performance

February 24, 2012

Categories

Performance

Hard to take. Hard to give.

Most companies underestimate how difficult it is to give and receive feedback. Many believe it’s easy to give someone positive feedback. Even giving and receiving kudos is off-putting, unless the culture encourages it. Managers need to learn how to discuss performance with individuals directly. Expectations are rarely met without an ongoing exchange of information. Managers who complain to others about someone’s performance, rather than speaking directly to the person diminish trust and do not fulfill their managerial responsibility. Offering honest, direct feedback, especially constructive criticism is the highest form of respect a manager can provide. The intent of the feedback […]

January 26, 2012

Categories

Performance

Working harder, not smarter.

The Great Recession has increased the workloads of 80% of employees according to a recent Workforce Management online poll of over 700 HR professionals. Of those with greater workloads, 80% reported a decrease in engagement as well as more than 40% reporting an increase in employees’ health problems. Overloading employees does not appear to gain greater market share or profitability. High performance companies have a high-energy, high- performance workforce. Tony Schwartz, author of several books including Be Excellent at Anything studied violinists, athletes, nurses, teachers, police officers and others to evaluate what excellent performers do differently than others. He recommends […]

November 1, 2011

Categories

Civility

Recognize Sabotage

Sabotage is a term about work. The reference started in the mid-1800’s when French factory workers threw their wooden clogs (sabots) into machines to stop production. The term refers to any activities that intentionally reduce productivity. Generally, sabotage refers to workers who resort to production interference to express discontent about current management practices. Sabotage includes intentional behaviors directed toward interfering with an individual’s productivity. Sabotage is a form of incivility. Like incivility, sabotage has a wide continuum of activities from working slowly to destruction of property. Like incivility, sabotage is vague and difficult to identify such as, omission of information […]

August 25, 2011

Categories

Compliance

Uncharted Territory

The worldwide web was made available to the public thirty years ago. In 1997, the first social network site, Six Degrees.com was launched. LinkedIn and MySpace launched in 2003. Facebook finally opened to everyone in 2006, along with Twitter. The term Social Media is frequently used narrowly to describe activity on Social Network Sites. Social Network Sites are web -based services that allow people to construct a personal or professional profile, develop a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and interact with their connections and others’ connections. It’s email on steroids. A survey conducted […]