” – you can no longer expect to socialize to the same extent or maintain the close personal [...]
by Michael Holland Leadership inspiration is often conveyed through words – both spoken and written. Employees listen, process and then attempt action. Your behavior can add to your inspiring words if you are illuminating the behaviors you truly desire. I guess either way, you will illuminate behavior; your employees will know if your behaviors match [...]
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 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 Acquiring talent can be time and energy consuming. In the recruiting process, reviewing resumes, applications and conducting phone screens with job candidates, it’s helpful to know your “knock-out factors.” What are the basics, the essentials, the must haves that you need for someone in the position? Maybe it’s a certain skill or [...]
