Organizations looking to improve should schedule a productivity holiday at work. This gives everyone a chance to catch up on important tasks that never seem to get done.  If you're not careful, skipping these valuable activities will cost you dearly. What should you do on these days? Plan your productivity holiday, in this week's episode [...]

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Poor employee engagement is a problem that rarely fixes itself. In fact, it usually gets worse and then exponentially worse. And there's a good chance it will never recover.  Recently, I asked my connections on LinkedIn to share their thoughts on some of the biggest examples of poor employee engagement. Let's go through the results [...]

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Some common leadership communication mistakes lower productivity and hurt workplace culture. These problems may seem obvious but during busy times, they are easy to overlook.  As a result, employees are left confused and may not to do things the way you want. Make sure you're saying, what you mean to be saying, in this week's [...]

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In business, it's important to understand your competition. They will influence a lot of your decisions.  But some are competing against the wrong things. This can result in frustration, as well as lost time and money.  Let's step back from the starting line and consider your true competitor or competitors. Get smart and get competitive, [...]

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If employee productivity and retention are concerns, then you may need a text message policy for work. Texting has become an increasingly popular workplace communication tool.  But while its use is common, some bad habits are as well. These can lead to confusion and impact work-life balance. Learn how to have a clear message with [...]

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Join Ken Okel for a special performance of his Dance Machine story. In honor of our 650th episode, we're tearing up the format and doing something different.  Hear a story that's about getting unstuck, trying something out of your comfort zone, and how that risk could pay big benefits years later. For Ken, it was [...]

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When you try to introduce a new idea to your business, you may hear ten excuses for avoiding change. These are common concerns designed to torpedo disrupting the status quo.  Sometimes the excuses have merit but they may also represent playing it too safe, in a world where risk is rewarded.  Learn the ten excuses [...]

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While you may want to encourage your employees to do more, you need to understand the problem with business motivation. In today's economic climate, people may consider your rallying cry to be a big turnoff. When should you ask your team to do more and are productivity problems the fault of your employees? Find out [...]

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When you must have a spark of inspiration at work, you need to be able to unleash creativity, when you're stuck. During busy and hectic days, your best ideas may not be flowing like a river. And every minute, the pressure on you grows, hurting your creativity.  What if you could take some simple actions [...]

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If mistakes are up and productivity is down, then as a leader, you need to stop confusing your employees. You may be delivering instructions that make sense to you but not to anyone else.  This is a common leadership problem, as people process information differently. And while you may think employees not following your instructions, [...]

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