How can you get your newer employees to identify stupid rules? You could make your workplace more appealing and discover opportunities to improve things by tapping into the fresh perspectives that newer workers bring to the workplace. A new person joining your workplace is going to have a totally different[...]

Is it better to listen to your gut, or should you go with what the data says? Your gut is a culmination of all the experiences you’ve had and the emotions that went along with those experiences. Your gut does tell you a lot, and your intuition is important. I[...]

No doubt you’ve learned from your mistakes, but what have you learned from your successes? There is a treasure trove of learning you can get by reflecting on your past successes. You’ve heard the expression, “you learn a lot from your mistakes”, and certainly a lot of your leadership lessons[...]

What are the words that leaders should never say? Let’s look at some of the things that leaders say that they absolutely should not say. Leaders might say things that cause permanent relationship damage in their team or in their relationship with their colleagues or even with their boss. When[...]

Why should leaders focus on building on positives instead of focusing on negatives? There is a lot of power in building on positives instead of negatives. There are two questions you can ask yourself and your work group that will help unlock extra motivation and future success. Question number one[...]

What is one simple tip to help increase both the motivation and accountability of your team? You should be asking questions, not making statements. One of the biggest concerns that people express in our workshops is that their employees constantly bring them questions or problems or decisions that the employee[...]

It’s important for you as a leader to act with urgency. Not only is it important for what you need to do as a leader, you also want to set the pace for your team and challenge them to get more done in less time. Remember that safety takes a[...]

Many leaders want to be best friends with the people who work for them, but is there a downside to being a “buddy buddy” boss? Let’s look at just how close your friendships should be when you are the leader of a group. First, let’s be clear: we want you[...]

Should you consider disbanding your maintenance department to integrate them with production? I realize this could be viewed as a controversial idea or statement. Leading companies are already looking at how to disband their maintenance departments and essentially assign those maintenance technicians to support the production line. Not all maintenance[...]

How do you transition from being a peer to being a leader? When you say yes to a leadership role, you’re going to be evaluated on how well you achieve results through others. Before being a leader, you only had to focus on your own work. I’ve got a few[...]